Helping Veterans, Facing Bears, Teaching Rugby Skills
Helping Veterans, Facing Bears, Teaching Rugby Skills
It has been a very interesting few days for West Point rugby player and former Pendleton HS team captain Nick Trout.
At GRR we were all set to write one story about him when things got even more interesting. So ...
Story #1
Trout has some time back home in Indiana and decided to host a skills clinic. The twist was that his plan was to charge just $5 and put all the income to support Honor Flight.
The Honor Flight Network (honorflight.org) provides flights for veterans to Washington DC for them to honor their fallen comrades at the nation's memorials. This is a hugely important service for the veterans, who can often find a moment of healing and recovery through the visits, even if it's something as straightforward as finding a buddy's name on, for example, the Vietnam War Memorial.
"It's just such a great cause and it's something I can do to help lift up veterans," said the rising second-year at West Point. "I have some time back home before going back to West Point so I wanted to give something back to Pendleton Rugby, which has been such a big part of my life."
The Skills Nights are open to all levels and Trout has held two so far, on June 10 and June 12. He is running more sessions on June 17 and 19, and in July on the 15th, 17th, 22nd, and 24th. Players work on passing, catching, movement, and decision-making over a 90-minute session at the Pendleton (Ind.) sports complex.
"We had a blast," said the former Pendleton captain and flyhalf. "When we finished the first session and the players clapped everyone off it was super cool."
Story #2
Not to be outdone, Trout got into the local news thanks to ... a bear breaking into his car. No, seriously. Several former Pendleton Heights HS students were getting ready for a trip out to the wilderness. They all heard a car honking through the night. turns out, it was Trout's car.
A bear had broken into the car and was in the process of tearing it up. The bear was potentially upset because it was a mother and the mother's cub was hiding up in a tree. The bear had found a way in, but the door had shut and the bear didn't know how to open the door again!
So Trout girded himself and ran out to his car, quick opened one of the doors, and ran back to the cabin where all the friends were. The bear stayed in the car for a bit and then finally walked away to get her cup.
The interior of the car was a mess. As Trout told IndyStar.com (full story here), "My first thought was I felt terrible about the car because it's my mom's car."
Mom saw the humor in it all.
But mama bear was clearly a bit upset that she couldn't get back to her cub. Fortunately, it all ended with no one hurt.
