Today we’d like to introduce you to Dedrick Tillerson.
Thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Originally, I am from Henderson, KY about 2 hours from the Nashville area. I started off playing sports when I was 7 years old. When I was about 13, I started running track and my life took a drastic turn from there. I’d go on to become a multiple-time region and state champion which caught the attention of many major universities. I ended up signing and running at Purdue University for two years and finished up at the University of Kentucky.
My college experience was amazing. However, I hid most of my life from the most important people in my life, so much so that it affected me when I turned to a short professional track career. My internal struggle with my sexuality took a toll on me physically to the point I was getting hurt all the time, and it wasn’t until I decided to hang up my spikes and enter the corporate world I became comfortable with myself.
After a small stint living in the Washington, DC area I learned there was a whole world of sports specifically in the LGBTQ+ world. The one problem is that I didn’t see much representation of myself in the sports arena meaning minority representation. Now, I won’t say that for all sports, but because I am a multi-sport athlete there were sports such as Volleyball, Kickball, and a few others that had very little minority representation. This gave the birth of the 4US Sports Foundation. With the help of a few of my friends, we started our first bout of throwing basketball tournaments in the Atlanta, GA area back in 2015 which a lot of local and national attention.
4US placed a quick staple due to the concept. I wanted to make sure we were hosting events that displayed us being appreciated and not tolerated. That being said I placed an HBCU spin on events offering more of an entertainment space while being able to see some amazing basketball. In our first couple of tournaments, we caught the eyes of companies like Kroger, Publix, Gatorade (Coke), Aid Atlanta, Aids Healthcare Foundation, ThriveSS, and many nightlife partners that would become partners in our events and community initiatives.
I’m super grateful we have grown our sports reach to cover basketball, volleyball, and kickball in a multitude of cities with one goal in mind to expose more of the minority community to the LGBTQ+ sports world and we now have over a 10k reach which has been both rewarding and filled with highs and lows.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I would love to say it’s been a smooth road, but nothing in life speaking personally has even been a crystal stair. I think the biggest thing was overcoming my identity struggles. Being from a small town has its ups but also has its downs as it relates to being anything/anyone/anyway different. What does that mean? It simply means that when you are only exposed to a limited way of thinking that’s the word you tend to live by. Now, I have not changed I’ve always been the person I am now with the same mannerisms but when I finally came out it released everything I held on my shoulders.
I think the tough part was that I was struggling with identity during an era, especially in the sport of Track and Field was completely frowned upon because being gay in the early 2000s, being in a contract, and being out could have caused you to lose it. That is, until Pride month became a big push then every company that had something negative all of a sudden became the biggest advocate.
I’d only wished that were the case when I was competing because I honestly would have owned all of myself more during that time and maybe my outcome would have been different from a competition standpoint. But I’m a firm believer that everything happens for a reason because what I’ve been able to accomplish with 4US Sports and just my professional career in the community has been unmatched. So my struggles, I have always viewed as my stepping stone to my wins and wouldn’t change them for anything.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Because I am a jack of all trades, starting 4US Sports Foundation (www.4ussports.org) was only a part of my career journey. I wanted to be able to combine the 3 things that I love which are people, sports, and policy. That being said with all my community work I have maintained an almost 13-year career in Human Resources and started my own HR Consulting firm that specializes in career readiness, resume writing, recruiting, and small business consulting called Till the Soil Career Coaching & Consulting Svcs. (www.tillthesoil.com).
What I am most proud of is that I have been able to marry the things I love and have immense community support in all areas of the specialties I touch. When people see me out it’s pretty much the common “You’re the sports guy” or “I heard you help with resumes” or “Can you connect me with a team because I want to play (Insert respective sport).”
So it feels good to be known for the areas that I have mastered. I get countless calls and messages from people and organizations to assist with sports, counseling employees or managers in certain HR practices, or with the turmoil our economy has been in and the many corporate transitions if I’m able to assist in writing resumes/mock interviews.
I’m just happy that even though it’s a lot, I’m so grateful for being able to do what I do.
We’d love to hear about how you think about risk-taking.
If my mom could have given me a different middle name it would either be “risk-taker” or “courageous” LOL. I would say I’m one of the biggest risk-takers I know. There have been many times I have not been given a seat at the table especially in the LGBTQ+ community because when you start speaking of sports and the community and minority it almost becomes a foreign language.
Not because it’s a foreign language, but it’s not been a lane that many have familiarity with so it’s much easier to just just not entertain conversations. However, in those times of not being invited to the table, the one thing I’ve always been confident about is my resources, and that simply means when I’m not invited I create tables, and that by far is the biggest risk one can take because you just never know the outcome. However, I can confidently say that in any table I have created God has immensely blessed me to be successful and multiply beyond what I could have dreamed of.
When I was kid I used to tell my mom I wanted to test ride rollercoasters for a living, and she would always say boy you are crazy. But what more can you say about being a risk-taker than that? I have taken many single steps in my life that were huge in return from starting 4US to speaking up for individuals and groups that caused me to get suspended from groups all because of my catching disparities and exposing them. I’m often referred to as the Martin Luther King Jr. of LGBTQ+ Sports, and what an honor to have that title is the way I see it.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.4ussports.org, www.tillthesoil.com
- Instagram: @4us.sports, @thehmnresource, @tillthesoilcc
- Facebook: @Dedrick Tillerson, @4us sports, @tillthesoilcc
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dedricktillerson/
