World Cup: How USMNT captain Tyler Adams was shaped by his time in high school

WAPPINGERS FALLS, NY – At Roy C. Ketcham High School you feel the love for Tyler Adams.

A trophy case at the gym displays his Red Bulls jersey. The principal has an autographed photo of Adams’ graduation in his office.

The midfielder’s dad even greets me in a Leeds United hoodie on the day I visit the school.

At just 23, Adams has captained the USMNT in a World Cup, with Friday’s massive clash vs. England is approaching.

His ascent was striking to those who knew him during adolescence.

“I still get dizzy watching Tyler play,” said Matthew Paino, a friend of the Adams family and also a teacher in the history department.

‘I’m intimidated because here’s a boy I saw walking the corridors of Ketcham eating chicken nuggets from a cafeteria, and now he’s playing against Liverpool on TV? I try to watch all his games and it’s surreal.”

“He’s Tyler,” adds director David Seipp. “He doesn’t want to be above everyone, he just wants to be him. It’s incredible, it’s surreal…because he’s homegrown and he’s this globally famous person.”

While Adams’ graduation from Ketcham five years ago may seem like a lifetime away, that time has only served to grow his reputation in Dutchess County.

Now that the midfielder has taken off in the world of football, his connection with Ketcham feels even more important.

“Everyone comes and asks ‘how is he? What’s going on?'” his father Darryl Sullivan said. “It’s just a big part of everyone’s life.”

(Note: Sullivan is Adams’ stepfather, but he calls him his father and his three sons his brothers. His biological father is not in his life.)

Adams’ high school experience required sacrifice – and not just from him.

From the age of 16, Adams balanced a professional football career with his schoolwork as he was first signed to Red Bulls II at that age.

Straddling those two worlds was a task that required a collective effort.

Teachers worked with Adams—who attended two or three morning classes before going to practice—to keep him up to date with classes.

His parents regularly drove him the 75 miles to the Red Bulls practice facility in New Jersey, even after he started playing with the Red Bulls first team.

“I was exhausted,” Sullivan said.

And Adams himself had to catch up on quite a bit of school work outside the classroom as he was somehow able to focus on his studies while emerging as a Red Bulls mainstay.

“Everyone was great, I don’t know if Tyler would have graduated otherwise,” his mother Melissa Russo said with a laugh.

“Because they really put in as much effort as Tyler did to make sure he got all the stuff he needed for testing and all that stuff.”

Adams had a good group of friends, did his homework, and visited Smoothie King and Chipotle with his brothers.

But most kids don’t have “National Honor Society” and “MLS starter” on their resumes at the same time.

“I’m sure he didn’t feel like a real high school kid,” said Paino, who also taught Adams.

“But I know that at least in our department… [we] tried to make it a traditional setting for him as much as possible.’

However, Adams’ unorthodox high school experience brought some positives.

While he may have missed the chance to socialize during Ketcham football games, his growing football career took him all over the world as he traveled with the USA U-17 national team.

“He’s had a pretty good time. And I remind him of that,” Sullivan said.

“He had times when he wasn’t in school when everyone else was in school, and he was everywhere he was. He was in Florida, sitting on a beach…”

When he returned to the quiet surroundings of Wappinger Falls, some of life’s more monotonous moments awaited him.

According to his mother, that balance was key.

‘He still had real life. He still had business at home, he still had to keep his room clean,” she said.

‘It’s not like he… lived on his own. He still lived at home, he still had rules here. So I think all of that definitely put things in perspective for him.”

It wasn’t just Adams’ family life that kept him grounded.

Although he is now a favorite son of Ketcham, there was no preferential treatment in the hallways during his teenage years.

As his football career progressed, he was even denied a place on the varsity basketball team – by his family friend (and former varsity coach) Paino, no less.

With Adams spending time in Bradenton, Florida for the U-17 residency program at IMG Academy, Paino doubted he was worthy of a varsity spot due to his limited availability.

Adams starred in JV instead, and Paino later apologized for the decision, with the unassuming teen downplaying the situation.

The prodigious talent was also kept in check by the Red Bulls.

Tyler’s parents wanted him to come home and see prom, and that last event brought his now two-time head coach a price to pay.

“He had to ask Jesse Marsch to leave training early so he could go to prom,” Sullivan said of his son’s current Leeds United boss.

“It was hysterical. And Jesse had him ask in front of the whole team, and they all laughed.”

If that incident may have made him red in the face, it is representative of the humility he still carries today.

Adams takes time out of his hectic schedule to face suspended students via FaceTime (Sullivan manages the school’s suspension system) and speaks words of encouragement to them while they’re in trouble. It is a way for him to give back to the place that helped his current career in football.

Family has also remained extremely important. Minutes after Leeds’ massive 2-1 win against Liverpool in October, Sullivan said, Adams was texting his younger brother Dylan about alleged plans for their parents to meet his girlfriend that night.

However, that kind of attention goes beyond blood ties.

Paino told a story of his former college roommate — also a Ketcham alum — who traveled to Columbus, Ohio with his sons to attend a USMNT World Cup qualifier, with a homemade Adams sign in tow.

They were just looking for a gesture from the midfielder, who had been informed of their presence by Paino in advance. He gave them handshakes and his captain’s armband instead.

“I don’t know anyone who meets him who says, ‘Oh, he didn’t want his picture taken with me or he wouldn’t sign anything or he didn’t have time for me,'” Russo said.

“Those are the qualities I want to see. I honestly don’t care about his success rate on the field. I want him to go out and have a great time and love what he does. But those other things people say to me… those are the things that are important to me as a mother.”

Adams’ parents will be at Al Bayt Stadium on Friday to watch their son play against England following the 1-1 draw of the USMNT vs. Wales.

It’s a huge game – only his second ever in the World Cup – and yet his parents didn’t seem all that nervous for a young man who’s only five years away from graduating from high school.

“You know it’s a little crazy to say, but I’m kind of getting used to it, it’s weird,” his father said.

“Busy — I’m not even using that vocabulary for Tyler to be honest with you. I think he loves that, he wants that.’

It won’t be the first big game he plays in.

There has been a trip to Anfield, a Champions League semi-final (with RB Leipzig) and fights against Mexico for his country, among others.

However, Adams is not far from his teenage years in Ketcham, when his parents waited in the Red Bulls car park to pick him up from training.

As he prepares for what should be a physical test against England, one of his mother’s lessons from then seems appropriate for the present.

“I’ve always said speak your mind, stand up for yourself, don’t let anyone take advantage of you,” his mother said.

That was my parenting style. Do what’s right, but don’t get carried away.’