Despite being well into the offseason, there’s still lots of news coming out of the Anderson football program this week. Seniors Ryland Ton and James Hall committed to their respective colleges in the past few days. Ryland will be continuing his football career at Lyon College.
Ton is a multiyear starter at center for the Trojans. He won the sportsmanship award following his junior season and was named a captain as a senior this year. “Phenomenal leader” is one way that Coach Hatcher described Ton, and that’s what he is, on and off the field. After this season, Ton was also named Academic All-District and was awarded the “Trojan Leader” award. Year in and year out, he continues to show the type of leader and person he is.
“Ryland was the Quarterback of the offensive line. He was the one that made everything work” Coach Hatcher said. As the center, Ton had to be focused on every play and consistently work hard to help protect quarterback Fred Dale. He did his job well this season as he was an Honorable Mention All-District selectee.
Ton committed to Lyon College over almost a dozen other universities throughout the states. He chose Lyon for two reasons. Firstly, he chose Lyon because it’s “an amazing school, and it will me help set up for the next 40 years of my life not only for [his] time being there.” This shows a lot about who Ryland is off the gridiron. He works hard at not only football but school and other matters as well.
Ryland was also drawn to the football program at Lyon. Ton told me that the culture was changing there “with the new class coming in,” and he wants to be a part of that culture shift. With a big culture shift comes opportunities, especially for newcomers, and Ton plans to capitalize right away. In his words, he’ll “immediately have the opportunity to compete for the starting role at center,” which is a big deal for a freshman. An enticing chance that Ryland wasn’t gonna pass up.
Trojan football has played a big role in getting Ton to the next level in his athletic career, but according to Ryland “not only has Anderson football helped [him] become the player [he is] today, but it also helped [him] become the person [he is].” Playing with 3 different head coaches in four years has allowed Ton to absorb many new philosophies and different information that he wouldn’t have been able to get from any singular coach. He has been able to apply those different teachings in different situations in games and in life to help him succeed.
Anderson taught Ryland how to overcome adversity, he says that always being “looked on as the underdogs” has put a chip on his shoulder. According to him, “that chip on [his] shoulder has made [him] better not only in football but in life as well.” The Trojans might be underdogs, but Ton has let that fuel his fire, and sometimes that’s more important than the talent on the other sideline.
Playing at the college level “means so much” to Ton. He said that he feels “that all of [his] hard work has finally paid off.” Ryland has worked hard throughout high school to get to this point, and now he gets to reap the rewards. I for one, am excited to see him continue to work hard and win that starting job next fall.
