Today we’d like to introduce you to Tyree Powell.
Hi Tyree, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for sharing your story with us – to start, maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers.
The story of NotYetPro begins with me, Tyree Powell. So here we go, born in Philly, 1980. Except for one trip to Disney World in Florida, our summer vacations were spent in rural North Carolina, rural southern Virginia, and Virginia Beach, Virginia. I’m grateful that my parents have taken me “down south” so often. Not only for helping me to stay connected to my extended family but for giving me exposure and helping me to understand how people live differently at an early age. One of my favorite childhood memories was spending an entire summer or two in North Carolina without my parents, just hanging around with family and playing with cousins. And being sad when they went back to school so much earlier than I did and teased for talking funny when I got back to Philly because I had picked up some of the southern accents.
Growing up with so much family always around, adjusting to different accents and slang, and even adjusting to living in the city vs. farmland/rural areas. These early life experiences may be part of why I love people, cultures, traveling, and languages. The first television character I remember loving as a child was Uncle Traveling Matt from Fraggle Rock. I must have been about 3-5 years old. I was drawn to him being the only Fraggle to have left their “world” to go out to explore and share his experiences with his family and friends back home. During the show, he never lived in Fraggle land. He was an adventurer. They would cut away from the normal show what was happening in “Fraggle land” and show us how Uncle Matt would come upon a “discovery.” This discovery would be an umbrella, car, or a phonebooth. His personality was portrayed as an “airhead,” but he had no clue what was out in the human world. His explanations of things were funny, even to 3-4 year old me. I don’t know what it was, but something about him leaving his normal surroundings interested me.
Around this time, 3-5, my first memories of sports came in. My father was coaching a local college basketball team. I remember feeling like part of the team, going to practices, traveling to games, and hanging out with him and the team around campus; a couple of vivid memories were being at practices and playing on a stage with a piano while practice was going on. Another time was riding the team bus and going to pizza hut for dinner.
At around 5 or 6, I remember going to swim lessons. This was not such a great memory. I remember smelling the distinct smell of strong chlorine as soon as I opened the door and crying on the inside every time I entered the building. Outside of crying when I opened the door, a couple of other vivid memories are Hating Stevie Wonder’s Song I love you from the bottom of my heart. Because it seemed to be on every day while I was doing something that wasn’t fun, but I must have been progressing because the next memory was a swim test. We had to jump off the diving board into 12 feet of water and make it to the side on our own. I was scared. What was I to do? I wanted to jump off the side of the board and swim the shortest distance to any side of the pool. But in what would prove to be the story of my life, I chose the hardest way to get to the finish line. I decided that if I must swim straight, I’d swim diagonally to the corner of the pool. This was a long swim that was required to pass the test. So I guess I learned to swim.
Since we’re on the bad swim stories, I’ll go out of chronological order here for a second. I think it’s fitting because it’s funny that I became a competitive swimmer after all this. I’m not sure how strong of a swimmer I was after those lessons at 5 because on 2 occasions, I remember fearing for my life.
Occasion #1: At a state park for a family trip. While playing around with family and cousins in this crowded pool, someone grabbed my ankle and tried to keep me under the water. I thought I was going to die. I was fighting to take small breaths for what seemed to be forever. By the time they let go and I was out of the water, I was done. Gasping for air and happy to be alive. I still had no clue who that was. Crazy.
Occasion #2: Virginia Beach, VA. On one of our family trips to the beach, I’m out in the waves playing. I guess I was a strong enough swimmer to be out floating in the waves, but before I realized it, the undertow had me and pulled me out further. Again, I was trying to return to shore for what I thought was forever with no luck. I don’t remember struggling like I was drowning, just not being able to swim fast or strong enough to beat the undertow and waves. I was more tired than struggling to stay up. This must be why the lifeguard didn’t come. I remember someone had lost their surfboard or boogie board, and it had come to me. I didn’t want to let go. They came to get it and dragged me back most of the way. Again, I was done and happy to be alive by the time I had gotten out of the water.
