'Broken so many ceilings': Jayden McGregory, Marissa Townsley rise from adversity for one goal

Pretty early on, Marissa Townsley knew her son was different.

She put him into organized athletics before he even enrolled in elementary school. She noticed her son, Jayden McGregory, processed sports much quicker than his peers. Now a mother to three, Townsley has prepared herself to let her oldest embark on his next journey.

Through McGregory’s youth, Townsley always saw her son with a leg up on other athletes. Three years younger than the competition, McGregory joined a local Iowa tackle football team in kindergarten. His high sports IQ boded well for the early opportunity, one he’s turned into his future.

McGregory, now a four-star football recruit in the Class of 2026, will announce his college commitment Monday, choosing between Louisville, Minnesota and Missouri on a date with a significant meaning to him and his mother.

“The significance behind the 7/7 date is the jersey number,” Townsley said. “He had to change numbers when he changed schools. Seven is a Godly number.”

For Townsley, she’s always been tightly connected to McGregory. She had him while in high school, navigating motherhood as a teenager with McGregory’s father not directly in the picture.

“There was a lot that came with being a teenage mother,” Townsley said. “We were going to face so much struggle and so much adversity, and together, he and I, we have broken so many ceilings. We’ve really set a tone for what athletes can be capable of here locally.”

Being a big brother

Townsley has raised all three of her children on her own, but McGregory has played his part in taking care of his brother, Amari (12), and sister, Mariah (9).

“Everything is a competition between the three of them,” Townsley said. “When they’re all three together, it’s like I have three 13 year olds, because they all become the same age.”

When enrolling in youth sports, Amari began with soccer and wrestling. He’s put both to the side, picking up basketball and football to follow in his brother’s footsteps.

“Amari will tell you that he doesn’t want to be like Jayden,” Townsley said. “He wants to be Jayden.”

While being a male role model to his brother, McGregory has also found father-like figures within his family. His uncle, Tee, provided that outlet throughout his upbringing, joining McGregory and Townsley for an official visit to Missouri in early June.

“I tell him all the time, ‘Family is not necessarily always by blood,'” Townsley said. “‘It’s really the people you love and the people that love you that can make up your family.'”

While accepting she may not make every college game, Townsley has still locked in her support for her oldest son. Yet through the changes coming in the next few months, she’s wanted McGregory to focus on this moment and let everything else take care of itself.

“I want him to live his life and not worry about a responsibility to take care of family back home,” Townsley said. “The best thing that Jayden can do — and what I encourage him to do — is go focus on school, focus on football, have fun and enjoy this moment.”

Recruitment

Townsley tried her hardest to get McGregory on visits to every school that offered her son. And she nearly did that, taking him to camps, games and practices for most of the schools on his list. Townsley, who has loved sharing every new antidote of the recruiting process with other parents, recognized she needed to not only listen to her son but also watch how he responded to interest from coaches and schools.

“You can’t just push them and keep them in something that they don’t truly love,” Townsley said. “Kids that grow up to be professional athletes love what they do.”

Townsley wanted her son to look at the big picture. She never felt nerves about giving him up for the next three or four years; she just wanted it to be the right place. McGregory always possessed the talent to be a Division-I athlete, but whenever his football career ends one day, he needed the best plan for himself.

“Taking advantage of that (free education) so that they can really explore their interest,” Townsley said. “And they can have great careers after football is over, no matter when that is.”

Multi-sport athlete

McGregory loved baseball. He lettered in varsity for the sport as an eighth grade, but as he approached high school, he recognized his future in basketball and football. McGregory wrapped up his final basketball season this past winter with a state title for Des Moines (Iowa) Valley, forgoing his senior campaign on the hardwood to enroll in college in January.

“He ended on the highest of high notes as first-team all-conference, first-team all-state, captain of the state tournament team, MVP of the whole entire tournament,” Townsley said. “It’s really when other people tell you how great your child is that you really believe and see that.”

McGregory finally let his first love go this summer. It marked his first offseason not playing on the AAU circuit, as he put his full focus into football. But when it came to claiming credit for her son’s athleticism, Townsley could only laugh.

“Absolutely not,” she said. “I’ll always say he gets it from me, because I’m the one that was in the gym shooting with him, late nights, early mornings.”

There were moments where seasons overlapped in Iowa. McGregory played multiple sports to stay active, and his mother prided herself in never missing a moment. Even in middle school, McGregory jumped in his mother’s car for 5 a.m. basketball practices before school started.

“I give it to him because he just never grew tired of it,” Townsley said. “With him just staying committed in his journey, as far as just doing something that he loved, it just made it easy for me to make the sacrifices to get him to those places.”