ALWAYS LEARNING

Matisse Thybulle embraces challenges on and off the floor // By Mason Kelley

By Washington Huskies

January 9^th, 2019

Matisse Thybulle thought it would be fun to tag along.

Two of his friends were heading out to take photos and the basketball standout wanted to watch. He was curious. He had spent so much time with cameras pointed in his direction, he wanted to know what it was like to step behind the lens.

After a while, he decided he wasn’t the type to just watch.

“This is really cool,” Thybulle thought. “Maybe this is something I could get into.”

He bought a camera and, well, “the rest is history.”

Now a senior, photography is a passion that helps Thybulle create a balance between basketball and his personal life.

“It’s just healthy,” he said. “I need an outlet to think creatively outside of basketball, because if I trap myself in basketball then it makes it hard for me to gain perspective from the outside.”

Photography provides clarity. It makes him think. It presents a challenge.

With as much time as the guard invests on the basketball court, he makes time to pursue interests off the floor as well.

“I just like being a nerd in general,” he said. “Last season, I saw a little kid solve a Rubik’s Cube in 30 seconds, so I went and bought a Rubik’s Cube and taught myself how to solve it. Now that’s what I do during road trips on the airplane.

“I’m just constantly finding other ways to learn, other things to learn about.”

When it comes to learning, Thybulle is a sponge. He has made the most of every opportunity life as a Division I athlete has presented. And, while he’s still got plenty of basketball left, he wants to make sure he continues exploring new interests.

Thybulle is just scratching the surface as a photographer. He wants to explore portraits, learn lighting and how to pose his subjects. He is also learning video. While he is often the subject of stories, he is more interested in the stories of people he meets than telling his own.

“Even though I am living out my own story and it is interesting how people are writing about me, I find it just as interesting to seek out other people’s stories, to capture that through my own creative way of thinking, my own perspective,” he said.

Listening to someone else’s story helps Thybulle keep connected at a very personal level.

“It’s so easy, when you have all this attention on you, to lose sight of what it is to be human,” he said. “That’s what really excites me, because it helps keep me grounded. It helps me realize that basketball just happens to be something I’m talented in, but it’s not going to change the world.”

To be the one telling the story is a nice change of pace for Thybulle.

“It’s fun for the roles to switch,” he said. “For me, being in front of the camera is miserable. I hate it. To be the man behind the camera, the person with the vision trying to see how that aligns with another person’s story, that’s when it gets fun for me, because it’s the aspect of creativity and it’s a new challenge. There’s always something to work through.

“In the end you have something beautiful you created, something you can take pride in.”

Right now, that “something beautiful” Thybulle is creating is a successful senior season. He spent the first three years of his career working toward this moment.

He joined the program as a freshman who wanted to “create a place for myself.” He made a point to do things his teammates wouldn’t. He understood his role and he embraced it. He kept working and now he’s one of the program’s leaders.

“It’s just nice to know I’ve earned it,” he said. “It wasn’t just handed to me. I didn’t show up and have the keys to the city. I went through the ranks to get to where I am now.”

He embraced the challenge of growing as a basketball player the same way he went to work learning photography and solving the Rubik’s Cube.

“I want to be able to look back on each season and say to myself, I got better,” he said.

So far, so good. And now, for the first time in his career, he’s in the middle of a season full of elevated expectations.

“It’s great to have people believe in us,” he said.

A lot has happened so far in Thybulle’s career. As times have changed, he has tried to keep an open mind.

“That’s how I approached it,” he said. “With change, there are things that get better, things that get worse, things you’re going to miss. But there are things you’re going to realize you didn’t even know you liked.”

Each step along the way has provided a chance to learn. He has grown as a basketball player. He taught himself photography. He conquered the Rubik’s Cube. And, now in the middle of conference play, there continue to be new challenges to embrace and a few more stories to share along the way.