You May Never See Another Coach Like Wesley Wayne Croy

Seth Herrold
@HerroldTimes
In the fall of 2007 I sat across the desk from Trenton head football coach Wes Croy in his “office” – if that’s what you want to call the old weight shed west of the high school. In Croy’s hand was the scouting report for the upcoming game. For a moment he paused and his eyes peered over the report at the new sportswriter in town.
I wasn’t a calendar year removed from my last classes at Northwest Missouri State at this point.
For a handful of weeks, Croy had simply handed over his report for me to use for my weekly football preview. But something I had written in the previous preview had stuck with him. Slowly he turned through the pages. The cover sheet, Trenton’s probable starters, the opposing probable starters. When he got to the play sheets he stopped. He un-did the staple, removed a hearty chunk of the report and handed me the rest.
The previous sportswriter – Greg Dalrymple – now an assistant coach with the football team – would inform me days later that Croy felt like I was importing too much of the Trenton game plan into my preview.

:: R-T ::

Last week the Trenton R-9 School Board officially divvied up the retiring athletic director’s job. Croy formally turned in a letter of retirement back in January, signaling an impending end to a 15-year stay at his alma mater. His retirement becomes official on July 1.
I covered Croy’s football and track and field teams for seven years before he stepped away from coaching to take on the AD job at Trenton. I then routinely communicated with him in his new role for the next six years.
Over 13 years I interacted with Croy almost daily through the school years and off and on in the summers as well. I started out as a reporter he didn’t entirely trust and now consider him to be one of my very best friends. I don’t claim to know Croy better than anyone else, but I have plenty of stories. These are just a handful of my favorites.

:: R-T ::

The 2007 season ended with Trenton bowing out of the state playoffs in the quarterfinals at Blair Oaks. Trenton didn’t score until there was just 4:44 left in the game. The first touchdown cut Blair Oaks’ lead to 15-6.
Croy sent his offense out to go for two and when the Bulldogs didn’t get in, the game was basically over.
Croy was upset the following morning when I went to interview him. The somber Q and A came to a close, at least in my mind. But Croy asked if I was going to ask about going for two instead of kicking the extra point and trying for the two later. Trenton hadn’t gotten into the end zone again. I didn’t think it was a big factor I told him.
“It’s your job,” Croy said.
Even in the face of the toughest defeat of his career, Croy was there, trying to be accountable for his actions. I have always admired that about him.

:: R-T ::

The following year Croy was back in the state playoffs as a district runner-up after MSHSAA expanded the district format. Trenton played at Lawson, a district champion, in the first round. It might have been Croy’s finest coaching performance ever.
With the third quarter all but over, Trenton faced third and long with a furious wind at its back. Croy had his team punt on the third down to pin Lawson deep. It was a bold move in a tightly-contested playoff game, but it worked.
After scoring and getting a two-point conversion with over four minutes left in the game, Trenton led by seven points. But lightning struck and delayed the game. Coming out of the delay, Croy had his kicker kick a squib into the Lawson front line. The ball bounced around before Trenton ultimately retained possession and ran out the clock for another playoff victory.
“It wasn’t a designed onside kick, but it worked out that way,” Croy laughed afterwards.

:: R-T ::

In 2012, one of Croy’s old friends, Erik Coffey, joined the coaching staff. A few games into the season, one of the biggest changes noticeable was that the Bulldogs had a package of screen passes incorporated into their offense. Croy’s trademark ground game suddenly had a secondary attack.
“Man those screen passes are a nice little addition,” I told Croy.
“Yeah,” Croy said sounding a little disgruntled. “Coach Coffey brought those.”
“What’s the problem, They’re working,” I replied.
“I used to be able to fit all the plays I called on a note card,” Croy said. “With adding those screens, now I have to turn my note card over.”

