Tychicus Tibbs is a young man who has had to deal with a lot in his life. Some would crumble and let all of the bad consume them. Tychicus (tie-chu-cuss) has chosen to respond to adversity with positivity.
As a young boy, after his first year of peewee football, he had to deal with drug-related family issues. His mother went to prison a number of years for drugs and Tychicus was also homeless.
His mother, fortunately, has been sober six years now and Tychicus said that his family is doing well. He is now a junior offensive guard at Lakeview Centennial High School in Garland, Texas.
As someone who started playing football at four years old alongside six and seven-year-olds, football became a safe haven and he said it chose him.
It also helped him make friends, overcome being bullied and cope with his family issues. In addition to all of the aforementioned, Tychicus has a physical disability. He has pes cavus which according to physiopedia.com is a condition where a person’s feet have “…an abnormally high plantar longitudinal arche.” In Tychicus’ case, he has both the unusual high arch and flat feet. He has had trouble walking properly. Football helped him to do just that and function well in everyday life.
He was able to overcome all of this through his belief in God and has found success because of it.
His mom is his biggest supporter. He said that even when she wasn’t sober, she still made the effort to be there for him and show love. She is his motivation for playing the game.
“…Even though she was on drugs and everything, for birthdays she would be there, she would show love. I’ve heard other people’s stories about people who were on drugs that just don’t care and go all haywire. She’s been there for me every single day. Even when she was gone and everything she’s been there and loved me,” Tibbs said.
Tychicus Tibbs calls Garland, Texas home and he loves the way football has brought community support and views it as a blessing to the community.
On the field, Tibbs is a force to be reckoned with at six-foot-five, 320 pounds. Run blocking he says is a strength of his and his film shows it. He needs work with pass blocking he did say.
“Well, I’ve been needing to work on my pass blocking but my run blocking is great. I’m six-foot-five, 320 pounds so people who I usually go against are not bigger than me. It’s just easy to push somebody. Pass blocking I need to work on my feet more but I’m getting better at that.”
Lakeview Centennial Patriots head football coach Kendall Miller said that Tibbs showed the most growth between his sophomore and junior year and turned into a force and a smart player on the Patriots offensive line.
“Any lineman can always be ─ the better feet you have, the better you are as a lineman. Feet and mobility, even though he’s a pretty mobile kid that’s something you can never have too much of,” Miller said.
Miller knew that Tibbs was going to be something special in only a short time as a freshman player.
“…I’ve done this for a long time now and I’m kind of able to pick out a kid that has that ability to possibly play beyond high school. Right away in watching him play his third high school game as a freshman, on the freshman team, here’s somebody that has a chance,” he said. “You have those intangibles: the size, the feet and the aggression, you got those three things then you have a chance, so we’ve known it since he got here. He has it. He’s been somebody that has been a very good player for us.”
Tychicus Tibbs is unranked on the major recruiting services (247Sports, Scout, Rivals) and has no scholarship offers. He has, however, received interest from Stephen F. Austin University and Purdue University.
Southern Methodist University is his dream school because they’re close in Texas to where he’s from so his family can see him play, they have a great community he said, they provide a great education and have a football team that he’d love to be a part of.
Tibbs believes that he can bring leadership to a university on and off the field because of what he has gone through in his life.
“Leadership and I’m not trying to brag but a quality [individual]. After the drug hassle in my life, I was taught to treat people, no matter what’s happening in their life, the same because you never understand what’s fully going on with them. I just want everybody to feel loved and appreciated no matter what’s going on with them or how they feel,” he said. “I don’t like when people pick on other people as I used to be picked on. I used to be obese as a little kid and I hated people who picked on [others]. I’ve just tried to bring up people instead of put them down, as usually jocks sometimes do.”
Also, off the field, Tibbs would like to become a lawyer which fits with his view on leadership and wanting to help others in any way possible.
Tibbs also was a part of Lakeview Centennial’s track and field team doing the shot put as a sophomore. In the 2016 outdoor track & field season, he put up impressive numbers in the shot put. During the season, he had six throws in eight competitions register at 40+ feet. His personal best of 43 feet was recorded at the Lakeview Centennial Patriot Relays on March 18, 2016.
“I just love shot put and I have an amazing coach, Coach Swain. He’s probably one of the best coaches anybody could hope for and he drew me into shot put. I still love it to this day and I’m still going to do it this season in my junior year.”
He said that doing the shot put helps with football in terms of footwork.
“Yeah, I still have the same competitive streak and it’s like another technique that [is] able to help me with my feet. You have to kick slide, land perfectly and [a] whole bunch of other things. It’s just another great tool and I feel like it also helps you with football.”
Back on the football field, the best part of his game he said is his mentality because he never lets the player across him see him sweat, no matter how big they are or what college they are committed to.
“Some people get scared and are like ‘oh this guy is going to this college or that guy is going to that college.’ I ‘m like you’re just a football player, just go play football,” he said
Tychicus Tibbs is going to be a team captain next year and the Patriots 2017-18 varsity squad is going to consist of freshman and sophomores, so Tibbs wants to be the guy to bring them along as a veteran leader.
“…I want to show them what it means to be a varsity player, not just a junior varsity or freshman player. How to act like a varsity player on and off the field. I don’t want to continue the trend of people talking about how Lakeview is ghetto and how their football team is trash. I want to leave a legacy of where people can actually say ‘wow, I’m a Lakeview player and I want to hold myself up to that standard.’”
When his time is all said and done at Lakeview Centennial High School, Tibbs said he is going to miss the fan base for their support.
“I’m basically going to miss our fans. Our fans are so amazing and the football players, when we come together as a team, we went all the way to Palestine, [Texas] to go play and we still had a filled school crowd. It’s just amazing, I’m going to miss my hometown fans. I hope my legacy is that we keep up the Lakeview tradition of being something better, setting the trends and keeping to it.”
Update 3/19/2018: It was previously reported that Tychicus was born with clubbed feet. The statement was changed to reflect his actual condition.
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