Apollo-Ridge, Pitt grad Tre Tipton continues crusade for mental health awareness, has big plans for future

How are you doing?

The question is asked all the time, mostly casually. But Tre Tipton believes it is the most important question someone can ask.

Because, as Tipton knows all too well, no matter how happy someone looks on the outside, what is going on inside might not align.

Tipton’s story is well documented. A football standout at Apollo-Ridge, he earned a scholarship to play at Pitt. Three games into his freshman season (2015), he suffered a season-ending knee injury.

That started him spiraling into a deep depression. He attempted suicide on four occasions over the ensuing year. The fourth time, while standing on the Fort Duquesne Bridge, something told Tipton that it wasn’t his time.

Ever since, he has devoted himself to helping others out of those dark places.

His football career at Pitt continued to have its ups and downs. He suffered a collapsed lung after getting sandwiched between two Miami defenders in 2016, causing him to miss the final four games. He missed all of 2017 because of an offseason injury. After playing all of 2018, he again went down with a season-ending injury early in 2019.

But he kept coming back. He played all of 2020 and 2021, even getting the start in Pitt’s ACC title game against Wake Forest.

In the midst of it all, he got his degrees (undergrad in communications, master’s in social work). He started the Living Out Victoriously Everyday (LOVE) organization on Pitt’s campus so student-athletes would have a safe place to discuss their own mental health issues.

“We’re seen as super-human to a majority of people,” Tipton told TribLive. “But we’re still human. We still have emotions. We still have feelings. We still go through things that everybody goes through. We just play a sport at a high level.

“You just can’t forget about the human in the super-human that you watch. And that’s sometimes hard.”

On Sept. 10, Tipton was invited to Harrisburg by the Suicide Prevention Alliance to speak to a group of state politicians and others who are helping in the crusade for mental health awareness. During his 10-minute presentation, Tipton said those who suffer with mental health issues are not victims but warriors who must fight the battle together.

“It was special for me,” he said. “I was very excited to be able to do that, very thankful that God allowed me to do it. At first, I didn’t know if I’d be able to get there, but it figured itself out. … Was extremely blessed to do that.”

Additionally, Tipton has carried the mission of his LOVE foundation into one of his newest endeavors: coaching with the PA Goblins 7-on-7 football club. The team is for high school-age players, and it travels to various tournaments through its season, which runs from February through May and includes indoor and outdoor events.

He also will be working with Urban Impact, a faith-based organization in Pittsburgh that offers education, performing arts, athletics and other programs for youth. Tipton said it is important to make kids aware of the necessity to help each other.

“Focus on trying to be positive and helping one other person by simply smiling and asking if they’re OK,” he said. “It sometimes only takes that much, saying, ‘How was your day today?’

“We all lie about it and say it was fine or it was good. But you at least get to see what their body language says to you. If they tell you that they’re fine but they look upset, you know to reach back out. … Body language speaks louder than verbal. Just ask, ‘How are you doing?’ Just check in.”

Tipton has plenty of other plans on the horizon. In a short time, he will head to North Carolina for schooling to become a certified mental performance consultant. His goal is to be able to help athletes at all levels of sport.

Without getting into specifics, he said he also has plans to do something more far-reaching in the Pittsburgh area in the future.

And how is Tre Tipton doing? Tipton calls himself “very blessed” and looks forward to what lies ahead. Just because a person is going through something, he said, it doesn’t have to be defeating.

“Adversity in life is a comma in the sentence of life. It’s not a period,” he said. “You don’t stop fighting. You just have to really motivate people to believe that although what they’re going through is very serious and although what they’re going through is very valid, you still have to remind yourself that you can get through it. There’s nothing God can’t bring you through.”