Near the end of an important match against Indy Eleven earlier this season, Memphis 901 FC head coach Ben Pirmann quickly motioned to his bench. Up trotted a player with a jersey bearing the number 17, readying himself for a tough battle before the final whistle blew.
There were no nerves or jitters in the young silhouette, just cool composure and confidence. For seasoned pros, a late-game substitution might feel routine. But for 19-year-old 901 FC academy player Tycho Collins, that substitution marked the beginning of a budding professional soccer career.
During the summer, Memphis officially unveiled Collins as the franchise’s first-ever academy signing. The player had spent the entire preseason with the squad, and signed a contract with the team in May. As an academy player, he’s able to gain experience at the professional level, all while maintaining college eligibility should he choose to pursue that path.
At the time, sporting director Tim Howard said the signing highlighted the club’s intent to create a professional pathway for local talent. And despite joining a high-level team at such a young age, Collins has stayed grounded. “The experience has been great,” he says. “I’m just focused on this season, trying to do my best in training and improving as much as I can.”
The work that Collins has shown in practice alongside fellow academy players Max Talley, Matt Brucker, and Simeon Betapudi has impressed Pirmann. “They’re taking major steps forward,” he says. “There are some natural physical limitations at first, but so far they’ve been excellent and are really pushing the group.”
While a jump from youth to professional leagues can be tough for some athletes, Collins has been challenging himself all his life. Born in Shanghai, he started kicking a ball when he was 5 years old. With readily apparent skills, he joined up with academy squads for two of the city’s biggest club teams, Shanghai SIPG [now Shanghai Port F.C.] and Shanghai Shenhua. But a move to Memphis in middle school saw him take his talents to Houston Middle School in Germantown. “It wasn’t a hard adjustment,” says Collins. “My dad’s American, so I already spoke English.”
That adaptability served him well as he continued to explore opportunities both at home and abroad, training with teams overseas in England, the Netherlands, and back in China. One of his fondest memories is of a two-week trial with Chelsea, one of the English Premier League’s foremost clubs. “I spent two weeks there training with the U-16 team,” he recalls. “I actually got to train with Callum Hudson-Odoi [now one of Chelsea’s first-team players]. I knew it was going to be tough since I didn’t have European citizenship, but I embraced each of the experiences. It’s important to go out there, give everything you have, and be willing to learn.”
Before his current stop in Memphis, Collins graduated from high school in Boca Raton, Florida, before a six-month stint with the youth team for Major League Soccer’s Houston Dynamo. The pandemic in March 2020 meant that Houston had to shutter its academy team, but that gave Collins a chance to regroup and come back to his first American hometown.
So far, his time in Bluff City has been fruitful. His teammates have been welcoming, and he’s had a chance to work closely with coaches Pirmann and Devin Rensing. “Everyone’s really friendly, but they push you to become better, too,” he says. “Roland Lamah and Leston Paul especially, they’ll pull you aside in training and tell you specific things they see that you should work on, and how you can improve as a player.”
And Collins is clearly listening to all the feedback, enough so that Pirmann decided the teenager was ready to take to the pitch during the end of a tight away game against Indy Eleven on June 5th. For the time he was on the field, Memphis held a slender 2-1 lead over its rivals. Indy cranked up the pressure, its fans screaming, flares going off from the stands, and brightly colored smoke billowing onto the field and obscuring everyone’s vision around Memphis’ goal. Not the most welcoming environment, but Collins got right to work. “I want to say I was nervous,” he laughs, “but I was just ready to go. It was a crazy feeling. It was my dream come true. When you step out there, the fans are cheering, yelling. It was near the end of the game, everything on the line, and it was amazing.”
With plenty ahead of him, Collins is still putting the work first. When talking about one of his favorite players, Cristiano Ronaldo, he focuses on more than just style of play. “It’s his mindset and his mentality, how he approaches training and games,” he says. “Everything he does is focused on how he can improve. He always wants to win.”
The first professional appearance is just the start, but that firm mentality will be key going forward. There are hurdles aplenty for young players, but Collins is taking them one at a time. “I’m not sure what the future holds, but I’m focused on this season, doing my best, and getting better all the time.”