The Tennessee Tempo Football Club Academy—a not-for-profit competitive youth soccer club with a lineup of professional, licensed coaches, based in Murfreesboro—focuses on nurturing and challenging each athlete on and off the field.
In addition to operating the Academy, the Tennessee Tempo also fields a minor league soccer team, Tennessee Tempo FC (also based in Murfreesboro). The club competes in the United Premier Soccer League and the U.S. Open Cup.
The team serves as a platform for local and regional talent development and provides opportunities for players to continue to master their craft. Tennessee Tempo’s fifth soccer season is already off to an exciting start.
The Tempo posted a record of 3 wins, 1 draw and no losses throughout the first four games of its spring 2024 UPSL season, competing against the other teams in its division covering Kentucky and Tennessee, with games to continue this May.
Coming up, the Tempo will take on the FC Leopards out of Bowling Green on Saturday, May 4, and the Chattanooga United on Saturday, June 8, both of those matches taking place at Murfreesboro’s Siegel Stadium (515 Cherry Ln.).
The team also has a Saturday, May 18 contest against Southern Indiana set for the field at Friendship Christian School in Lebanon.
All of these games begin at 7 p.m.
Gift Ndam serves as the owner, general manager and head coach of the semi-pro team as well as the founder, executive director and academy coach for the youth club. Gift encourages anyone who is passionate about the game, wants to partner, play or sponsor, to reach out at gift@tennesseetempofc.com. There are many benefits to playing sports at a young age, he says, adding that he desires for the Tempo to promote “the pursuit of excellence.”
Tennessee Tempo FC Owner, General Manager and Head Coach Gift Ndam
“Tennessee Tempo FC is more than a soccer club; it’s a community,” Ndam said.
The Tempo Academy’s main goal is to build values in young players that will carry over into their futures.
Academy tryouts are just around the corner and online registration is open. Youth travel soccer tryouts (U6–U12) take place May 13, 14 and 16, with U13–U19 tryouts on May 28, 29 and 30.
Ndam brings a wealth of experience to the team, on and off the field. It was his idea to take the Tennessee Tempo Football Club (at that time known as the Beaman United FC), up to minor league status. When Gift puts his mind to something, he says he goes at it with his whole heart. His drive to bring his team to success seems matched only by two things: his devotion to God, and his desire to reach out to the community for Him through the game of soccer.
The club owner prides himself on assembling a talented team of coaches who are dedicated to serving the community and being examples for their families and the kids they coach.
As far as the UPSL squad, the athletes who play on it constitute quite a melting pot of athletes. Ndam says that there are 10 languages spoken on the team, with members hailing from 19 different countries. Their playing styles and the variety of backgrounds they bring to the team allow them to have an edge.
Ndam’s style encourages his team to hold the ball and build the game from the back.
“It’s unreal,” Ndam said, in a 2023 interview with Broadway Sports Media. “When it’s all said and done, we want to be able to look back and say we were a torchlight for people that didn’t think that something like this is possible for them.”
Ndam’s story begins in Nigeria. After experiencing Civil War, he and his family fled to a refugee camp in Benin. There, he and his friends played soccer with anything they could find to pass the time, including rocks. He loved the sport even then.
When his family came to the U.S. in the summer of 1999, they lived first in Memphis, then later in Nashville.
“ . . . [T]he environment was quite different from what we expected. Amidst moving between various government housing projects, I attended seven different high schools, which made the transition even more difficult,” Ndam said.
After attending Nashville State Community College, Ndam enrolled at Trevecca University, where he studied information technology. During his junior year, he became more involved in the school soccer team and soccer-based outreach ministries. It was at Trevecca where he met his wife (now of over 11 years), Brittany, and obtained Master of Business Administration, Master of Arts in Religion, and Bachelor of Applied Science in Information Technology degrees. He went on to receive a Master of Divinity from Nazarene Theological Seminary in Kansas City.
With an ongoing desire to keep living out God’s will for his life, Ndam turned his attention to creating a competitive team based out of the Middle Tennessee area. Thus was born Beaman United, which later became Tennessee Tempo FC.
“We joined the United Premier Soccer League with more than 400 teams around the country. The first season we made it all the way to the final four and lost in the national championship. The second season we made it to the sweet 16 and also qualified for the U.S Open Cup proper,” Ndam shared in a piece written for Trevecca. The team’s third season ended in the national tournament round of eight.
“God used soccer to play a pivotal role in transforming my life, and I believe that God will continue to use soccer through me to reach more and more people,” Ndam said.
For more information on Tennessee Tempo Football Club, upcoming game schedules or to try out, visit tennesseetempofc.com or tntempoacademy.com.
For more on the United Premier Soccer League, visit premier.upsl.com. Find tickets for Tennessee Tempo FC games in Murfreesboro at app.soccerstub.com/venues/4576.
