'This can’t be real.’ Indiana high school football player Trevor Buckley dies day after varsity debut

RUSSIAVILLE, Ind. – On Saturday morning, as the Western High School football coaches met to decompress and plan ahead after Friday night’s season opening 28-14 loss to neighbor Kokomo, Trevor Buckley’s name came up in the discussion.

Buckley, a junior defensive lineman, had missed his entire sophomore year of football. He stayed home, attending school virtually in an effort to keep COVID-19 at arm’s length as his mother, Wilda Buckley, was going through chemotherapy treatments as she battled breast cancer.

On Friday night, Buckley played well in his varsity debut. It was noted by the coaches — and agreed upon — the 17-year-old junior was one of the team’s most effective defensive linemen.

“He was a guy at the coaches meeting when the staff talked that we said, ‘We need to get him on the field more,’” Western coach Alex Stewart said. “He was one of our best guys up front, even when we had gone to Decatur Central and scrimmaged. He had a big role on Friday, making four or five tackles. He held his ground. Then …”

Stewart voice trailed off as he added the words, “the unfortunate incident happened.” On Saturday at almost 5 p.m., just hours after that discussion about Buckley in the coaches' office at the school, deputies in Vigo County responded to a single-vehicle accident on State Road 42 near the Clay County (Indiana) line.

According to a release from Vigo County sheriff John Plasse, Buckley’s maroon Chevy pickup was traveling westbound when it left the northside of the highway. He overcorrected, causing the truck to roll into a ditch. Trevor, who was traveling alone and not wearing a seatbelt on his way from an afternoon of fishing to his father’s house, was ejected from the truck and pronounced dead at the scene.

Word of Buckley’s death filtered quickly to his friends and teammates Saturday night. “A gut punch,” junior teammate Mitchell Knepley said. Evan Stout dropped his phone when he received the news. Stout, a junior teammate and close friend of Buckley, had lined up alongside him on the defensive line Friday night. “That was the happiest he’s been in a long time,” Stout said. “Your first thought is, ‘This can’t be real.’”

On Saturday night and into Sunday, Stewart considered canceling this week’s game — the season’s first home game, against three-time defending state champion Western Boone. But Sunday afternoon, Western opened the school and allowed students to gather and speak with counselors, if needed.

Buckley, who wore his hair in a mullet, had a reputation as a tough kid with a kind heart. A few weeks ago, Stewart learned Buckley had partially torn his triceps. He went through therapy and was soon back and cleared to play. Not because he had to — because we wanted to be out there.

“He played Friday with a partially-torn triceps,” Stewart said. “He played football because he loved it. He loved being out there with the kids, competing.”

Any question about where that toughness came from — and whether or not Western should play this week — was answered Sunday during that gathering at the school. Stewart heard from his principal, Steve Edwards, that Wilda Buckley was planning to stop by.

Wilda, though, was not planning to “just” pass through. She wanted to talk to the team, many of whom had played on the same team with her son since the fourth grade. She wanted to tell them it was OK to move forward.

“I just felt like I need to be there to give them some strength and let them know it’s OK to have a moment,” Wilda said. “But that it’s also OK to get back up and keep going. Trevor and I were both strong Christians. I have zero doubt that my son is in heaven. I just felt that I needed to be there for them to show them that it’s OK to have those sad moments, but it’s OK to stay strong. That’s what Trevor would have wanted.”

Last September, Wilda received a clean scan after several chemotherapy treatments for her breast cancer. She told Trevor he could return to school in person and not worry about compromising her health. But Trevor declined.

“He was very much a good boy during that time,” Wilda said. “He took care of me and made sure I had what I needed. When I had my treatments on Friday, he was very attentive on the weekend. He was very caring, very giving about anything I needed.”

Trevor told his mom he preferred to do virtual learning over wearing a mask to school every day. But he told his friends something different. Two of his closest friends shared that with Wilda on Sunday.

“They told me that he told all of his friends that he was missing football and doing virtual school because he didn’t want to miss a moment with me in case something happened to me,” Wilda said. “He was just a phenomenal kid. Very giving, very loving. All of the kids that talk to me or message have said Trevor was their best friend. He was a genuine friend to everyone.”

Trevor was on his way to his father Tony’s home in Terre Haute, Indiana, on Saturday afternoon. They had plans to go to dinner and shoot pool that evening. Trevor had bought the Chevy truck in the spring and had been working on it with his father every weekend.

The night before, he was still pumped about the game when he got home. Western had lost the game, but Trevor had played well enough to know this was going to be a good season.

“He was excited,” Wilda said. “It was like normal. After the game, he got out of the shower and we had the normal routine of talking about the game.Then Saturday morning, he was excited because he was going to drive his car down and pick up the truck at his dad’s. Then he was driving home from his dad’s after fishing, and he’s here one minute and gone the next.”

Stewart, 33, knew there was “nothing magical” he could tell the kids to help with the grieving process. He knows that pain personally, losing his older brother, Adam, in 2010 at age 24. Stewart was a senior at Georgetown College at the time.

“Losing somebody you care about is tough,” Stewart said. “It’s going to hurt and it’s going to hurt for a while. We’re here for them and helping them through the grieving process. For some of them, this is the first person they have been close to that they have lost. A lot of them have known him since kindergarten and now he’s gone at 17.”

Practice Monday afternoon felt and looked like a normal football practice. Stewart jumped on a couple of players for talking too much and was agitated when an offensive play went awry. The normalcy of football practice was a welcome respite for the players and coaches. They credited Wilda for giving them the strength to press ahead.

“She is the strongest woman I’ve ever seen,” Stout said. “Talking to us to make sure we are OK before herself — obviously that motivated us to play and keep living his legacy and do what he wanted us to do.”

M.J. Norman, another junior defensive lineman, said he “could read on Trevor’s face” how much he enjoyed his first varsity game Friday night. In honor of his toughness, Stewart said the “toughest player” award each Friday night will wear Trevor’s No. 70 the following week at practice.

“His mom said she was going to be at every game and it will help her have some sense of normal,” Knepley said. “She likes coming to Western football games. If that helps her cope, then why not play?”

Wilda said she has no doubt that she will see her son again. But she also cherishes the extra time she was able to spend with him last year during the pandemic.

“The decision he made not to play football and not to do in-person school absolutely gave me more time with him,” Wilda said. “That is precious time that I needed and didn’t even know I was going to need.”

It was a selfless act by her son. His close friends knew that at the time. It became obvious to many more on Sunday when Wilda spoke to Trevor’s peers.

“Trevor was the kind of guy who would do anything for anybody,” Stout said. “Any time you needed something, you could call him and he would be there. He always looked at the bright side of life.”

Call Star reporter Kyle Neddenriep at (317) 444-6649.