MELBOURNE, Fla. — Chelsea Price was standing in a sporting goods aisle with her phone out, scrolling for coupons on a pair of cleats she says she could not really afford. Her son Tiemayne Lawson needed them. The ones he had were hurting his feet.
A man walked over and asked what size Tiemayne wore. Then he started picking out cleats with him.
He introduced himself as Marcus. That was as far as he would go.
“Marcus was so humble, he shook my hand but would only introduce himself as Marcus,” Price told The Space Coast Rocket. “I kept asking him what he does and who is he and he just kept saying he’s just someone that enjoys helping out the kids in the community. Very modest and quiet.”
It was Marcus Maye. Melbourne native, Holy Trinity Episcopal Academy graduate, Florida Gator, and a second round pick of the New York Jets in the 2017 NFL Draft. Nine seasons in the league as a safety, more than 450 career tackles, most recently with the Los Angeles Chargers.
The jersey that started it
Tiemayne was wearing his Melbourne Bulldawgs jersey and pads that morning, number 50. Price says the only reason he had it on was so she would not have to pay to get him into a game earlier in the day. His own game was not until later.
She figures that green jersey is what caught Maye’s eye. Maye came up through the Bulldawgs himself before he ever put on a Holy Trinity uniform.
Tiemayne was not thinking about any of that. “He was just excited they were picking out the flashiest cleats,” Price said.
“This is why we are told to give even when we have little”
Price says they walked out of the store, and then she turned around and walked back in.
Money was tight that week, she says, because she had recently helped out someone else whose child needed something. She told Maye that, standing right there in the store, and she says she started crying while she said it.
“I started crying and telling him this is why we are told to give even when we have little, and Marcus had a huge smile on his face when I said that,” Price said. “I could tell that is why he does it.”
Her son walked out with cleats and a story he will be telling for the rest of his life.
“My son is ready to go beast mode in his cleats on his next game,” Price said. “Tiemayne is very gifted, and the way everything happened it was that push to Tiemayne to say here’s your blessing. Now make it big and pass on the blessing.”
Not a one off
Anyone who follows youth sports in Brevard County already knows this is how Maye operates.
He founded the Marcus Maye Foundation in 2019, built around supporting young people through education, athletics, and community involvement. The foundation says it has served more than 600 Brevard County student athletes since its founding, providing programs, support, and mentors, and reports having provided more than $85,000 in financial support to local charities and educational programming.
The best known piece of that work is Maye Day, the free youth football camp he brings home to Brevard every spring. The 2025 camp was the fifth annual, open to ages 5 to 14, held at Max K. Rhodes Park on Flanagan Avenue in West Melbourne. The sixth annual Maye Day took place this past May.
Kids spend the day working fundamentals with Maye and other pros he brings in with him, and it costs their families nothing. When the very first Maye Day was announced back in 2019, registration filled up within 30 minutes.
The foundation’s work does not stop when the whistle blows. It runs the Space Explorers program for local youth and has organized volunteers for the Liz Spivey Thanksgiving meal giveaway. In its earliest years the foundation deliberately pulled back from public events over the holidays in order to work directly with local organizations serving low income families and the homeless population in Brevard.
Melbourne kept him
Plenty of athletes come back to their hometown for a ribbon cutting and a photo. Fewer of them stay woven into it a decade into a pro career, when nobody is watching and there is no camera crew and the only witness is a mother with a coupon app open on her phone.
Maye would not even give Chelsea Price his last name.
She found out later, the way most of Brevard County finds things out, when somebody recognized the man in the photo.
Criminal Defense
Bankruptcy · Evictions
WICKS LAW P.A.
Call or text for
free consult
321-733-2700
Eric Wicks, Esq.
1250 West Eau Gallie Blvd. G
Melbourne, FL 32935
Abogado Wicks habla español
