Tyson Phelps has the flag of the U.S. Military Academy above his bed.
It’s a reminder where he’ll be later this month. He’ll graduate Friday, June 9, from Northwest High and begin basic training June 26 at West Point. He then begins the next chapter of his life as a cadet.
Tyson’s academics and his leadership helped him get there. He’s a member of Northwest’s National Honor Society as well as a former teacher’s assistant at the Greensboro Science Center and a former page with N.C. Governor Roy Cooper.
Tyson’s gymnastics ability helped him, too. To understand, just look beside his bedroom door. It says everything about Tyson’s life.
The Rewards of Hard Work
On a three-foot wooden rack his paternal grandfather made for him, Tyson keeps all the gymnastic medals he’s won. And there are dozens, medals the size of silver-dollar pancakes, all attached to ribbons that are red, white, and blue.
A few weeks ago, Tyson competed in the 2023 USA Gymnastics Men’s and Women’s Development Program National Championships in Oklahoma City, Okla. He placed 14th in the nation in the high bar.
In March, the North Carolina Men’s Gymnastics named Tyson the North Carolina Athlete of the Year. He won the Leonard Clemmer Award.
The state’s gymnastics coaches pick the Leonard Clemmer Award winner, and they chose Tyson for his ability and his contributions in bringing more attention nationwide to the state’s gymnastics program. He also won for his character.
The Leonard Clemmer trophy is about two feet high. Tyson keeps it on his bedroom dresser.
Ask Tyson how his passion for gymnastics got started, and he’ll talk about doing what many kids love to do.
Cartwheels.
A Journey Begins
When he was young, Tyson loved climbing –– trees, furniture, doorway frames, you name it.
So, his parents, Tod and Shelly Phelps, enrolled their youngest son into gymnastics to help channel his energy. He began taking classes at Flip Force Gymnastics in Kernersville, and one of the coaches saw how good Tyson was at doing cartwheels.
The coach placed Tyson in a more advanced class. Tyson was just 5.
Two years later, he started competing in gymnastic competitions. By age 9, he won his first medal. He competed in seven events. His favorite? The pommel horse. Tyson began accumulating medals at every competition.
By the time he turned 13, Tyson was part of the program at Salem Gymnastics in Winston-Salem. Today, he competes in 10 meets a year, as far west as Las Vegas, as far south as Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and as far north as New York City.
Tyson first got involved with gymnastics because he thought it was fun. But he stayed because he fell in love with the sport.
“Gymnastics is a lot of sports in one,” Tyson says today. “(Each event) requires a different amount of strength and agility, and it’s just a challenge to go out there and work to improve at every single event.
“Each one requires a lot of mental strength, and you’re always working to improve. That is something I enjoy.”
One of Tyson’s teammates went to the U.S. Naval Academy. That got Tyson thinking about being a part of a gymnastics team at one of the country’s service academies.
By his junior year, Tyson was drawing a lot of interest from gymnastic coaches nationwide. But the coach who showed the most interest was at a school 40 miles north of New York City.
That was Evan Eigner, the assistant coach at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, NY.
The Allure of West Point
Coach Eigner invited Tyson up for an official visit in October. Tyson came with his parents, and on a brisk windy day, they toured the campus on the banks of the Hudson River.
When he first arrived, Tyson admits he wasn’t sold on spending eight years in the U.S. Army after graduation. But after talking with professors and cadets that weekend, he knew West Point was the place he wanted to attend.
It wasn’t because West Point doesn't charge its students for tuition and housing. And it wasn’t because cadets get an annual salary, or 35 percent of the basic pay of a commissioned officer with less than two years of service.
No, it was what he felt everywhere on campus: an unmistakable sense of purpose.
“As soon as you walk through the gates, you feel every single person on that campus has a pride of where they are,” he says. “They understand what it means to be there, and there are so many opportunities for the future and so many possible career fields to go into.
