By Tabitha Evans Moore, EDITOR & PUBLISHER

It’s Sunday afternoon and Gary and Maryam Eady sit under the Lynchburg Gazebo as gentle yet persistent rain falls all around. They each proudly wear coordinating but not matching t-shirts boasting their collective aha moment, the 4EO Community Center. It’s a project they plan to build just right up the road in Murfreesboro – a dream over 20 years in the making.

If you look closely, you can still spot the wide-eyed enthusiasm and curiosity of the young Gary that moved here in the early 80’s. Now grounded by the wisdom and partnership of Maryam, you sense he’s on a mission.

4EO stands for “For Each Other” and community building is the glue that holds the whole thing together. It’s a space meant to empower every single person who walks through the door with both athletic training, life skills education, and connections. The architectural rendering may show basketball courts, a turf area, a walking track, nutritional area, and meeting spaces, but what they are really up to is cultivating a resource of hope, unity, and collaboration using their shared history and experiences.

Mutual backgrounds of adversity

Gary and Maryam both say they come from backgrounds of adversity.

Gary moved from public assistance housing in Fayetteville to Lynchburg when he was in the fourth grade after his mother’s unexpected death. He says despite the fact that the two communities sit less than 15 miles apart, at the time, they felt like completely different worlds.

In Fayetteville, asphalt, sidewalks, and other people surrounded him daily. Once he arrived in Lynchburg, that transformed into dirt roads and farm animals

“I was an African-American kid from the projects who moved to Buckeye Road in Lynchburg. It was a bit of culture shock for a nine-year-old,” he says.

Maryam, who is Persian, arrived in Middle Tennessee from Iran by way of Indiana and then Chattanooga. She explains her family came to America to seek cancer treatment for her brother, and then decided to stay in order to escape the oppressive regime of Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini.

“We are one of those illegal immigrants that bought into the American story and are now living the American dream,” she says. “Trying to live the Persian culture within the U.S. is super hard, but my dad wanted to get us away from the regime that really put women down and where my brothers would be forced to serve in the military for a regime we didn’t support.”

The couple met while attending Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro.

Hard work and basketball

For Gary, the idea started with an abandoned basketball sitting in a neighbor’s driveway not long after he relocated to Lynchburg as a child.

“There was the goal hung on a telephone pole, and a basketball sitting over in the grass. So, of course, I couldn’t resist. I walked over and started shooting. That’s when this guy came out and introduced himself to me. His name was Stanley Fanning, and he told me I could come play basketball at his house anytime I wanted.”

It was a moment that changed everything for Gary. Everyday after he finished his chores, he’d head over to the Fannings to shoot hoops. Then one day, after a rain, he walked over and the ball wasn’t in its usual spot.

“I was just like, you know, heartbroken,” Gary said.

Gary says that’s when Stanley came out to explain that he’d taken the ball inside because of the rain.

“He showed me where it was in the laundry room and told me that the door would be unlocked and that I could always come inside to get it,” Gary says. “So this went on for a couple of months. Finally, it got to a point where I’m looking forward to seeing this guy everyday like he’s my best friend. He eventually taught me about farming. I learned how to care for animals, haul hay, and cut tobacco. He taught me that hard work pays off.”

When he turned 12, Gary’s family moved from Buckeye Road to the Tims Ford area and he lost daily contact with Fanning but the impression of hard work and basketball remained.

He launched a basketball career in junior high, but he wasn’t an instant success. He failed to make the team his seventh grade season and rode the bench much of his eighth grade season, but he kept showing up. Gary says varsity coach Billy Mooney saw something in him and gave him a chance. He worked hard and eventually became a stand out on the varsity Moore County Raiders team. After high school graduation, he moved on to play with the Motlow Bucks.

Raising expectations and balancing inequities

Both Maryam and Gary say they know what it’s like to feel like outsiders and have to fight for opportunities. That’s why their big idea focuses on inclusivity and building a toolkit.

The couple first learned about youth basketball as parents when Gary’s oldest son Jalen was just seven year old. That’s when Gary began volunteering his time as a coach in the Smyrna Rec League. When their son, Garrison, showed an interest in playing in elementary school several years later, the couple noticed that the entire basketball landscape had changed.

It no longer felt like enough to just play at school. Grassroots circuit leagues like AAU as well as major shoe circuits like Nike Elite Youth Basketball were everywhere.

“When Garrison was in the first grade, he played in YMCA Youth Basketball. Our team made it to the championship game, and based on the number of people in that gym, you would have thought that it was a New York Knicks game,” Gary says.

“And these kids are little,” Maryam adds. “We’re playing half court basketball and the whole gym is packed. The whole gym is cheering like it’s the high school state tournament.”

“And that’s when I knew, hey, this game has changed,” Gary says. “And if you’re not willing to change with the game, you’re going to be left behind.”

Gary says that’s when he discovered the Nashville Youth Basketball Association (NYBA), a more advanced year round basketball program, and wanted to get his younger players involved. He managed to piece together a team of 10 players named Tenn Deep – three kindergarteners and seven first graders – and compete every Sunday. He focused on the fundamentals and a growth mindset and things started happening.

“Every Sunday, we would go in, and win games. They’d put different kids on a team trying to compete against us, and they couldn’t do it,” Gary says.

When I ask if these were athletically gifted kids or special in some other way, Gary responds with a resounding, “no.”

