A signing ceremony was held Thursday afternoon at Warren Gym for three Brownwood senior student-athletes continuing their athletic and academic careers, as Lion Bryson Monroe is bound for Howard Payne to join the Yellow Jackets basketball program.

“It’s a blessing to be able to keep on playing basketball,” Monroe said. “I’ve been dreaming of this since I was a kid.”

At Howard Payne, Monroe will be reunited with former Brownwood Lions head coach Nadir Dalleh.

“First of all my sister goes there, Hadley Monroe, and she said she loves the campus,” Monroe said. “At first I didn’t want to go because you want to leave Brownwood, but Coach (Nadir) Dalleh went there, who was my previous coach, and I’ve heard many good things about HPU that I didn’t always hear in the past. That convinced me to go there, and playing under him again.”

During his senior season, Monroe was a first-team all-district selection, a member of the Big Country Preps all-star basketball team, the Lions defensive MVP and part of a Brownwood team that ranked second in the state in Class 4A in points per game.

“I was fortunate enough to be blessed to work with Bryson being this was my first year here,” said Lions basketball head coach Will Parker. “He is one of the first ones here every morning, he bought into what we were doing from day one, he was out running cross country this summer. The man that he is today is the result of everything that has happened to him and the people that have been around him since day one. I was just lucky enough to coach him when I got here. He’s going to be a worker, he’s going to be a grinder and he’s going to continue to be a gym rat. He’s a triple threat, not only is he a great athlete but he’s a great student and he’s got great character, too. When you have those three things, man it’s exciting to what those guys grow and see what exciting things they go on to do.”

Brownwood Lions athletic director Sammy Burnett said of Monroe, “Bryson is what we call a gym rat, a guy that’s always in the gym, always working to develop his craft. He never took a rep off in the weight room, he leads by example. He’s a leader in FCA. When you want to see what it takes to be successful, go look in the gym, go look in the weight room, go look at the FCA meetings, he leads by example.”

Looking back on his time at Brownwood High, Monroe said his fondest memories are, “The people I met, the friends I made, everything about it.”

Monroe intends to major in Kiniesology with the goal of becoming a coach and also minoring in Ministry.

As for his goals at HPU, Monroe said, “I want to try and start my freshman year, but if not keep working hard and hopefully play basketball after college.”