FEATURE | WBB | Payton Hicks - The Road Less Traveled - How Hicks Led ETBU to a Historic Season Despite Challenges

Payton Hicks was named to the D3hoops.com All-Region First Team, was the ASC Player of the Year and Tournament MVP, All-ASC First Team, and ASC Player of the Week. She led ETBU to the program's second ASC Tournament Championship and the third NCAA Tournament appearance. ETBU hosted the ASC Tournament and the NCAA Division III National Tournament first and second rounds in Ornelas Gym. ETBU went 23-5, 8-0 in the ASC, ranked as high as 12th in NPI and 19th in national polls going 12-1 in Ornelas Gym. 

Basketball is all Payton Hicks has ever known. She would have never known, however, the journey it would lead her on.

Signing with the University of Texas at Rio Grande Valley out of high school, Hicks stepped onto campus fall of 2020 ready to fulfill her four-year-old self’s dream of playing collegiate basketball. After not seeing eye-to-eye with the program, she decided to transfer after her freshman season to Garden City Community College, a school at the junior college level. 

Playing a junior college sport is no small feat, a point in Hicks’ collegiate career she accredits with being the most difficult. Nonetheless, it prepared her for the next step forward, as she headed for Belton, Texas and the University of Mary-Hardin Baylor after a year as a Broncbuster. Just when she began to settle into the squad, the Cru’s head coach was fired midseason, leading her to enter the transfer portal yet again.

That’s when East Texas Baptist University came into the picture. 

It was on the Hill where Hicks flourished, mainly in her final year. The graduate student was instrumental in the Tigers’ milestone 2024-2025 season, leading the team to their first-ever berth to host the NCAA Tournament and an undefeated record in the American Southwest Conference. Along with the title of regular season and tournament champion in the ASC, she picked up notable accolades such as First Team All-Region 10, ASC Player of the Year and ASC Tournament Most Outstanding Player. 

In finding her identity off the court, she found hers on it, too.

“ETBU has been different because I’ve grown basketball-wise and personally,” Hicks said. “I’ve matured more and learned things about myself I never knew. I built confidence within myself that I can do things, and it’s been good to finally see myself reach the potential I hadn’t been reaching.”

The Tigers were 14-13 in their 2023-2024 campaign, Hicks’ first year in an ETBU uniform. She knew it would take more than a better free-throw percentage or improving shots beyond the arc to change the narrative for the team. It took genuine comradery, something that stems from effective leadership.

”Always being in the gym helps you gain confidence to carry onto the basketball court, but for me, my teammates always encouraging me in my ear helped me reach the level I did,” Hicks said.

 “Last year wasn’t the best, so I knew something needed to be changed. I felt that leadership-wise, I had to step up in that aspect to be able to help the team get to where we wanted to.”

That initiative to build up ETBU’s culture laid the foundation for a complete turnaround, improving the team’s record by 10 from the previous year. With increased buy-in from the players and coaching additions that pushed them in the right direction, Hicks thinks the group effort to work together helped things click for the program. 

”Our team as a whole, from day one, has stuck together,” Hicks said. “Our team chemistry this year was unexplainable. Everybody loved everyone, and it was very genuine. Just having that team chemistry and coaches always pushing us to that next step helped us do things that we otherwise wouldn’t have been able to do.”

This is only the beginning of the Tigers’ reign of success according to Hicks. There’s an excitement buzzing around Ornelas Gymnasium, one that the Plano, Texas native is proud to have cultivated. She feels with ETBU’s performance this season, a blueprint has been laid for a prominent program to come.

”This year, we definitely raised that bar for the potential of the next teams,” Hicks said. “Next year, they’ll come in knowing what’s already expected and what they need to do to reach the point we did this year. The expectations are high for the coming years, and from what we did this year, it only makes them higher.”

Hicks will leave ETBU with a Masters in Business Administration, but she will leave behind a legacy of leadership and intention. She’s a walking testimony of trusting the process and committing oneself to the greater good. Her next steps after graduation are currently uncertain, but she does know one thing.

Thanks to her journey, she’s prepared.

”[ETBU] taught me to always put your works into God, so whatever He has in store has already been planned for you,” Hicks said. “You just have to trust in Him and let Him help you through the things you don’t know how to do alone.”