Maybe it was my uncle traveling with Matt or my extended family, but I truly had an interest in other cultures and languages at an early age. Shortly after I learned to read, I remember finding a set of chopsticks lying on the kitchen table in the house of 13. I distinctly remember being in the kitchen alone, reading the instructions, and teaching myself how to use them. For a long time, I was the only person in my family that could eat chopsticks. I also remember being intrigued by the movie Big Bird in China. This is funny. China played a big part in my life later on (I lived and worked in China after college graduation. I spent 1 year working in Shanghai, China, teaching business English at the Shanghai Finance University. I also was instrumental in helping Johns Hopkins start 2 study abroad programs between JHU in Baltimore, Nanjing University, and Peking University). My mother must have noticed this somewhere around 7-8-9 when she put me in a Saturday morning youth program at the University of Pennsylvania’s Museum of Anthropology. I still remember walking thru the museum and imagining being in those faraway places, times, and scenes.
I don’t remember much about the people there or fellow attendees, but I remember being amazed and interested in what I was learning. My mom later told me she sent me back for multiple consecutive sessions. I guess I enjoyed it. This brings us up to about the 4th – 5th grade. About 1990-91. We now had our own house, just the 4 of us – mom, dad, little sister, and me. We had moved to North Philly from West Oak Lane. Urban city life now. No tree-lined streets with a front yard and covered porch anymore. I started a new school, took public transportation by myself, and started learning a little about city life. In a short time, I had made some friends on the block and closeby streets and began playing with my new friends in the hood pastime crateball.
Crateball would be the first “sport” I played regularly. It was the go-to activity for boys too young to get any action on the playground basketball courts. Using a milkcrate, we would get a hammer or whatever we could find to break out the bottom. Then find a telephone poll on the street where no cars were parked and nail up the crate, ensuring it was at a dunkable height. Every block with at least a small group of boys had its own crate halfcourt. Some blocks were fortunate enough to have two telephone polls almost across from each other. We’d play full court on these blocks. Even if the full court meant we were running sideways a little bit.
Growing up in North Philly would be an adventure, but I loved every minute. But on the flip side, I would go through a little breaking in. Maybe it was because I was young, maybe because I was a short little fat boy. I had a close call with getting my Walkman stolen on the subway coming home from school. I almost had my bike stolen right out of my hands around the corner from my house, got punched in the face by some dude trying to steal my money, and had to go camping with a black eye, actually having my bike stolen. One of the worst was watching my friend’s father beat up his brother with an aluminum bat while he was wedged between a rowhouse wall and the steps.
As I grew to learn and love my new neighborhood, I began to attend the top public school in the city – Masterman – starting in the 5th grade. This school perennially has been a top 10 school in the state of Pennsylvania for at least the past 40 years. A big thank you to my parents – educators – for fighting for me and going through all the hoops to get me in. I’d come from all-black environments in school and neighborhoods to now a very diversely mixed school. I don’t remember having any race issues; it was normal to have friends from different backgrounds.
Tennis: My dad had played tennis in high school before switching to basketball and playing for Lincoln University’s team in college. I remember learning to play tennis with my dad and then going to some camps in the summer. But I don’t think this lasted long because I never reached a basic level basic being able to complete a low-speed overhand serve and keep a controlled short volley [cp4]. I also remember having my first real frustration with sports with tennis. [cp5] At a summer sports camp I attended at Temple University, I was in the tennis and basketball group. We played tennis and basketball every day, among other things. The frustration came in my 1st or 2nd year at the camp. I was trying to get over the hump of being able to hit the ball under full control back over the net. It was horrible. I couldn’t do it. On my way home one day, I smashed my racquet. I don’t remember ever talking to my parents about it. I would go on to attend this camp over the next 5+ summers and stay in the same tennis and basketball group.
Soccer: I joined the soccer team in the 5th or 6th grade. I have no clue why. I had never played soccer, watched it on TV, and wasn’t very interested in it outside of practices or games. I played fullback for two years on the middle school team. I believe I sucked. I’m pretty sure I was self-aware enough to know I wasn’t good then. They put me at fullback because I had no real soccer skills. On top of that, I was a short, fat kid with little stamina. My directions were, if the ball comes near you, kick it as far as you can back upfield. I did my job well, but it was the team’s joke for kicking with my toes and looking back and considering my life. This was my first choice to do something that no one around me was doing or had done. I was not good and would not progress. My most memorable moment playing soccer – was being carded for “high foot.” I knew I couldn’t use my hands, and the ball was at about chest level or higher. I decided I’d try to kick it instead of controlling it with my chest or heading it. This would be my first lesson in using my head, lol.
