More Than Basketball
The relationship didn't end when basketball season did.
Tyrone began opening the weight room three days a week to help students prepare for the next season. He also launched an FCA Bible study on Friday evenings.
The first gathering had just three students. Tyrone was encouraged.
One of them was Mack.
For Jenny, the number hardly mattered.
Her father spent 50 years in ministry, and she grew up understanding that impact isn't always measured by how many people fill a room.
"Each new one was like a million," she says.
She has watched Tyrone spend time with just a handful of boys, developing relationships that go far beyond basketball.
When Mack turned 16, Jenny asked if he wanted a birthday party.
He didn't produce a long guest list.
Instead, he wanted several Christian men who had become important in his life.
He wanted his youth pastor — and he wanted Coach Ty.
"That says a lot," Jenny says. "He's really important in Mack's life."
Tyrone's vision extends beyond one student and one team.
Before joining FCA, he had considered starting his own nonprofit providing free basketball training to young people who couldn't afford private instruction.
That idea grew from another relationship.
During an internship, Tyrone coached a 14-year-old boy from North Minneapolis who suddenly stopped coming to basketball. Tyrone eventually learned that the young man's grandfather had died and his stepfather was gravely ill. While Tyrone wondered why the teenager wasn't at practice, the boy was dealing with circumstances far bigger than basketball, including helping care for younger siblings.
Then the teenager contacted Tyrone in the middle of the night.
"I want to use basketball to be something," Tyrone remembers him saying.
Tyrone corrected him first. "You are something even without basketball."
Then he realized how powerful sports could be as an entry point into a young person's life.
"If he's just in the gym instead of on the streets when they start shooting, to me, that's a win," Tyrone says.
His vision became simple: make quality basketball training available, regardless of a family's ability to pay; build genuine relationships with young people; and use those relationships to introduce them to Jesus.
FCA has enabled him to do exactly that.
"I get to coach basketball, I get to train basketball, and I get to share the Gospel," Tyrone says. "It's like the perfect job in the world. I wouldn't want to do anything else."
Stepping Out in Faith
There is one significant challenge.
Like other FCA staff members, Tyrone must raise the financial support that funds his ministry and salary.
He knew that when he accepted the calling. The timing soon made that decision considerably harder.
Before joining FCA, Tyrone had been working in real estate. He and his wife discussed the uncertainty of leaving that path for ministry, particularly knowing that he would have to build his own team of financial supporters.
Then, one month after Tyrone began raising support, his wife lost her job when TreeHouse, the youth ministry where she worked, went through layoffs.
Suddenly, the young couple had no regular income.
"I was praying because I was like, 'Okay, God, what's going on now?'" Tyrone recalls.
Then the freshman coaching position at South, which Tyrone initially expected to fill as an unpaid volunteer, became a paid position.
A mentor helped introduce Tyrone to potential supporters.
FCA leaders came alongside him.
Donations arrived.
Doors continued opening.
"It has been a struggle because I'm not making that much money, and I'm the only one making money in my household," Tyrone says. "But at the same time, God is still providing."
Tyrone sees the same pattern everywhere.
He needed a place for students to gather for Bible study. A relationship opened the door to the Marie Sandvik Center near Minneapolis South High.
He needed relationships with students. Coaching gave him access to them.
He needed people willing to financially invest in the ministry God was calling him to build.
God introduced him to people like Jenny.
"Whatever need I've had, He's provided," Tyrone says. "It's been a learning experience of when God says He's going to provide, He will provide. He's done it at every turn."
Now Tyrone is inviting others to become part of that provision.
Like other FCA staff members, Tyrone raises the financial support necessary to fund his salary and ministry. And while his ministry is already taking root, he remains in urgent need of additional financial partners to make that work sustainable.
Those financial gifts allow Coach Ty to keep opening gyms.
To train kids whose families can't afford private instruction.
To sit across from students with an open Bible.
To show up at practices and games.
To notice the kid other people might overlook.
To mentor young men like Mack.
And to establish a lasting FCA presence at Minneapolis South and throughout the community.
Jenny has already joined Tyrone's financial support team and has encouraged others to consider doing the same.
"I couldn't ask for more," she says of the influence Tyrone has had on her son. "I trust Ty with him completely."
Months ago, Jenny was praying that God would send someone.
At almost exactly the same time, Tyrone was praying that God would send people who believed in what he was being called to build.
They found each other.
Now students are showing up. Relationships are growing. And a ministry that didn't exist at Minneapolis South is beginning to take root.
But Tyrone still needs additional financial partners to sustain the work God has called him to do.
“Whatever need I’ve had, He’s provided,” Tyrone says. “It’s been a learning experience of when God says He’s going to provide, He will provide. He’s done it at every turn.”
Tyrone is trusting God for what comes next.
Will you consider being part of His provision?
