Tyra Berry Nets 1000th Point of Her Basketball Career

MHS senior and Lady Bulldog Tyra Berry scored the 1000th point of her high school basketball career. The 5’ 4” shooting guard reached the milestone in Milbank’s last game of their regular season at Webster on Thursday, February 20. It was her favorite shot. “We didn’t have a specific play set up for me to get my 1,000th point, but I thought it would be so surreal if I got it on a 3-pointer because that has always been ‘my shot,’” Tyra explained. “When the opportunity presented itself, and I was open to shoot the three, of course, I was going to take it.” 

“Coming into this season, my parents told me that 1,000 points was within reach, but I would really have to work for it. I figured if I got it, awesome, if I didn’t, oh well. I didn’t want to focus on my points.  All I wanted was for my team to succeed,” Tyra says. She let it fade into the background, and neither she nor her parents brought it up again until after the Tri-Valley game on February 15. “That’s when they told me I was going to get it sometime in the next few games.” 

“Going into the Madison game (2-18), I asked my mom (Annie Berry) if I would be able to get it that night. Her exact words were, ‘I’ll tell you this, you can get it, but you’ve never scored that many before.’” Tyra says the highest number of points she has recorded in a game this year was 24 against Canton. “I made 21 multiple times, but never had been able to surpass it.”

“I wanted to get as many points as I could against Madison because the most important games of the season were after that, and I didn’t want to stress about it then,” she says.  “However, I didn’t want to get it while we played Madison because neither my dad nor my sister were going to be there. So I stopped myself after my 23rd point.”  (Milbank won by 40 points.) 

The night before the Webster game, Coach Pauli texted her to say she needed six points to reach 1,000. “I was anxious from then on,” Tyra said.

How did she feel when the ball went in for 998, 999, and  !000? “Relieved! I had been so nervous and knew once I got those six points, I would be able to play so much more freely and do what I needed to help our team win.”

Tyra says she doesn’t usually show a lot of emotion. “But it was funny, because the night before our game, my dad (Travis Berry) said, ‘When you get your 1000th point tomorrow, it’s okay to smile.’ So, I knew I only had to give a slight smile to my dad. Inside, I was happy and knew I deserved it, but I had other goals. I just kept my focus on the game and knew I could celebrate once we got the win.”

The crowd, however, was ecstatic. Her teammates were also super excited. “Looking back at the videos and live streams, I had the best cheering section I could have ever asked for – the students, the parents, and Chad the announcer really showed their support,” Tyra says. “It brings tears to my eyes every time I rewatch the videos knowing how many people were truly happy for me.” 

Her head coach, Brian Pauli, also says he was extremely happy to see Tyra reach the 1000-point mark. “She has put a lot of time into basketball and it is nice to see her rewarded for that.” 

As the saying goes, “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity,” and Tyra had been preparing for that moment for a long time. She started playing JV basketball in 2019 when she was in seventh grade and then moved up to varsity in eighth grade. Her first points are commemorated on the basketball used in her first varsity game on December 15, 2020. 

Her earliest experiences with basketball date back to times when she was outside playing with her siblings and neighbors. Her fellow teammate, Lady Bulldog Isabella Anderson, was one of her neighbors. “We were constantly at each other’s houses. Whether it was against our older siblings or trying to play with rollerblades on, we were outside shooting,” Tyra recalls. 

“My sister also played basketball, so I was always going to her games. Then, when I was given the chance to participate in a basketball camp, I begged my mom not to make me go. She made me do it anyway. I loved it from then on!”

Tyra says she doesn’t prepare by eating anything in particular on game day. Usually, it’s a sub and a cookie.  When she gets to the gym, however, she has developed several routines. “I am always the last one out of the locker room after we do our final talk before a game. I have no idea why,” she says.  “On my basketball shoes, I’ve written Psalm 34:18 and ‘Love forever, mom’.  Psalm 34:18 is the first verse that came to me after my step-mom passed, and ‘Love forever, mom’, is something my stepmom had written to us kids before she passed away. Before I go out to the starting lineups, I look at each of those things on my shoes and say a quick prayer to my stepmom.”

A woman she doesn’t know, who also inspires her, is former Iowa basketball player Caitlin Clark. Caitlin is now a guard for the Indiana Fever. “She’s my favorite basketball player”, Tyra says. “I had never watched a WNBA game before Caitlin Clark got drafted. She’s famous for her crazy three-pointers, and that just kind of fits my vibe. I probably watched every Iowa game last year, and if I missed one, I would watch it the next day on YouTube.” 

Tyra and Caitlin obviously share a love of basketball, personal drive, and the ability to achieve. Although they are at different points on their journey, shoes have played an important role in their success. Caitlin might have inked a multi-million deal with Nike, but Tyra’s shoes are priceless.

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