Not sure which came first, basketball or swimming. Starting with soccer and a very brief stint in tennis, then came basketball and competitive swimming. You’d think I would have been playing ball earlier with my father being a coach. I’m about 11-12 now, and maybe the fame of Michael Jordan and all the NBA marketing of the ’80s & ’90s, recess at school, summer camp, crateball, who knows. It was just part of the Philly urban culture. High school varsity basketball players were considered superstars among young people throughout the city. And growing up in the city, as a black boy, the ability to handle yourself accordingly on a basketball court was an essential skill.[cp6] It could save your life. As you can tell, my dad never pressured me to play basketball. But when I decided to play, having a coach/dad helped a lot. He never coached a team I played on but was my biggest supporter. One summer, he said if you’re serious, wake me up in the morning and let’s go out to the park at 6:30 am – before folks come out and it gets hot. He got me up to speed with all the fundamentals. I played on multiple teams starting at about 12 years old and played ball with Kevin Hart in the neighborhood and on youth teams.
At around 11 or 12, while riding with my mom and sister coming from picking my sister up from swim lessons, my mom asked my younger sister what activity she wanted to do. Her answer was swimming. I said wow, I want to swim too. Little did I know that I would have a much higher learning curve than she did. My peers had been swimming and competing for 5-6 years already. They knew how to flip turn, do all four strokes, and had the endurance to complete a race and, most importantly, complete an entire practice, but within 2 years (and a whole lot of hard work), I had caught up to most of my peers on the team at PDR. (PDR Swim Team, Coached by Jim Ellis, featured in the movie PRIDE)
High school was looming. Would I stay at the #1 academic public school in Philadelphia? Or would I go to the #2, which boasted the best comprehensive athletic program in the city? For better or worse, I considered myself an athlete more than a student. And Central was the perfect fit. I could’ve easily made the basketball and swim team there, so there was no downside. But by the time I started 9th grade, swimming was moving to the #1 position. And If I was to be recognized as a swimmer, I should go to the Central, where in large part due to PDR swimmers, had established a swimming dynasty in Philly.
By 9th grade, I chose to focus on swimming to increase my chances of getting a division one scholarship; although I continued to play ball outside of school, I didn’t try out for Central’s team. I honestly don’t remember considering any schools outside of D1. It was a bittersweet choice at the time, though. These were my best two sports; unfortunately, the college seasons don’t work well together. My most memorable times playing ball were when I played with my dad on my team. He will always be the best player I’ve ever played with. It made me proud to be able to say that’s my dad, and he whooped you. And I cannot leave out the one time I successfully dunked during a game. It’s not as easy as it looks. High school would bring a higher level of swimming improvement and a season-long injury during my sophomore year. I had a bad case of tendonitis in my left shoulder. I kicked the entire practice, every practice, for 8 months. I kicked the same amount of yard that everyone else swam. Yes, a lot with fins. I emerged from the injury with a stronger kick and found my way to a swimming scholarship at Towson University.
Swimming: I talk about learning to swim and 2 early near-drowning experiences previously. Here is a glimpse into the life of a competitive swimming black boy. So when I say swimming, I’m not talking about an afternoon or day at the pool. This was serious swimming. At the height of my swimming training, the amount of working out we did was intense. Practices lasted 1.5 to 4 hours and consisted of weight lifting, calisthenics, stretching, running, and thousands of yards of laps in the pool.
I’ll go a little deeper into the amount of swimming this sport entails. Many people truly have no clue. I start swimming competitively at the “late” age of 11. I think I swam in my first meet at 12 years old. Philly historically has a good history of black people and swimming. My parents found the best of the best. I remember training at various locations before joining the PDR swim team. PDR Swim Team is a story in itself, being the 1st all-black swim team to compete at the national level and send swimmers to college with scholarships and to national and international levels meets.
