Sporting KC donated soccer balls, Chick-Fil-A donated sandwiches, the cheerleaders volunteered their night. Sports Pick’s Will and Nick offered their commentating skills, the band gave their music, the Lancer Dancers put on a half-time dance and the woodshop class presented an engraved table. MetroSports did a segment about it, a marketing student made t-shirts for it and Chambers sang the National Anthem at it. Players from across the city showed up to don purple and white #14 “#RIPTR” jerseys. Fans came, too, from East to Pembroke and Lee Summit to West. Even his English bulldog, Herman, came. On Dec. 8, the community came together on the UMKC soccer field for Tyler Rathbun.
And at the end of the Tyler Rathbun Memorial soccer game, the scoreboard read 14-14. It didn’t matter to the players or fans that the final game score was really 6-6 or that the teams weren’t seriously defending each other. The players didn’t complain that it was hard to mark each other due to the same number 14 on their backs. They weren’t playing to for stats or to score goals, but rather for the same common goal: to celebrate number 14 Tyler Rathbun’s life through his favorite game.
Tyler shattered Coach Jamie Kelly’s single-season scoring record by five goals. He made the varsity team as a freshman and had teammates across the city who admired his quick skill. But what Tyler’s friends, teammates and coaches will remember him most by isn’t just his talent.
“He’d show up [to the soccer field] with a smile on his face and leave with a smile on his face,” said his KCFC United soccer coach Garreth Hughes. “That was Tyler.”
It’s Tyler’s positivity and love for the game inspired the event in the first place. After Tyler passed away Nov. 25, his friend and teammate, senior Clint Dunn, immediately went to work organizing the memorial game. Dunn had been to a memorial soccer game for a teammate’s brother a few weeks before and figured it would be a “cool way to say goodbye.” He also saw it as an opportunity to raise money for Tyler’s memorial fund, which the family is in the process of building and collecting money for. The fund will help kids who can’t pay for premier soccer cover their expensive club team dues.
“One of our club teammates couldn’t pay for club the next year and Tyler was worried about it, saying, ‘I wish my family would pick up the tab,’” Dunn said. “So it kind of bred out of that as an idea for a scholarship.”
Dunn organized the event in just two weeks, complete with cheerleaders, a half-time show and t-shirts. The order of 400 “TR” t-shirts sold out the week leading up to the game, and more had to be ordered to be sold at the match.
The game was advertised through Facebook, Twitter and an interview with Dunn and Coach Kelly on Metro Sports. Classmates and coaches came together to make the game happen.
Dunn went through UMKC Associate Head Coach Fred Schlichting to have the game at UMKC’s Stanley H. Durwood Stadium. Schlichting was one of Tyler’s coaches.
“I knew [Tyler] was a top top player so I reeled him in,” Schlichting said. “We used to train out here at UMKC a lot so it’s really meaningful that they can come back and play here.”
Over 60 players that Tyler had played with came together to participate in the soccer game. The teams were organized into club players — Billy Goat FC, a team Tyler played for two years ago and KCFC United, a team Tyler had been playing for for the past two years — vs. the Lancer soccer team.
The players were more than happy to participate.
“I think after a tough two weeks to come out here and actually play and do it in his memory kinda sums everything up about Tyler,” Hughes said.
Billy Goat FC Coach Abdullah Parker, who coached both Tyler and his brother Alex, thought that the game was a good way to commemorate Tyler.
“A bunch of kids that usually ended up kicking each other are now playing together,” Parker said. “If nothing else this is showing everyone that this is one big community and one big family.”
A whole community did show up to support the Rathbuns — 800 people — despite the weather. Though the game conditions seemed less than ideal — cold and rainy — Tyler’s brother, Alex, found the weather to be a good thing.
“[Tyler] hated hot weather. He loved the cold so this is what he would’ve had,” Alex said.
Though the Lancers trailed the club team at half-time, they weren’t concerned about the score.
“I know the score is 3-0, but it’s because we haven’t played for four weeks and [the club team has] been playing every week,” senior soccer player Jack Shook said in a half-time interview. “But it’s just fun to be out here and remember Tyler and play for him.”
The half-time show was announced by Sports Pick’s Will Cray and Nick Kraske and put on by the Lancer Dancers and drum line. The woodshop class presented the Rathbun family with a finished table that Tyler started started building for his mom to sew on.
“[The woodshop class] and I all pitched in and did little pieces here and there,” woodshop teacher Shaban Scott said.
After the half, the club team took an even larger lead: 6-0. At that point, the club team let up on their offense and defense. Alex Rathbun, who played forward for the Lancer team in 2008, scored East’s first goal, much to the delight of the crowd. His goal went up on the scoreboard as six points, tying up the game. After a few more goals by both teams that counted for various amounts of points, the game ended in a ‘ty’ for Tyler, with 14 points for each team. The event accomplished its goal: it raised nearly $7,000 and gave the community an opportunity to come together and celebrate Tyler’s life.
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