buckeyebob
08-03-2014, 08:16 AM
We are celebrating a new foot ball season, looking forward to the Friday Night Lights. This year, we are also remembering Dezmond Pollard. Dezmond was called home by the Lord in March...he must have needed a great Wide Receiver.
This appeared in the Longview New Journal today & I wanted to share with all:
By Hayden Henry hhenry@news-journal.com
GILMER — There are only a few days remaining before the Gilmer Buckeyes hit the field for the start of another season.
Anticipation is high in the small town, where football reigns supreme.
The fieldhouse is buzzing with coaches, players and staff as they prepare — going through the daily ins and outs as the summer winds down.
They move swiftly about, focused on the task at hand. There’s a sense of anxiousness as to be expected on the Wednesday before two-a-day practices begin.
With the concentration comes a somber presence.
It’s been five months since a tragedy turned the community of Gilmer and the Buckeyes on end. March 2 is a day they won’t ever forget.
Playing in a pickup basketball game one afternoon, surrounded by friends and teammates, Desmond Pollard fell to the ground. He did not get up.
“It was one of the worst days of my life,” Gilmer head coach Jeff Traylor said. “Since then, it’s almost been surreal. He’s a great person and a great player. He just had a beautiful smile.
“I’ve never been through anything like that before.”
The halls of the Buckeye fieldhouse are lined with numerous trophies and awards from past and present players and teams.
Pride is a common term seen around the building, and as the Buckeyes take to the field – a sanctuary of a place to scrape together any comfort that they can from such a tragedy — it’s the pride of honoring their friend and teammate that carry them forward.
“They’ve handed it as good as they can,” Traylor said. “They’ve been waiting for this year for a long time.
“We’ve all really worked hard to make sure that everything we do, we try to please Dez.”
They’ll begin their trek to a season dedicated to Desmond on Monday, carrying the mantra of DEZign8 — which means “to be chosen.”
It’s a team that was forever changed.
“We grew up a lot. Kids think they’re invincible, that they’re going to live forever,” Traylor said. “When one of their buddies dies doing something as natural as playing basketball, it’s pretty shocking to a kid, to an adult.
“They’re a lot more mature. It’s much easier to talk to them, to get their focus back because they know who we’re doing this for.”
The name Pollard has long been synonymous with Buckeye football. Desmond was the youngest of four brothers that have donned the black and orange, and he was poised to carry the name to new heights.
“He was the baby of four brothers that we’ve coached and we all worked on him tremendously,” Traylor said. “That light had just come on for him. He was so easy to work with, so easy to coach. He loved doing all the little things that great athletes don’t like to do.
“We had just had some great talks about the future.”
The pride felt at Buckeye Stadium spills out into the community – one that rallied around the family and the team.
In a town where football is king, family reigns even more supreme.
“We’re a close-knit community and football is pretty important to Gilmer,” Traylor said. “It rocked our community pretty good. Our funeral was fantastic. We raised over $11,000 for him and celebrated his life. It wasn’t just Gilmer — the East Texas Coaches Association and Coach (John) King were just fantastic. There were so many people that were just so great to us.
“I’ve never been more proud of my community and this area for how they rallied around us and the family.”
A life-size cutout stands front and center in the field house, a few mere feet from the college head shot of older brother Darrion at Rice University.
Around a corner, a wall of photos of Desmond show that smile, another shows him hauling in a catch, while another shows him goofing off with teammates. Each photo tells a story, a memory of a young man full of life.
It’s a wound that won’t heal and they don’t want it to. Each photo reminds the Buckeyes of why they’re doing what they’re doing.
As Traylor moves about the fieldhouse on what should have been just another Wednesday, he pauses at the collage. It’s not a moment of sadness. It’s a moment of remembrance and reflection — a brief reminder of why they press on.
“That smile,” he says with a smile of his own.
This appeared in the Longview New Journal today & I wanted to share with all:
By Hayden Henry hhenry@news-journal.com
GILMER — There are only a few days remaining before the Gilmer Buckeyes hit the field for the start of another season.
Anticipation is high in the small town, where football reigns supreme.
The fieldhouse is buzzing with coaches, players and staff as they prepare — going through the daily ins and outs as the summer winds down.
They move swiftly about, focused on the task at hand. There’s a sense of anxiousness as to be expected on the Wednesday before two-a-day practices begin.
With the concentration comes a somber presence.
It’s been five months since a tragedy turned the community of Gilmer and the Buckeyes on end. March 2 is a day they won’t ever forget.
Playing in a pickup basketball game one afternoon, surrounded by friends and teammates, Desmond Pollard fell to the ground. He did not get up.
“It was one of the worst days of my life,” Gilmer head coach Jeff Traylor said. “Since then, it’s almost been surreal. He’s a great person and a great player. He just had a beautiful smile.
“I’ve never been through anything like that before.”
The halls of the Buckeye fieldhouse are lined with numerous trophies and awards from past and present players and teams.
Pride is a common term seen around the building, and as the Buckeyes take to the field – a sanctuary of a place to scrape together any comfort that they can from such a tragedy — it’s the pride of honoring their friend and teammate that carry them forward.
“They’ve handed it as good as they can,” Traylor said. “They’ve been waiting for this year for a long time.
“We’ve all really worked hard to make sure that everything we do, we try to please Dez.”
They’ll begin their trek to a season dedicated to Desmond on Monday, carrying the mantra of DEZign8 — which means “to be chosen.”
It’s a team that was forever changed.
“We grew up a lot. Kids think they’re invincible, that they’re going to live forever,” Traylor said. “When one of their buddies dies doing something as natural as playing basketball, it’s pretty shocking to a kid, to an adult.
“They’re a lot more mature. It’s much easier to talk to them, to get their focus back because they know who we’re doing this for.”
The name Pollard has long been synonymous with Buckeye football. Desmond was the youngest of four brothers that have donned the black and orange, and he was poised to carry the name to new heights.
“He was the baby of four brothers that we’ve coached and we all worked on him tremendously,” Traylor said. “That light had just come on for him. He was so easy to work with, so easy to coach. He loved doing all the little things that great athletes don’t like to do.
“We had just had some great talks about the future.”
The pride felt at Buckeye Stadium spills out into the community – one that rallied around the family and the team.
In a town where football is king, family reigns even more supreme.
“We’re a close-knit community and football is pretty important to Gilmer,” Traylor said. “It rocked our community pretty good. Our funeral was fantastic. We raised over $11,000 for him and celebrated his life. It wasn’t just Gilmer — the East Texas Coaches Association and Coach (John) King were just fantastic. There were so many people that were just so great to us.
“I’ve never been more proud of my community and this area for how they rallied around us and the family.”
A life-size cutout stands front and center in the field house, a few mere feet from the college head shot of older brother Darrion at Rice University.
Around a corner, a wall of photos of Desmond show that smile, another shows him hauling in a catch, while another shows him goofing off with teammates. Each photo tells a story, a memory of a young man full of life.
It’s a wound that won’t heal and they don’t want it to. Each photo reminds the Buckeyes of why they’re doing what they’re doing.
As Traylor moves about the fieldhouse on what should have been just another Wednesday, he pauses at the collage. It’s not a moment of sadness. It’s a moment of remembrance and reflection — a brief reminder of why they press on.
“That smile,” he says with a smile of his own.