Nah’Shon “Bones” Hyland giving his speech during his jersey retirement at St Geogres, photo by Nick Halliday
Nah’Shon “Bones” Hyland returned back to his old stomping grounds of St. Georges High School in Middletown, DE on Friday evening for a special honoring & jersey retirement. Hyland, a budding young contributor on the Denver Nuggets who happen to have the top record in the league, was back home for the weekend ahead of the Nugget’s Saturday matchup with the 76ers. Hyland is the all-time leading scorer at St. Georges with 1957 career points scored during his 4-year career.
Bones arrived at the school around 5:30pm and greeted family and friends who had gathered in a VIP area and granted some media access prior to making his way out to the gym for the ceremony. Delaware Live’s own Nick Alessandrini was able to catch up with Bones briefly prior to the ceremony and asked him what it was like being back in the halls of St. Georges. “You know coming into this, even coming down the stairs here, I had jitters,” said Hyland, “this moment for me is bigger than the Draft.”
The house was packed, a sold-out event in the gym where Bones was cheered for loudly as he entered. A ton of young students, and folks who had followed Hyland from the time he was playing in the First State had filled the entire arena. The scoreboard was lit up in all fives, Hyland’s number while playing at St. Georges. Programs were handed out with a schedule of the night & tee-shirts were being sold outside of the gym that had Bones signature logo on the front & number 5 with Hyland on the back.
The master of ceremonies on this night was Dr. James Connor, assistant principal of St. Georges. He spoke briefly, before handing the mic off to other speakers, Dr. Chad Harrison (Principal of SGT), Dr. Shanta Reynolds (Former Principal of SGT), the Mayor of Wilmington Mike Purzycki, Steven “Spoons” Martin (Hyland family friend), Marshay Hyland (Nah’Shon’s mother), Rod Griffin (SGT Basketball coach), and of course Bones himself.
One great anecdote shared during the night was by Dr. Reynolds when he told a story of how he approached Bones during his senior year about what he was going to do after high school, to which Hyland responded, “heading to the NBA to take care of my family & community.” Dr. Reynolds continued by saying as an educator he respectably tried to push Hyland on what a plan b looked like, to which Hyland said, “there is no plan b.” When Dr. Reynolds asked him about his college major, Bones replied, “whichever major is going to allow me to get to the NBA.” Dr. Reynolds concluded that this story is inspirational because it shows how dedicated to his plan that Hyland was & when you are dedicated to things you can achieve a lot of success in life.
And Bones lived up to that anecdote. When speaking with our Nick Alessandrini about if there was any welcome to the NBA moment, Bones stated, “I would say my ability to get my family Christmas gifts & everything they wanted because growing up we didn’t have that.” A great example of Bones doing what he promised, making it to the NBA & taking care of his family and community.
Bones was honored with a framed jersey of his own to take with him back home, while a white Hawks framed jersey & blue Nuggets jersey will hang in St. Georges gym.
Hyland addressed the crowd briefly, thanked the St. Georges community, coaches & teammates and his family and community for the support.
After the ceremony, the varsity boys team took the court against Havre de Grace high school of Maryland & honored Bones with a huge second quarter that saw them up 33-13 at the half. They would hold on for a 56-43 victory and moved to 12-2 on the season. A truly special night from start to finish for Bones Hyland and the St Georges Hawks.
The full Bones Hyland jersey retirement ceremony can be caught on our Youtube page at the following link, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyfq6xuCC7A .
Share this Post