A gown and tassel were awaiting Tyrese Johnson in a few short months. He was counting down the final months of his senior year of high school, with his graduation seeming like the only thing in his way. After that momentous day, he would head to college with a full-ride scholarship. What would have been a defining moment in his young life became a milestone that he would never reach.
“His proudest moment would have been walking at graduation at his time,” Tymicha Johnson, Tyrese’s sister, said. “It was his dream.”
On Feb. 15, 2017, Tyrese became a victim of gun violence. He was shot and killed in Point Breeze at just 17 years old.
Tyrese was always known to be a good person, “a kid who’s not in the streets, a kid who is not in trouble and that has potential,” Tyrese’s former football coach, Byron Barnes, said. When he heard the news of Tyrese’s passing, he didn’t think it could be true. No one thought it would be Tyrese. When Byron and the other coaches of the South Philly Sigma Sharks received the call that day, there were “lots of tears involved.”
“That’s one of the worst things of the whole situation,” Coach Barnes said. “He was a kid who had potential, who had a future, he wasn’t just one of those kids that you’d say, ‘Oh, he’s a troublemaker.’ He didn’t look for trouble, he wasn’t around trouble. That’s what makes it even harder. To this day, it is what makes it harder.”
Tyrese had big plans for his life. While he was unsure of what his major would be at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, there was never a doubt in the minds of his family, his coaches and his friends that he would do great things with his life. He was “still indecisive,” but was thinking about business management, physical therapy, or maybe even nursing, his sister speculated.
He took his academics seriously, as you might expect from someone who was receiving an academic scholarship. His daily routine included him going to the Community College of Philadelphia to take courses while still in high school. If he wasn’t at school, he’d either be playing the sports he loved or hanging out with his friends and his girlfriend, Dynasha Thomas, with whom he had celebrated his one year anniversary just five days earlier.
The list of Tyrese’s extracurriculars went on and on. “He went to the YMCA to play sports, he played for the Sharks, he played basketball over at Marian Anderson, he played basketball over at the YMCA,” Tymicha listed off. But afterwards, he would always go home.
“That was it, he’d go home. You can see some kids – it’s where we’re at – meddle in the street,” Coach Bud, Tyrese’s former Sharks coach said. “That wasn’t Tyrese. Good student, good kid all around. He was one of those kids who would say, ‘you gotta hit the books.’ He just knew everything he was supposed to do.”
Those close to Tyrese remember his quiet and kind spirit, a person who never complained and, “just loved being around his family,” according to his sister Tymicha. A family friend, Terrez McCleary, also chimed in that, “He was just a sweetheart.”
Tyrese was often soft spoken, “but when he spoke up, everybody listened,” Coach Bud recalled.
Silly memories, like his “neat freak” behavior of folding his dirty laundry and stories of childhood, help his family in the time since his passing.
“He was 11 and his mom asked him to make her a peanut butter and jelly sandwich,” Tracey Anderson, Tyrese’s guardian, said with a laugh. “He was used to everybody waiting on him, so she said you can make it, peanut butter on one side, jelly on the other side. So Tyrese went downstairs, made this peanut butter and jelly sandwich on a napkin. One slice of bread with peanut butter on one side and jelly on the other. She never asked him to make another sandwich.”
In his short life, Tyrese touched the lives of many. His funeral procession was “5, 6 blocks long,” Coach Bud remembered. “Not just the kids at school, but the kids over here at [Chew Playground], the kids over at The Y. He touched everybody.”
Throughout his years of playing for the Sharks, Tyrese excelled. He worked to build up his peers, passed along spare gear to teammates when he could and encouraged them to stay away from the streets. “He was never the biggest, he was never the fastest, he just gave it his all,” Coach Bud said.
Even after Tyrese aged out of the football program, he still came back to watch his nephews play.
“His nephew plays on my team, so he was always around at practice, he would come to games,” Coach Barnes shared. “He would still say, ‘Hey coach, you should try this,’ or ‘Hey coach, you should do this.’”
After his death, the South Philly Sigma Sharks retired Tyrese’s jersey number, 16. Only his two nephews can wear the number now, carrying on the kind, hardworking spirit of Tyrese on the football field for years to come.
“He’d always say that he’s a shark for life,” Coach Bud said. “That’s exactly what he is.”
Tyrese is survived by his sister Tymicha and his father, Tyrone Johnson. Tyrese was preceded in death by his mother, Michelle Brunson, on Feb. 28, 2015. His other sister, Tamara Johnson, was killed in Point Breeze in 2009.
Date: 2017-02-15
Location: 1500 S BANCROFT ST, Philadelphia, PA