“And of course, the honor and the prestige. It’s the opportunity to serve your country.”
And what does that mean? Tyson explains.
“A lot of times American citizens take what we have for granted,” he says. “You look abroad to other countries to someone who is 16 or 17, and not everyone has the opportunity to train as a gymnast as a hobby and go to school every day.
“And getting the chance to preserve and protect what we have here is something important to me.”
In November, Tyson committed to West Point. In his announcement on his Instagram page, he wrote: “Can’t wait to get there and start putting in the work. Go Army! #beatnavy.”
A Daily Regimen Pays Off
Tyson spends a lot of time behind the wheel.
He logs 400 miles a week on his Mazda CX5. He goes from Northwest High to the Cameron campus of GTCC in Colfax where he has taken 10 college courses.
Since his junior year, Tyson has taken everything from Calculus 1 and American history to music appreciation, art appreciation, interpersonal communication, and psychology. After GTCC, Tyson then drives west toward Salem Gymnastics to train.
He trains six days a week, three hours a day. By 8:30 p.m., he heads home. The next day, he starts all over again.
Tyson’s gymnastics and his schoolwork have helped him become more disciplined, focused, and mentally strong. Tyson knows those traits will help him at West Point. They already have. Consider what happened nearly two years ago.
Tyson worried his gymnastics career was over.
A Tough Discovery
During a back-tuck dismount off the high bar at Salem Gymnastics, Tyson did a full twist. But he wasn’t supposed to do a twist at all. He had practiced his dismount dozens of times, and he had never done that before.
Then, he remembered. The same thing happened to the athlete who many call the greatest gymnast of all time.
At the 2020 Summer Olympics, gold medal winner Simone Biles withdrew from the women’s all-around final after her event in the vault. When she pushed off, she meant to rotate two-and-a-half times. Instead, she only did one-and-a-half rotations.
Biles brought to the world what was familiar to gymnasts everywhere. It’s a mental block known as the “twisties.”
Biles got the “twisties” in July 2021, the off year the 2020 Summer Olympics were held because of the pandemic.
Four months later, so did Tyson.
More Work Begins
At first, Tyson struggled. His confidence plummeted in himself and his ability in the sport he loved. He questioned everything, and he worried that he couldn’t get anywhere close to the level he was before.
Enter his coach, Chris Young.
He created a plan for Tyson that entailed countless repetitions. He wanted to build back Tyson’s muscle memory and help him get beyond what was always in the back of his mind.
“Oh, I’m going to hurt myself,” Tyson kept thinking.
Young’s plan worked. By April, after seven months of work, Tyson’s confidence returned.
He rediscovered it at the gymnastic regionals in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. It was during his vault event. No twist. At all. Tyson then knew his bout with the “twisties” was over.
“That was a massive weight off my shoulders,” he says today. “It showed me how much a positive mindset helps and speaking into existence what you want.”
And what did Tyson keep speaking into existence?
“Expect to be good.”
A Timeless Lesson Learned
Tyson wrote about his “twisties” in his essay for West Point.
His AP English teacher, John Walker, taught him how to write better essays. Tyson did. In his essay, Tyson talks about how the “twisties” feel like being underwater and having no idea where the surface was.
He then explains the plan Young created for him and how it taught him not only how to overcome the “twisties” but how to live life.
“The confidence I gained from having strong mental fortitude transferred over into everyday life including my academics,” Tyson writes in his essay. “I became more confident in myself and was able to do even better in school and involve myself in more extracurriculars.”
Tyson takes that lesson with him to West Point. He wants to study computer science and consider a career in cybersecurity. Or even go to law school and become a lawyer.
But right now, as he gets ready to graduate Friday from Northwest High, Tyson will see his West Point flag above his bed and think about his immediate next step. It’ll be his life as a cadet beside the Hudson River, all dressed in gray.
“I can already feel the honor,” Tyson says, “of taking pride in who I am.”