“We just raised the bar for them, and with the support of their parents, they rose to the occasion. We believed they could win and so they did.”

“That’s how kids work, right?” Maryam adds. “I think we underestimate our children and therefore we set our expectations too low. That’s the concept behind the community center, it’s basically taking that belief structure and expanding it so it can touch more lives. We’ve seen what you can do with 10 kids and now we’d like to see what it can do with 100 or 1,000.”

Years later, grassroot league play led them to the NCAA U.S. Open Basketball Champions and the world of shoe circuit play. The Eadys took their now team full of 16-year-olds to the Hoopseen Atlanta Jam, and won. As the tournament director ushered them into the hallway for a picture, he explained that they’d just won the first US Open Basketball qualifier of the season.

“He explained that there were 23 of these happening all around the United States and invited us to bring 10 players and one parent chaperone per player to an all expenses paid trip to play basketball,” Gary explains.

“It was a week-long event and when we walked in, I spotted coaches like John Calipari, Juwan Howard, and Tom Izzo. These are Power Five college coaches,” Gary says. “That’s when I realized, oh, this is huge. Now, it’s really starting to settle that, oh, by the way, we’re playing against the top 300 kids in the country. There were multiple seven foot tall kids there.”

And it didn’t go well. Gary, Maryam, and their team didn’t win any games, but they did leave with an understanding that “there are levels to this whole basketball game.”

“Nike has the EYBL. Adidas supports the 3SSB. Under Armour promotes UAA. Sports tourism is a $52 billion business. It’s so crazy.”

It’s also when the couple’s eyes were opened to the inequities of that game.

A community center that creates a ripple effect

It’s that gap and those inequities that eventually nudged Gary and Maryam into the idea of building an indoor, mixed-use facility.

“It really was weighing heavy on our hearts that our purpose, the reason we’re here on this earth, is to do more and more and more of that,” Maryam says. “And there’s lots of kids in not just the Rutherford County community, but all the surrounding areas who need help to achieve their highest potential.”

If you drew a Venn Diagram of his pay-it-forward, sports mindset and her need to face off with injustice, you’d arrive at the menu of facilities and services they plan to offer.

“On any given day, we might offer pickleball courts to third shift workers, or the walking track for seniors. Homeschool kids can come here and get their PE hours. There’s going to be a nutritional area with tables where seniors can gather and sip coffee while waiting for wellness training. Then there will be afterschool programs. We also want to introduce younger kids to all kinds of sports that they might not get exposed to otherwise.”

The 4EO Community Center will feature eight basketball courts that can expand into 16 volleyball/pickleball courts. Maryam says this is because gym space is so hard to come by in Rutherford and the surrounding counties for league play.

“Getting one gym for a one hour practice once a week is really challenging,” she says. “The schools are locked down with extracurricular activities like wrestling, band, and other sports. You can organize all you want, but these kids need a physical structure that is safe, clean, and available.”

For kids looking to improve their game as a pathway to college, there will be a turf area for skills and agility training as well as a shooting lab and Vertimax lab.

Gary and Maryam say getting them there is half the battle, but once they are in the building the 4EO plans to offer a plethora of options for kids who want to improve their lives.

“Not every kid can make the middle school and high school team. Not every kid wants to go to college,” Gary says. “We want the center to be a space where kids can do ACT prep, take life skills development courses, get workforce development training, or get them prepared for vocational training. This is the larger community piece and where folks can get involved.”

In particular, Gary says he’d like to build a community of retired citizens that have an interest in connecting with youth and helping them navigate their paths.

“A lot of our seniors don’t get the opportunity and the enjoyment of interacting with the youth anymore, and that’s what keeps you young,” Maryam adds. “Not every kid has grandparents nearby, but still crave that connection.”

Maryam says they’ll also offer meeting spaces for local sports trainers who often have a hard time cobbling together a spot to coach and train young kids.

But the impact Gary and Maryam plan to have isn’t just energetic. They’re also looking to make an economic impact that could ripple as far as Lynchburg by hosting basketball and volleyball tournaments for teams from all over the U.S. They also say that helping kids get trained for their futures will lead to a stronger workforce in Rutherford County and beyond.

As is usually the case, big dreams often come with a big price tag, and the 4EO Community Center is no different. Along with their Advisory Board, Gary and Maryam are currently attempting to raise the initial $50,000 they need to move this project forward. That money will be used for data review, market analysis, an economic impact study, architectural design, and the financial forecast (Pro Forma) they need to get things going with city and local officials.

After that the bullseye increases to $50 million, which will be used to buy land and pay for the construction as well as fund the first year of operational costs. They’re currently working with Rutherford County officials on land acquisition prospects.

They’ve also pieced together an advisory board of true believers that includes their pastor, Jason Scales of Believers Faith Fellowship, as well as grant writer Anthony Tate, fundraiser Sherry McGaffey, County Commissioner Romel McMurray, volleyball advisor Felicia Brown, MTSU Department of Behavioral and Science Health professor Michael Hein, and the Boro Business Lab’s Jeremy Lee.

At the end of the day, both Maryam and Gary say faith is what continues to move them forward.

“Our belief is greater than our doubt,” Maryam says.

They say the vision is to create a transformative space in which every athlete, every person can walk out the doors better, more uplifted than they were when they walked in. And that’s a legacy worth leaving.

To learn more about the 4EO Community Center, check out their website and like their Facebook page for constant updates. You can support Gary and Maryam by clicking here to donate. •

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