Initially, starting as an 11-year-old practicing with the 6 and under group. I quickly (about 2 years) worked my way up to being able to practice and compete with my peers. I vividly remember how much of a struggle and how tired I was during this time. Even as I could compete with my peers, I had much catching up to do in strength, endurance, and proper form. Swimming was always an uphill battle for me, but it was so much fun. And the ability to compete in a sport that many of my family and friends had no clue existed or didn’t even know how to swim made me feel good. I swam in high school, where I could continue 13 years swim team championship dynasty all my 4 years. I would win individual and team championships in all 4 years. During my senior year, we lost 1 swim meet. It was the 1st loss of my high school career and the 1st in 10+ years for our school. We were devastated. We bounced back and won the championship against the same team we lost.
Being a black male teenager from inner city Philadelphia: I was always playing any sport I could get a chance to play. In season or out of season. People knew I was an athlete, and I routinely got people who assumed I was a basketball player. My no turned into them playing a guessing game to find out which sport I played. People would never guess swimming! Pool parties. Not the first thing you think of when growing up in the inner city. But I did go to diverse schools. And I was on a swim team. So we had access to families with pools. As you would probably imagine, I only went to pool parties with my swim teammates. None of my other friends or family could swim, unfortunately. These days no one ever gets in the pool at pool parties (pool parties attended by black people, at least.) But with my teammates, all pool parties turned into swim meets.
Towson: Swimming allowed me to realize my dream of becoming an NCAA Division 1 Athlete. I accepted a scholarship to swim on the Towson University Swimming & Diving Team. I wanted to swim at Howard University, the only HBCU with an NCAA Swim Team, but their roster was full of upper-level students who swam my strokes. I chose Towson because it had the most diverse student body of the top schools on my list. I knew I’d be the only black person on the swim team at Towson before I got there, but it didn’t hit me until finishing the warmup on the first day of practice when I took my goggles off and looked around the pool. We had a great time and swam fast!
While at Towson, I joined Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., becoming a “Nupe.” Being a swimmer, and many in my chapter have superhero nicknames. I was now “AquaNupe.” For better or worse, this nickname will be with me for life. During the summers, I would go back to Philly to train with my former team, PDR, and work as a lifeguard until school started again. It was during one of these summers that I started teaching swim lessons.
I had a pretty relaxed lifeguarding job at an indoor community center during my last two years of college. A parent asked our group of lifeguards if one of us could teach her 3 & 5-year-old sons how to swim. I don’t remember any of the others jumping at the opportunity. I did. In about two months, both were kicking with kickboards and swimming a lap or two on their own. I was hooked!
I was now out of school; swimming was done. I eventually moved to China, and when I returned, I dove headfirst into a career in IT, Web development & project management. I worked as a web developer and continued to teach lessons for extra money.
After getting married, having kids, and reaching the “finished line” that everyone’s parents talk about, good grades, college, fun, travel, marriage, family, and most importantly, a stable job, the stable job part got pretty boring. Certifications, titles, and building software for other businesses didn’t make me happy anymore.
In gearing up to teach my children how to swim, I started NotYetPro Swim School. NotYetPro Swim School would be built on my swimming, learning & teaching experience. I would also build on what I learned working for other swim schools and programs.
Most importantly, I wanted my clients to be able to swim when they finished a session in my program. Other programs are geared around making your way through their levels over months or years and having large repeat groups of repeat clients vs. getting the swimmers to swim on their own quickly.
NotYetPro Swim School teaches private and small group lessons to ages 5 and up. The structure of our lessons is geared to getting people swimming quickly. Clients should come ready to put their heads in on day one, blow bubbles, and kick! Most of our clients are adults. Many students swim a lap or two within 10-12 lessons!
Since 2021, we have been a 501c3 non-profit entity based in Washington, DC. We serve the entire DMV (DC, MD, Northern VA). We are currently looking to expand our services by partnering with well-maintained pools looking to bring in an extra revenue stream with a high-quality swim school that produces quick results. The NotYetPro Swim School is just one part of the NotYetPro company. Launching soon will be our Sports-Specific Social Network & our Sports Directory.
Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Building NotYetPro and the Swim School has not been a smooth road. NotYetPro is my brainchild and originally started as an idea for a sports-specific social network. The idea came about when working with my mentor and original co-founder, Ser Greene. Due to a host of startup struggles, miscalculations, and false starts, we could not get the idea launched. Very sadly, Ser Greene passed away from cancer in 2016. The business of NotYetPro is based on my life as an amateur athlete who has been exposed to many different sports, people, places, and experiences. Because of this exposure, I have been able to be successful in life so far. Just as I continue to stay active in sports myself and with my family, I have not been able to let the NotYetPro flame die out.
The main struggle, for me, in building a social network is developers and money. I do have a skill, though, and one that is capable of bringing in income for the business. That is how NotYetPro Swim School was born. I started in the summer when I had full access to my outdoor community pool. Things went well, but labor day came, and the pool closed. I began to meet clients at their local pools to give lessons. This went well for the most part, but some pools kicked me out because I was now a competing program taking clients from them. Finding a dedicated indoor pool has been the number one struggle so far in the business. I am actively looking for pool partners. A pool partner can be any well-maintained pool large enough to give lessons. We are willing to rent space, giving a facility an extra revenue stream, AND we are also open to pool space and time being given in-kind as a donation to our 501c3 in providing this service to the community.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
The NotYetPro Non-Profit Organization has 3 divisions:
1. Swim School
2. Sports-Specific Social Network (launching soon)
3. Sports Directory (launching soon)
The overarching global goal is to Promote and advance amateur athletics. Our goal is to Promote and advance amateur athletics. Our strategy to achieve this goal is to reach the masses through a social media app. With the resources made available through revenue, begin to build facilities, host exposure events, and provide access to sports to try to level the playing field for all current and potential athletes.
How is your org having an impact uniquely or innovatively?
Our impact is initially happening in the pool, teaching children & adults how to swim and furthering the skills of existing swimmers. Our founder comes from a high-level swimming background and believes swimming is the only sport that saves lives. We also see swimming as a way toward economic empowerment. The skill opens up doors such as lifeguarding, teaching swim lessons, police, fire & military work, and more.
In addition to our swim school, we are developing a sports-specific social media app that will be accessible worldwide. It will allow athletes of all ages, levels, and sports to promote themselves. We aim to be a global company making an impact online and on the ground in local communities. We measure our impact by how many swimmers we “produce” and how quickly they become proficient. When the sports-specific social network is launched, we will measure the number of athletes, coaches, and fans signed up worldwide. And also measure how many sports are played and showcased globally.
3 examples or stories that capture your impact:
1. NotYetPro Swim School helping a former Marine prepare for Air Force Pararescue Training.
2. NotYetPro Swim School’s client base is predominantly from around the African diaspora, with 90% or more of our beginning non-swimmers becoming lap swimmers in 1-3 months.
3. NotYetPro Founder is an African American, former NCAA Division I swimmer who started NotYetPro based on exposure. When exposed to opportunities, people, places, activities, etc., new things become real possibilities. Swimming has exposed me, founder Tyree Powell, to higher education, international competition, living and working abroad, and other sports such as snorkeling, scuba diving, snowboarding, mountain biking, and more. NotYetPro is here to continue to make this type of impact on others.
So, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you before we go? How can they support you?
Founder Tyree Powell and Karema Akilah (Ser Greene’s widow) provide 100% of the muscle and strategy for the business. But to grow, we cannot do this alone. Promote yourself in your industry by showcasing how your work is helping NotYetPro achieve its global mission.
We are looking for talented sports lovers to lend their talents to NotYetPro to help us and themselves grow in the following areas:
– Board Members
– Accounting/Bookkeeping
– Apparel Designer
– Fundraisers/Sponsorship
– Grantwriter
– Graphic designer
– Legal
– Live Events
– Non Profit Taxes
– Online Advertising
– Podcasting
– Social media
– Sports Directory Manager
– Swim instructors
– Videography/Video Editing
– Web & App Developers
– Writing: Blogging/Newsletters/Press Releases
Pricing:
- Individual Swim Lessons $75/hr
- Semi-Private Swim Lessons $130/hr
- 3 Swimmers $165/hr
- 4 Swimmers $200/hr
Contact Info:
- Website: notyetpro.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/notyetpro/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NotYetPro/
- Other: Donate – https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=HMWDATPER5WEQ
