Gay pro beach volleyball players get engaged four years after being teammates
Kyle Friend and Tim Brewster fell in love as beach volleyball teammates. They are now engaged after a beautiful proposal in Maine.
Mark
A visit to the Portland Head Light lighthouse in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, was on the agenda for Tim Brewster and Kyle Friend during their New England trip last weekend, but Brewster tried to postpone the visit for a day because it was raining. Friend, though, was insistent and it made for a moment they will never forget.
With the lighthouse along Maine’s rugged coast in the background and the rain having stopped, Friend got on one knee and asked Brewster to marry him. He said yes. It capped eight months of planning by Friend for the big proposal.
“Kyle popped the question and had our rings made,” Brewster told Outsports. “He put a lot of planning into it. He hired a photographer who secretly captured the photos and planned out exactly where the proposal would take place.”
The proposal capped a four-year long relationship that began with them as friends and later beach volleyball teammates, and wound up with the two of them dating after an event in Australia. Brewster, 26, is still active on the beach tour while Friend, 37, has retired and is now a volleyball commentator. Friend had been an out gay player on the tour since 2013 and his openness inspired Brewster in his coming out journey.
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“Seeing an example of someone who is out and confident and able to do volleyball, I’d never been around that,” Brewster said on a podcast in 2024.
I asked Brewster if he had reflected on what his engagement can mean to LGBTQ people and he was modest in his reply.
“If I’m being completely honest, I do not think of myself as a big enough athlete or individual to be able to have that kind of impact,” he said. “I really do try every day to just live my life as authentically as possible. But if there is an athlete out there who sees our engagement and finds inspiration or hope, then I think that is really special.
“I am lucky enough to play a sport that is incredibly gay-friendly with a large number of gay athletes out there competing. However, I know not everyone else is that fortunate and I do really believe that representation in sports matters. So, if someone sees this and finds some hope, then that is awesome.”
A wedding date has not been set, but Brewster said it will likely be in the fall of 2028. “I will be starting the Olympic qualification cycle for LA28 starting in December and Kyle’s commentary schedule is going to be jam packed for the next two years,” he said.
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