River Hill senior Scott Trench is what his wrestling coach Brandon Lauer calls "a throwback" - a high school athlete who excels not at one or even two sports, but three.
"It's hard to excel at the highest level nowadays in three different varsity sports," Lauer said. "But Scott brings a tremendous work ethic. You know you can rely on him to work hard, and that's why he succeeds in athletics and academics."
Trench, 18 with a 3.9 grade-point average, was the kicker and tight end for the Hawks' football team that won the state Class 2A championship; he wrestled in the 171-pound weight class and finished this season as the state runner-up; and now he heads into the lacrosse season where he is the Hawks faceoff man.
"He's a guy I'm going to talk to my teams about for years," Lauer said. "He waited his turn, paid his dues and succeeded by buying into the program and philosophy. He epitomizes the program, and he has no idea how proud I am of him and how rewarding it is to see the success he's had."
In his spare time Monday nights, Trench also mentors a group of ninth- and 10th-graders at St. Louis Parish in Clarksville, who are preparing for Confirmation into the church.
You play three sports. Do you have a favorite?
I can't answer that. I've been varsity for three years in football and wrestling, so there is a strong bond there with those guys. But I'm also the captain of the lacrosse team, and some of my best friends are on the lacrosse team, too, so I can't pick. I love doing all three sports.
Which one did you play first?
Growing up, I played soccer, basketball and baseball. I wanted to play football, but my parents wouldn't let me until I was in eighth grade. I played baseball in seventh grade and then switched to lacrosse in eighth grade. So, I had some recreation league experience in football and lacrosse before high school.
But basketball was my favorite, until I got cut my freshman year. When I was about 8, I went to a camp and there was wrestling there, and when I came home, my parents say I said, "I hate wrestling. I never want to do that again." But when I got cut from basketball, two of my best friends, Jesse Yu and Nathan White, said, "Come and wrestle. It will be a lot of fun." So I went with my friends, and I'm glad I saw it through. I didn't enjoy a large portion of my wrestling career. I don't want to say "didn't enjoy," but it was very tough on my body, very demanding, and I was losing a lot. It was very hard mentally and physically. But this year and at the end of the season, everything I did paid off, all the hard work I did. I won 10 matches in a row to get to the state finals. It was a great experience.
