By Seth Herrold
Since coming to work at the Trenton Republican-Times, I have had the fortune of covering some very good sports teams. There was the state runner-up softball team in 2009, the state champion boys track team in 2008, two girls golf teams that placed fourth at the state tournament and a wrestling state champion. With all those successful teams and individuals, however, there is one team that I can hands down say was the most memorable team I have ever covered in my short career as a sports journalist. That team was the 2007 Trenton Bulldogs football team.
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That was a team a lot of people remember and they were the first wildly successful team I ever covered. I came to work at the Republican-Times in the spring of 2007. I came on board in time to catch the end of the spring sports season, but that fall was when I really first started covering high school sports solo. I had covered the Maryville High School girls basketball and soccer teams before in college, but this was different. For one, I was getting paid in dollar figures rather than credit hours. I was learning on the job and what better team could I have possibly been asked to cover than the 2007 Trenton Bulldogs. Coach Croy was really helpful to me as I covered his team and he only got mad at me one time all season, when he felt I was putting too much information from the scouting report in the Thursday football preview. That was an easy fix, though.
I have more memories from covering that team than from any other team I have ever covered. There was the De’Andre Vandevender run at the end of the Carrollton game that broke the single-game school rushing record, the hurricane game at Mid-Buchanan where lighting struck a light standard during the game, the quick-pitch play at Macon and the “blackout” game against Brookfield, where the Bulldogs basically claimed the district crown.
On the play at Macon I distinctly remember I was standing on the far end of the Trenton players on the sideline. I looked down the line of Bulldog reserves at the play beginning on the far end of the field. The ball was snapped and I looked down to see Vandevender bringing the ball around the end after it was pitched to him. I could barely see him because in front of him were the bodies of Kyle Hoyt and Ethan Tabbert. The first thing I thought was with those two in front of him he is gone. And that is exactly what happened. Tabbert and Hoyt dozed a trail and Vandevender sprinted down the sideline into the end zone for a touchdown that really broke open a close district game. To see that cast of players that made up that team come together and roll to 11-0 was really special.
Trenton broke a lot of records that year and made a memorable run into the state playoffs, one that took them and their fans over to Clark County and down to Jefferson City. Trenton didn’t win a state title that year, but it is still the most memorable season I have covered. I may never cover another team that can compare to that, but that is mostly because that was the first team I covered here.
I will be telling stories about that team for years. Stories will become legends and the 2007 Bulldogs football team will be remembered forever.