The Howard Payne University athletic department on Wednesday announced volleyball coach Damon Wilson and women’s basketball player Kristy Lyons as the 2024 induction class of the HPU Sports Hall of Fame.

The 2024 HPU Sports Hall of Fame honorees will be formally inducted at HPU’s annual Sports Alumni Weekend, tentatively set for every third weekend in May.

At that same banquet, the HPU athletic department will also recognize an Alumni Team of the Year, an Alumni Coach of the Year, and a Sports Alumni of the Year.

More information on the weekend and ticket information coming in the near future.

Damon Wilson
Coming to HPU in 1988 as a basketball player, Damon Wilson went on to start, play, and coach the HPU men’s volleyball program. Eventually, serving as the women’s assistant volleyball coach, he took over the program and guided them to three consecutive conference championships.

Wilson went on to be named conference coach of the year three times and was named NAIA Southwest Regional Coach of the Year one season.

In the Fall of 1997, Wilson took over the volleyball program at Tarleton State University, leading them to their first non-losing since 1991. In four years at Tarleton State, he recruited two Freshmen of the Year and a conference preseason Most Valuable Player.

Wilson went on to take head Texas high school coaching positions at Crandall High School and Rockwall High School. Along the way earning, four Coach of the Year honors, four district championships, and amassing over 500 career coaching victories.

He has become a fixture in the DFW volleyball community with many of his assistants and former players have gone on to be head volleyball coaches.

Kristy Lyons
Kristy was a part of the Lady Jacket basketball program from 1999-2003 and majored in Social Work. She has a career average of 13.9 points, 3.9 rebounds, 3.8 assists, and 2.7 steals per game.

Lyons is the first-ever female basketball player to lead her team to four straight winning seasons in HPU Lady Jacket history.

Lyons broke the 1,000-point mark for her career, totaling 1,302 points, at the time placed her 5th in HPU history (now 8th).  She also had set school records in steals in a season with 74 and career steals at 263.  Lyons also finished her career in the top five in most field goals made (477), most free throws made (328), most career assists (373), and most assists in a season (109).

Feb 2, 2003, versus Mary Hardin-Baylor, she scored 46 points, which is the most points scored in a game in Howard Payne and American Southwest Conference History.

Lyons was named to the Concordia Classic all-tournament team three times, ASC Freshman of the Year, 1st team All-West Division four times, Most Valuable Player at the Rowan Invitational, team captain for two seasons, and the ASC Player of the Week three times.