Ty DePaoli

Ty William DePaoli was born August 30, 2003 to Kelly Nichols and Chad DePaoli. He passed on May 13, 2025 surrounded by family, friends, and so much love, after a courageous four year journey with cancer.

From a young age Ty was an active kid. He preferred to be outside, swinging a bat, kicking or throwing a ball, jumping on the trampoline, or riding his bike. He attended O’Hara Catholic School through 8th grade, and Marist Catholic High School where he graduated in 2022. He created a wonderful group of friends during his school years who remained a source of joy, support, and strength for him throughout his life.

Ty had a lot of passions and lived life to the fullest! He loved sports, he started playing team sports at age four and continued through high school as he was able. He played on travel teams for basketball and baseball throughout elementary and middle school. In high school he surprised his family by quitting basketball and taking up soccer. After the football coach saw him kicking as a soccer goalie, he recruited Ty to be a kicker for the football team. This opened up a new world for Ty. He spent hours upon hours practicing his kicking, setting and achieving goals, and was named First Team All-State Kicker his junior year.

Ty was diagnosed with cancer at 17, the summer before his senior year, which meant playing football would not be an option. However, Ty was determined to suit up for senior night and kickoff the game. No one was surprised when he achieved this goal despite being in the middle of intense chemotherapy treatment.

On top of playing sports, Ty spent a lot of time watching them as well. He was a fan of the A’s, Warriors, Beavers and Ducks. He attended numerous A’s games during his life, one as recently as the week before he died. After graduation, Ty began coaching high school football, baseball and basketball. He loved working with the kickers especially, mentoring younger athletes. Although he was consistently in treatment most of the last few years while coaching, he continued to show up as much as possible and prioritize games and practices. He loved being a coach!

In the past few years, Ty added Formula 1 racing to his list of hobbies, and loved to gather his friends and head to Portland to go to K1 Speed together. He loved spending time with his friends, his family and extended family, and playing video games, reading, writing, and cooking. One of Ty’s favorite things to do was cook a good steak for his loved ones, and he was often found standing over the grill in the backyard doing just that.

His four year cancer journey was an inspiration to so many people. He faced cancer head on, believed it was his biggest teacher, and showed resilience every step of the way. Shortly after diagnosis, Ty got connected with the Sam Day Foundation in Portland, a non-profit organization that seeks to find better curative treatment for children and young adults with cancer. He did all he could to raise awareness of and support for this non-profit that was also such a huge support for him.

Ty’s faith was incredibly important to him. He was confirmed in the Catholic Church, he took his first communion and his last communion on May 13th, thirteen years apart. He regularly attended mass, and enjoyed going to the St. Peregrine Mass at The Grotto in Portland. His faith gave him tremendous comfort and peace.

His loved ones will remember his dry sense of humor, perfectly timed one-liners, his strong opinions on the sidelines, and most of all, his heart. Ty will be forever remembered and loved by his family and friends, including his parents, Chad DePaoli and Kelly Nichols, his bonus parents, Jodi DePaoli and Shawn Nichols, His brother Jason, and bonus siblings Adrianne, Jameson, Ashton and Carsyn, as well as grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and chosen family.

If you would like to do something in honor of Ty, he would want donations made to the Sam Day Foundation at samdayfoundation.org.

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