By DIANE GASPER-O’BRIEN
Special to Hays Post
They are survivors of the pandemic, graduating from high school in 2020 during such an uncertain time in their lives.
They fell in love and ended up attending Fort Hays State University together. They got married, and after remarkable athletic careers for the Tigers, they both will graduate with academic honors on Saturday morning.
They will move to the Wichita area next week and have a few weeks to settle into their first big purchase as a couple (a home in Bel Aire) and collect their thoughts before starting new jobs they had secured almost a year ago.
During that time off from the rigors of school and college athletics, they will take their honeymoon, which they had to postpone after their marriage last August, just two days before the start of the fall semester.
They were OK waiting for a honeymoon. After all, they had to return to Hays to finish their college educations – and to lead their respective athletic teams in super senior seasons they will never forget.
Sound like a fairy tale? As magical as this all sounds, it’s the real-life story of Trey and Katie DeGarmo.
Where it all began
Katie burst onto the scene as a highly recruited freshman for the Fort Hays State women’s basketball team.
She was known as Katie Wagner at the time, and that’s a name opponents would get tired of seeing and hearing about the next five years.
A multi-sport standout in high school at Maize South, Katie had several offers but felt a loyalty to FHSU.
“Fort Hays was one of the first schools to reach out to me,” she said. “That relationship they built with me early on was a huge piece of it. The women’s basketball team was winning, and I’ve always been one who loves to win.”
Toward the end of Katie’s first year at FHSU, the NCAA announced it was granting athletes an extra year of eligibility because of the chaos the pandemic had caused in college athletics.
Because of COVID-19, the Tigers played only 22 games Katie’s “first” freshman season, when she averaged 9.2 points as one of the first players off the bench.
By the next season, she was firmly planted into the starting lineup, where she remained for the next four years.
Along the way, she garnered a boatload of honors, both academically and athletically. Included on that long list are several All-America teams to which she was chosen, and she was named the MIAA player of the year for basketball her last two seasons.
Last year, Katie won the MIAA’s Ken B. Jones Award voted as the top female athlete of the year and has been nominated for that honor again this year.
She is one of only two players in FHSU women’s program history to score more than 2,000 points (2,299 total) and has the school and conference record for most career rebounds (1,248).
Listed as a 5-foot, 11-inch guard, Katie could play every position on the court. She helped lead the Tigers to the NCAA Division II playoffs four of her five seasons. During her career, FHSU posted an incredible record of 125-33.
The DeGarmos were both well-known as exceptional multi-sport high school athletes in the Wichita area – Katie at Maize South and Trey at Andover Central.
They had met at a get-together during the pandemic their senior year in high school and hit it off immediately. At the time, Trey was already committed to play baseball at Cowley College in Arkansas City, while Katie was coming to Hays.
After a couple of years of a long-distance relationship, Trey transferred to FHSU, where he decided to try football and baseball, then settled on his first love – baseball.
“I just didn’t want to be apart from Katie anymore,” Trey said. “Then it became a mission to help turn this baseball program around.”
Cowley is a perennial national power and finished as the national junior college runner-up in Trey’s sophomore season.
While Cowley was going 54-11 in 2022, FHSU won just four of its 45 games.
The Tigers improved considerably in Trey’s first year at FHSU, finishing 20-30. They continued to improve, going 25-26 last year before a record-breaking season this spring.
FHSU went 32-16, finished third in the MIAA standings and were ranked nationally for several weeks before losing a 6-5 heartbreaker in extra innings in the first round of the MIAA Championships.
“I’m still wishing we had gotten a little farther, but only one team gets to be happy at the very end,” Trey said. “I’m proud of what we did and the season we put together.”
A solid anchor at third base for the Tigers, Trey earned the MIAA’s Gold Glove award at that position last year and led the team in several offensive categories this year while earning MIAA honors again.
He was second on the team in batting average (.328) and ranked first in total hits, with a team-leading 13 home runs and 55 RBI.
Something he said he enjoyed as much as having a productive year personally and winning games was being a senior leader.
“My favorite part was giving all my knowledge to the younger guys,” Trey said. “Hopefully, they can soak up all the success we had this year and keep this program rolling.”
Senior seasons to remember
It isn’t unusual for Tiger athletes to get married during their college careers. And long-time members of the FHSU athletic department can think of a few who married after enjoying outstanding careers in their respective sports.
But it would be tough to find a couple that dominated at both their sports during their first year of marriage.
“They both were so fun to watch,” said Gerard Wellbrock, Sports Director for Eagle Radio and long-time Voice of the Tigers, who covered both DeGarmos over the years. “They played the game the right way - the intensity you need to be great, but with humility. They made it look easy, and it’s not easy.”
“Katie is as good as it gets when it comes to Fort Hays women’s basketball,” Wellbrock continued. “Her intensity, her athletic ability, she’s the total package. And Trey is as smooth of a third baseman as there has been at Fort Hays.”
The DeGarmos knew they would have to be creative to spend much time together their final year of college with off-season workouts and long seasons.
“We were kind of prepared for this year,” Trey said. “It was kind of like meeting each other at the door, saying ‘See ya later.’ ”
“We try to have dinner together – when we are both in town,” Katie added. “We understand that we’re really committed to our sports. But that doesn’t mean a lack of commitment to each other. And it turned out to be a really special season in our lives.”
The last couple of months have been especially fun ones for Katie. After the Tiger basketball season (and her career) ended in the NCAA II playoffs, she played intramural softball and got to attend most of her husband’s baseball games.
“It’s been really fun being a baseball wife,” Katie said with a smile.
Once a Tiger, always a Tiger
Tiger fans won’t soon forget Trey and Katie DeGarmo. Ditto for the DeGarmos.
And even as they ride off into the sunset in Jamaica for their honeymoon, then return to start their professional careers in Wichita, they will always remember the impact FHSU had on their lives.
“We’ll still come back for some games,” Katie said. “I still have friends that are still playing.”
“If I can come to a baseball game in five years and see how well they are doing, it’ll be a great feeling to know I was part of rebuilding the program,” Trey said.
“That’s the thing we’ll never forget – the relationships,” Katie said. “You remember the championships, of course, but I’ve already forgotten about the records we had. It’s more about how you felt about your teammates.”
And they will surely visit the hill west of town where Trey proposed to Katie in October 2023.
“We had found a spot on that hill my freshman year when I’d come visit Katie, where we would go watch the sunsets,” Trey said. “We called it our ‘sunset spot.’ I thought it was a perfect place (to propose).”
Katie, who earned her bachelor’s degree in accounting as well as an MBA, will begin work this summer for Koch Industries. Trey, who graduated with a degree in construction management, accepted a position as a project manager associate for the ICM ethanol plant.
They will get to spend time with several family members who live in the Wichita area and continue to take part in some type of athletic activity.
For the time being, they have both taken up running, and they say that pickleball is also a strong possibility.
Trey’s youngest brother, Ty, will be a freshman at Andover Central next year, so they look forward to following him in his activities the next four years.
Both Trey and Katie say that coaching – on some level – could be in their future.
And of course, folks are already looking forward to more talented athletes in the next generation of DeGarmos.
“We’re already having people taking bets on if we send our kids to Maize South,” Katie said.
With all the awards and Tiger memorabilia they have accumulated, Katie said they plan to decorate part of their basement in FHSU Black and Gold.
Somewhere down the road, they will have lots of stories to tell their children about their life as Tiger athletes, especially during their first year of marriage, which took them from one magical ride to another.