:: R-T ::

During that 2012 season, Trenton traveled over three hours to get to Carthage, IL for a game at Illini West. The Bulldogs lost 48-0 and the bus got lost on the way home. It wasn’t Croy’s favorite road trip ever, to say the least.
While in Croy’s office getting quotes for my story the following Monday, I told him about my own perils from that trip. I rode to that game with my Dad and on a clover leaf exit I mentioned he might want to start slowing down. He took that as a challenge and maintained his speed around the hairpin.
“Seth,” Croy said when I finished my story, “I wish I had been in that truck with you… and I wish it would have crashed off the road.”
Fun fact about that game: Trenton’s only real chance to score came at the end of the first half. The Bulldogs had first and goal but got flagged twice, once for being offside and once for offensive pass interference.
As Trenton headed to the locker room down 32-0, Croy grabbed the officials.
“We’re pretty bad tonight, but I’m not sure we are the worst thing on this field.”
The second half opened with a 15-yard penalty on Trenton.

:: R-T ::

Croy hadn’t been in the athletic director’s position very long when I received a phone call from him on my way to work.
“Hey, can you come by the school before you go to work,” Croy asked. I’ve got something to tell you. You might want to do a story on it, I don’t know.”
So I get to the school and go into his office.
“Seth I got a call from Hamilton,” Croy said. “They asked if I would be their new football coach. I just really didn’t realize how much I was going to miss it, so I told them I would take it.”
Croy went on and on about wrestling with the decision and not knowing if it was the right move. He never once broke character. Finally he told me it was just the timing being right. No better time to make a big life decision than on April Fool’s Day.
Only then did his face morph into his trademark grin.
I was mad. I had a deadline that day and he had wasted all of this time. I stormed off to the office. I beat deadline and I got over it – eventually. I certainly laugh about it now.

:: R-T ::

About a year later Croy and I were standing in the gym. I was out there to do a story on some summer program or something and he had caught me and brought me in.
“Notice anything different,” he asked.
Well it was hard not to realize the old ISS room on the upper level of the stands had been removed. It was all open on the top shelf now.
Croy gushed about the open space, how he would put the band over in that corner now and open up more seating for fans. This is a guy who had ushered Trenton into the Grand River Conference after years of being an independent. There was a state championship banner hanging on the wall from the 2008 boys track and field team with his name on it. In that moment, though, you wouldn’t have thought either of those accomplishments meant as much as the mark he left on the upper stands in the gym.

:: R-T ::

At the sectional golf tournament in Chillicothe in 2018, Croy’s son, Lathan, was well on his way to the state tournament. There was a big gallery following Lathan, one that included myself, Wes and his mother, Bev Croy. With two holes left, Lathan stumbled, carding a triple bogey. That pushed his score to 75 with one hole left. It would take an implosion much larger than a triple bogey to keep him from going to the state tournament.
But, Wes turned to his mother and said “Well, that’s it.”
“What do you mean?” Bev replied.
“He just got a triple bogey,” Wes said. “That automatically disqualifies you from going to state. He doesn’t get to go now.”
Midway through the final hole, Bev expressed her sadness to Lathan’s mother and Wes’s wife, Jenni Croy. Jenni thankfully informed Lathan’s grandmother that Wes maybe wasn’t the best source for sectional golf rules.

:: R-T ::

This week’s recommendations are…
Read: Pendergast! by Lawrence Larsen and Nancy Hulston. I am a big fan of Kansas City history, so I really enjoyed this book. While it is based on one of the most nefarious characters in the city’s history, you don’t have to be a Kansas City fan to enjoy it. If you like the Gatsby-era organized crime genre, this biography is for you.
Watch: The Revenant. This is my favorite movie of all time and it’s not even close. Leonardo DiCaprio won his only Oscar for his portrayal of legendary trapper Hugh Glass. Tom Hardy’s John Fitzgerald is an all-time heel.
Eat: Brunch at Red Door Grill. Red Door Grill has been around for a while now, but only last fall did they open a location in Liberty, making the eatery more accessable to those of us living significantly north. It is fantastic, though. While they are open for multiple meals per day, my favorite there is brunch. Things are opening back up but that doesn’t mean you have to rush down there for a meal. This is a standing recommendation and honestly, the best brunch you will get there is on a Sunday when the Chiefs have a noon kickoff.