A Father, Son, And The Legacy of Tuskegee Soccer

Written by Jayona Monique Dorsey
Writer, Creative Strategist, and Cultural Storyteller.
Hampton University, Class of 2027
Strategic Communications major, concentrating in Public Relations with a minor in Marketing.

Tuskegee University’s inaugural men’s and women’s soccer teams are making history, and one filmmaker documenting that beginning has a deeply personal stake in the story. Unveiling History: A Season with Tuskegee’s Inaugural Soccer Teams follows the programs as they build a tradition from the ground up, with filmmaker, soccer fan, HBCU alumnus and father Brian Egeston watching his freshman son, Zach, take the field.

For Brian, the story began long before he picked up a camera.

“I’m a third generational HBCU alum,” he said. “All I knew growing up was HBCUs.”

His paternal grandparents lived across the street from an HBCU, while his maternal grandparents lived up the street from one. HBCUs were not simply institutions he heard about or attended. They shaped his environment.

Today, that connection continues through his son. Zach, a freshman on Tuskegee’s inaugural men’s soccer team, is beginning his own HBCU journey. When he graduates, he will become a fourth-generation HBCU alumnus.

That makes Unveiling History about more than soccer. It is a story about inheritance, representation and what happens when one generation creates something for the next to carry.

Brian’s relationship with HBCUs was shaped by his time at Tennessee State University. He describes TSU as “everything” to him, crediting the university with helping him find himself, shaping his worldview and changing his understanding of success.

One lesson stayed with him: how to “make a way out of no way.”“We are survivors,” he said.

That perspective follows him into his work documenting Tuskegee.

When asked what “legacy” means to him, Brian pointed to the figures who helped define Tuskegee’s identity.

“I feel responsible for carrying on Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver,” he said. “Boldness. Philosophy. Ambition. Innovation. The Tuskegee Airmen.”

For Brian, Tuskegee’s legacy lives through those values and the people who embodied them. It is more than a collection of names in a history book. It must be protected, appreciated and continued.

Tuskegee students have historically helped build the institution they inherited. Brian sees the inaugural soccer teams doing something similar.

“They built the bricks,” he said. “Same as the soccer program.”

The men’s and women’s teams are starting from the beginning. There are no decades of Tuskegee soccer records or generations of former players to follow.

But that does not mean they have no history.

They are making it.

Brian’s role as filmmaker requires him to observe the athletes and capture their experiences honestly. But his role as a father and soccer fan makes it impossible for him to be completely removed from the story.

“As a filmmaker, my job is to be a fly on the wall and not get so into it,” he said. “Before I’m a filmmaker, I’m a soccer fan.”

He is not interested in simply documenting scores, practices or the events of a season.

“I’m not here to document the season. I’m here to tell the story.”

That story includes the students behind the jerseys: the families who sacrificed for them, the injuries, pressure, uncertainty, perseverance and desire to prove what they can do.

Through watching these players, Brian has found confirmation of something he already believed: “the future of American soccer is going to be incredible.”

“There is talent, hunger and perseverance. These athletes are putting in the work because they want to prove themselves.”

For Brian, documenting Black athletes and HBCU soccer also comes down to representation.

Most high-level soccer has historically been associated with international pathways. Brian wants Tuskegee to challenge that idea by showing what is possible within an HBCU environment.

That matters particularly in Tuskegee, where there is no organized youth soccer program.

“If they don’t see it, they don’t think it’s possible,” he said.

Seeing a Black athlete accomplish something once believed out of reach can change how a young person imagines the future. Brian describes it as the “Tiger Woods effect.” Witnessing someone do what you did not think was possible can make that possibility feel real.

That is why the inaugural Tuskegee players are carrying more than their own ambitions onto the field.

They are becoming proof.

A young person in Tuskegee may not have grown up seeing soccer as a realistic pathway. Now, they can look toward Tuskegee’s campus and see Black college athletes building something that did not exist before.

The players are not simply participating in history.

They are expanding what someone else can imagine.

Zach’s place in the story makes legacy even more personal for Brian. As a father, he hopes his son understands that playing for Tuskegee is about more than wearing the jersey or winning games.

“This is not just a soccer team,” Brian said.

“The players have a responsibility to serve as ambassadors for what they are building”.

The inaugural players will eventually graduate, but the program will remain. Those who follow will inherit the foundation they created, just as Zach and his teammates inherited a university with more than a century of history behind it.

Being first means becoming part of someone else’s future.

That is ultimately what Unveiling History captures.

Brian’s story began with grandparents who lived alongside HBCUs. It continued through his experience at Tennessee State. Now, it is being carried forward at Tuskegee through his son and an entire generation of student-athletes.

Legacy is not simply what is left behind.

It is what you choose to continue.

Years from now, another freshman may walk onto the field knowing the names of the players who came before them. Another student may watch a Tuskegee soccer match and see a future they had never considered.

That is the history Unveiling History is capturing.

For Brian, the hope is simple.

“I hope we made you proud.”

Because before there was a tradition, there had to be a first.

And now, Tuskegee’s inaugural soccer players have the opportunity to become the people future generations point back to and say: they started it.

For Legacy History Pride, that is the heart of the story.

History is what happened before us. Legacy is what we decide to carry forward. Pride is knowing we were here to witness it being built.