David Lockwood noticed one thing particular in his youngest son Ty at an early age.
However, he noticed it on a basketball court docket.
Ty performed high-level AAU basketball rising up within the Chicagoland space as his most important focus and solely performed soccer on the aspect for a youth program. It wasn’t till the household moved to Tennessee that soccer grew to become a precedence in Ty’s life.
The Lockwoods moved to Tennessee in 2020 and Ty enrolled at Independence. That summer season and fall had been eye-opening experiences for David when it got here to seeing the potential for Ty’s future.
Intense one-on-one basketball video games within the driveway along with his dad helped form Ty into a fierce competitor. David by no means let Ty win these video games rising up. But as soon as Ty lastly beat his dad, he adopted that up with a breakout sophomore soccer season. That’s when it grew to become clear to David the place his future was in sports activities.
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“He’s at all times had nice fingers and at all times been fairly massive, however I did not know that soccer was ever going to actually be his factor,” David stated. “Once we bought right here, issues simply form of took off. During and on the finish of his sophomore 12 months, that is when it hit me that that is most likely his factor and shall be his future in athletics.”
Lockwood, a 6-foot-5, 225-pound senior and four-star Alabama tight finish dedication, is No. 3 within the 2022 Dandy Dozen, a assortment of the highest school soccer prospects from the Nashville space as chosen by The Tennessean.
Ranked because the No. 9 tight finish within the nation and No. 2 prospect within the state, in accordance with 247Sports Composite, Lockwood caught 43 passes for 606 yards and three touchdowns as a sophomore. He adopted that up catching 42 passes for 462 yards and a pair of touchdowns final season.
“He’s positively a weapon that you aren’t getting to teach yearly for certain until you are at IMG Academy,” Independence coach Scott Stidham stated. “He’s positively somebody we have to get the ball to and it is good to have him on our aspect as a result of he has a lot of capacity and works actually exhausting to change into a nice soccer participant.
“I like being round Ty not solely due to that, however due to the individual he’s.”
From Texas A&M to Ohio State to Alabama
Lockwood dedicated to Ohio State on August 19, 2021, changing into the primary dedication within the Buckeyes 2023 class.
After sticking with the Buckeyes for almost a 12 months, Lockwood flipped his resolution on Tuesday to Alabama, following a weekend journey to Tuscaloosa that ended with a proposal from Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban.
However, earlier than Alabama and Ohio State, there was Texas A&M.
Lockwood has a proposal from Texas A&M, however by no means dedicated to the Aggies. Instead, he grew up an Aggies fan due to his dad.
David had a shut good friend who went to Texas A&M again within the ’90s so he would go all the way down to College Station and go to Aggies video games with him.
They picked out the most effective sport on the schedule yearly and attended that sport, a custom that they had collectively for 15 years. David introduced his household to a number of video games and let his sons expertise video games the place about 100,000 folks had been in attendance.
“I used to be hooked on Texas A&M soccer and that is simply one thing Ty grew up on,” David stated. “We had been Texas A&M followers as a result of a school soccer sport at Kyle Field with over 100,000 screaming followers in attendance was simply insanity. It was one thing we adopted.”
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David will probably get the possibility to see his son play at Kyle Field as quickly as his freshman 12 months, however it’ll be in a completely different jersey than the one he grew up rooting for.
“It’s actually superior to consider attending to play towards Texas A&M someday and the entire different nice SEC applications,” Ty stated. “Living in Tennessee, you are in SEC nation with Tennessee and Vanderbilt right here in fact. It’s particular as a result of everybody you understand down right here is probably going going to an SEC faculty or they not less than root for and SEC crew so that they’ll nonetheless probably get to observe me play and meaning a lot to me.
“I’ve bought classmates who can see me at Alabama and say, ‘Hey, I went to highschool with Ty’ or one thing like that. It’s neat as a result of we all know so many individuals right here and folks at Texas A&M nonetheless so it’s going to be superior to play them.”
Reach Joe Spears at jspears2@gannett.com or 731-343-4923. Follow him on Instagram and Twitter @joe_spears7.