Through an arduous climb filled with plenty of adversity to say the least, Travis Schulte got close to the top of the high school basketball mountain, but didn’t quite reach it.

That’s all right with Schulte, though, because he found a new hill to climb.

After a decade as the Canyon boys basketball coach, Schulte officially retired after last week’s season-ending 49-36 loss to Seminole in the Class 4A Division I bidistrict playoffs. He finished his career after making the Canyon program as successful as it had been over the last four decades, and he knew that he was nearing the end due to a long-term plan.

“I’ve known for about a year or a year and a half,” Schulte said of his decision to leave coaching. “I’d become eligible for retirement on my birthday in June, and I knew whenever I was eligible I was going to go ahead and be done and change careers. I’m going into the private sector and retiring from education.”

Schulte has left his mark on high school basketball in 22 seasons as a head coach at Canyon, Perryton and Sunray. The Nazareth native was 185-122 at Canyon and had a career record of 389-268.

At age 50, it might seem as if Schulte is a bit young to be retiring from coaching. He’s ready for another challenge, though, and made the decision to retire before this season.

“I knew in advance no matter what,” Schulte said. “This decision had nothing to do with our record or the type of season we had. If we went winless or won it all, I was still going to make this decision. It was something I’d prayed about and thought about for awhile.

“It’s just time. I wanted to go out on my terms and that’s what I’ve done.”

Prior to this past season, Schulte had coached the Eagles to perhaps their best three-season run in school history, putting them alongside Canyon’s storied girls program in terms of creating buzz.

Canyon reached the Region I-4A finals three straight years, only to come up painfully short of a state tournament berth each time. In each of the last two years, Canyon was thwarted from reaching the state tournament by Canyon ISD archrival Randall.

Those seasons could be considered the peak of Schulte’s coaching career in terms of on court success. He still doesn’t define success entirely by that, though.

 “We had the teams right on the verge of a state tournament berth,” Schulte said. “Those were great and filled with great kids and good parents just like most of the teams in my career. When I think about a highlight, right after I made the (retirement) announcement there were dozens and dozens of text messages and phone calls that I received from ex-players telling me how important it was that they were a part of my coaching career.”

For two years, the Canyon-Randall boys games were must-see events regardless of where they were played. Canyon won both District 4-4A meetings in 2022-23 but Randall won the region final, and in 2023-24, Randall won all three meetings.

Randall coach Trevor Johnson, an assistant at the school for a decade before taking over for the late Leslie Broadhurst this season, has had his tenure at Randall overlap almost entirely with Schulte’s at Canyon. Johnson knows what his team is up against every time he’s opposite a team coached by Schulte.

“He’s such a great teacher of man-to-man defense,” Johnson said. “He’s one of those guys who’s kind of a nightmare to prepare against because he’d always have a really good game plan.  I got to play against him as a high schooler (at Claude) when he was coaching at Sunray.”

As Broadhurst’s top lieutenant on the sidelines for 10 years, Johnson became as familiar as anybody with what Schulte and the Eagles did. The teams met six times in two years before this season, and familiarity didn’t breed contempt as much as respect.

“Both years when the (playoff) brackets came out you knew they were going to be our matchup in the regional finals,” Johnson said of the Eagles. “You go through those first three rounds knowing you’re going to see them for a third time. (Schulte) had such a great game plan for that regional final last year. He’s known for that man defense but he counteracted that with a zone, and it almost got us.”

Like most other coaches, Schulte has coached various levels of talent throughout his long coaching career. Such variables have always come with the territory.

Schulte doesn’t feel like the demands or details of the job have changed much regardless of who or where he’s coached, even if circumstances have evolved.

“It changes year to year. Kids don’t change, I don’t think,” Schulte said. “Parents don’t change. Society’s changed and things like that, but as far as the job is concerned, it’s still about developing relationships with kids and that’s the important part and trying to get them to be the best versions of themselves that you can get them to be.”

A Tough legacy

Schulte’s tenure at Canyon can be divided into two distinct eras. Only two years into the job after moving south from Perryton, Schulte endured tragedy far deeper than all of his losses combined.

After a second bout battling cancer, Schulte’s daughter Tatum died in 2017. The event galvanized the Canyon community who had rallied around her when she first fell ill.

In honor of Tatum, Schulte started the Tatum Tough Tournament hosted by Canyon’s boys and girls teams. Schulte anticipates the tournament will continue with his late daughter’s name attached even though he won’t be coaching in it.

“The people in Canyon will always hold an extremely special place in our hearts the way they stood behind us and supported us with the fundraisers and prayers and everything they did for us,” Schulte said. “They made that journey bearable for us. We could focus all of our attention on Tatum and our fight for her.”

Over a year ago, tragedy similarly struck the other side of the established CISD boys rivalry. During the midst of an undefeated district season, it was discovered that Broadhurst had inoperable brain cancer and had to step away from the sideline.

Johnson took over coaching duties for the remainder of the season and after Broadhurst announced his retirement last spring, Johnson was named Randall’s fulltime head coach. Broadhurst passed away last October.

As news of Broadhurst’s condition got out, Schulte, knowing what friends and family were going through, got in touch with Johnson.

“When coach Broadhurst was diagnosed, Travis was one of the first ones to reach out to me,” Johnson said. “Every single week he would shoot me a text or call and ask ‘What do you need?’ This is all while our ships were on path to meet in the regional final again. That tells you want kind of person Travis is.”

Schulte won’t be coaching anymore and will be trying his hand at what is known as the private sector. He says he’s going to open a small business providing audio and speaker systems.

That doesn’t mean he’s leaving the community behind, as he plans on staying in Canyon for the immediate future, a situation which has been clinched with the way the city embraced his daughter’s legacy.

Schulte will definitely be keeping an eye on Canyon boys basketball as well. He has a preference as far as who takes over for him, as his top assistant is Kyle Lovern, a Canyon graduate who coached the Lubbock-Cooper girls to the Class 5A state championship game in 2023.

“Coach Lovorn my assistant is definitely interested, and I’d like to think he’s the frontrunner,” Schulte said. “He’s very capable of being that guy but that’s something unfortunately I don’t get a say in.”