“This is my story, and I want to share it with you,” said Tre Tipton as he stepped onto the stage of the auditorium. “But some of it is uncomfortable.” He paused before continuing. “If at any time you feel uncomfortable, it is your decision to get up and leave.”
This acknowledgement is woven into every talk that Tipton gives. Behind his bright smile and athletic frame is more trauma than any young person should endure. The former University of Pittsburgh football player has faced devastating losses of loved ones, racism and adversity, and multiple season-ending injuries, but he now uses those experiences to help and motivate others.
“Nobody can save you if you don’t speak up,” Tipton said to a captivated audience of Cornell High School students on February 25. He was invited as part of Project SEEKS SES to bring social and emotional supports to local school districts.
For Tipton, trauma began at a very young age. He described what it was like to experience his stepmother’s death at just seven years old. “You know, I’m the best in the world at hide and seek,” he said. “I hid for two days after she died.” A few years later he lost his uncle and mentor. And during one week in high school, he lost both his aunt and friend in separate car accidents.
“I was hurting so much inside,” he said. “I wanted to tell someone. I just didn’t know how.”
At the time, Tipton was one of the most talented athletes at Apollo-Ridge High School, excelling at football, basketball, and track. Sports provided the escape that he needed. His teammates and coaches had no idea of the deep grief he was experiencing. They also had no idea of the pressure he felt to support his single mother, who was also his best friend.
Tipton never confided in anyone about his feelings. Instead, he channeled his energy into success on the football field and was awarded a scholarship to play at the University of Pittsburgh.
He played in the first four games as a freshman in 2015, but injured his knee at practice and had to watch his backup score a touchdown in a big game against Duke. Tipton sunk deep into depression, feeling as though the one bright spot in his life had gone dark. He reached a tipping point a month later.
Facing the auditorium of teenagers with an awareness that didn’t exist for him when he was their age, Tipton described what it was like to no longer want to live. Ten years ago, he walked for hours through Pittsburgh on a frigid November night, until he found himself on the Fort Duquesne Bridge. “I was very tired and ready to quit life,” he remembers. He climbed over the railing, staring at the black water beneath. Then he slipped – and caught himself. He realized in that moment this was not the ending he wanted.
“Times did not get easier,” Tipton said. “I just got stronger.”
Unfortunately, his next two seasons at Pitt also ended in injury. In a game against Miami, he was knocked unconscious and left with a collapsed lung. “I had to learn to breathe again,” he said. “I didn’t get it. I told the nurses, ‘I’ve been breathing since I was a baby, and I’m an athlete, let me do this.’ But I had to take it one step at a time.” Tipton reminded the young men and women listening to every word of his story that he had been suicidal just two years before that. “I learned how to not quit.”
During that time, Tipton sought professional counseling and connected with a fellow athlete, Elee Khalil, whose wrestling career was also cut short due to injuries. The two bonded over shared traumas and recognized the need for a peer support group, which they named L.O.V.E. – Living Out Victoriously Everyday.
The focus of L.O.V.E. is on mental prosperity – the ability to help others “overcome, succeed, and look at things in a beautiful light when things aren’t always presented to us that way from the world.”
In 2021, when Tipton’s beloved mother died, every one of his teammates came to her funeral. They worried that the immense loss may set him back, but Tipton only worked harder to make his mom proud.
“I want to change lives,” Tipton said. “I want to save lives.”
Tipton has become a champion of mental health and credits L.O.V.E. for saving him. “I’ve learned that it doesn’t take a lot to change this world. Sometimes, all the world needs is someone that just cares.”