During the 2025-2026 season, the FWCD Falcons boy’s Varsity Basketball team was down by 20 points and then Jackson Blommedial had a fast break, and dunked the ball to make the crowd go crazy. The Falcons came back and won the game with the help of players and coaches like Ryan Thomas.
Thomas works at the FWCD Campus Store. He also helps as an assistant coach for the boy’s basketball program and helps with the baseball team.
He was born in Kentucky and grew up playing basketball with friends. As a child, he watched basketball a lot and became a big Louisville Cardinals basketball fan. He loved watching March Madness in the classroom.
After high school, Thomas went to Texas Christian University. Going into college, Thomas did not know that he wanted to be a basketball coach. He started an intramural basketball team at TCU. He gathered his own team and organized the team, and they won an intramural championship at TCU, and their banner are hung in the REC center.
Nine years ago, Thomas founded an organization called the Young Warriors. Later on, he met a coach named Cal Boose who had an organization called North Texas Jayhawks. They decided to connect their teams together to make Forth Worth Prep.
At one point, the Fort Worth Young Warriors had over 20 teams. They were the second biggest Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) program in DFW.
The team he created turned out to be a community for young basketball players. Through Fort Worth Prep, the team was able to bring in different AAU kids. The kids did not pay Thomas to play, instead he paid for the gym to play. The players had to donate money to the Heavy 27 foundation and show Thomas the receipt to play. The foundation is the parents of the 27 girls who lost their lives at Mystic Camp on July 4, 2025.
Thomas has done fun things to help the community like creating a raffle and using the money to donate to a foundation. Last year, Thomas also created a fundraiser for Camp Mystic through Fort Worth Prep.
“I just want to give back and help kids go to college. And even if that’s not through basketball, it keeps them focused, motivated and keeps them disciplined,” Thomas said.
One summer when he was still in school, Thomas spent his summer working at Camp Ozark. He helped guide campers through different activities and sports. He was also in charge of the basketball instructional area.
Thomas created a basketball showcase for unsigned players and Junior College (JUCO) players. There was no cost to attend the showcase and basketball coaches were in attendance. The showcase was also live-streamed for coaches to watch online.
Thomas’s first coaching job was at a charter school. The charter school did not have sports so he used his connections to create a sports team for the school. The students at the school didn’t have any sports or anything to do after school, so he created flag football in the fall.They went out to Garland every Friday night to play in a flag football league. They joined an adult league so high school students were playing against adults. The students loved it and there were others at the school that would come and watch these games.
In the winter, he created a basketball team for the charter school. They played in an adult recreational basketball league in North Richland Hills. He coached them and he did practices at TCU for basketball at the rec center.
“Coach T works hard. He works at Country Day all day, then goes and coaches and takes care of Fort Worth Prep,” Alex Street ‘27 said.
Overall Coach Thomas has a positive attitude inside and outside of Country Day. He positively affects others.
