Center Grove’s football team has found itself depending on the skills of sophomore punter P.J. Buck 40 times this season.
Buck, in turn, has depended on football.
Performing such an important task for one of the state’s elite programs — the defending Class 6A state champions who are making their sixth straight semistate appearance Friday night — is a enough of a challenge for a 15-year-old.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]
Click here to purchase photos from this galleryBuck does so with a purpose and enthusiasm that has its roots in the worst moments of his life.
Life as Buck had come to know it ceased to exist in the early morning hours of July 24, 2015.
Buck learned his mother, Jill, and two younger brothers, Branson and Aidan, had perished in an automobile accident north of Lafayette.
“It was a Friday morning. I was sleeping in the basement waiting to go to weights and running,” Buck said. “My sister, Grace, came down to the basement to wake me up. Instantly I kind of realized something wasn’t right by the tone of her voice.
“I remember her saying to me, ‘I can tell you now or the officer upstairs can tell you.’ ”
Buck walked upstairs and saw a police officer standing in the entry way of the family’s residence.
It was 5 a.m.
Attempting to fully awaken and brace himself for whatever worst-case scenario fate was about to deal him, Buck sat down on the front porch.
“He tells me my mom and two brothers were killed this morning in a car accident, and that my dad was fine. He was driving in a separate car, but had to take care of some business up where the accident happened,” Buck remembers.
“I was told (Dad) would be home as soon as possible.”
During the days that followed, every second of Buck’s existence would be a combination of confusion, heartbreak, anger and countless other emotions.
A huge part of his life, of what made him the young man that he was … gone.
Buck’s involvement in athletics — he runs track as a 400-meter dash specialist — created a welcome diversion these past 15-plus months.
After the accident, he missed a week of football workouts and meetings in order to be with his father, Paul, and older sisters Grace and Olivia.
“Honestly, football hugely helped me,” Buck said. “Coach (Eric) Moore came up and talked to me and said, ‘I’m here for you’. You can just send me a text that says, ‘ED’, which stands for Emotional Day, and I completely understand why you can’t be at practice that day.”
Buck hasn’t felt the need to use any during this season. During the summer, he did take off July 21, which would have been his mother’s 48th birthday.
A special season
Branson and Aidan, who looked up to P.J. the way younger brothers are known to do, would be savoring every aspect of this Center Grove football season.P.J. imagines them hanging out with friends in the northwest corner of the home bleachers, watching him punt for the varsity team and running around on the artificial playing surface afterward.
Mom, he said, would be sitting quietly during games. That is, until her oldest son delivered a punt that benefited Center Grove by way of hang time, distance (he’s averaging a Johnson County-best 36.4 yards) or placement (16 punts have pinned the opponent inside its own 20-yard line).
Buck takes advantage of the locker room down time before taking the field for pregame warmups.
While some teammates relax with music or sit quietly in front of their lockers while focusing on the task ahead, Buck speaks quietly to Jill and his brothers.
He wants them to know he’s thinking of them. How they’ve inspired him. How he’s dedicating the upcoming game and, for that matter, the season to them.
“I know they’re extremely proud of me,” Buck said. “They would love this season. The new stadium. The team. I’m out there on Friday nights, which were the favorite part of the week for Branson and Aidan.”
How it changed him
Paul and Jill, who met as freshman athletes at the University of Indianapolis in the 1986-87 school year, were hard-working, community-minded persons who moved back to this area in 2000 after briefly living in Utah.Jill Buck was employed as an optometrist at South Grove Eye Care; Paul, a former social studies teacher at Center Grove High School, has worked the past six years at New Tech Network as senior director of district and school development.
The couple’s five children were polite, did well academically and involved in various school activities.
Olivia, a Center Grove senior, is part of Center Grove Theatre. She is playing the role of Miss Adelaide in the theater’s presentation of “Guys and Dolls” this week.
Before graduating in 2014, Grace Buck cheered, ran track and was in National Honor Society.
The Bucks loved Center Grove schools and their church (Community Church of Greenwood), making numerous close friendships along the way.
How could this happen, P.J. often thought to himself and, on occasion, out loud.
Why his family?
“It was something I’ve never been a part of in my life, but I would definitely say it’s changed me to be a leader,” Buck said. “After losing a parent, I’ve kind of had to take that responsibility of doing things on my own.
“I’ve felt that transfer to the football field as well.”
Favorite memories
Asked to pick a favorite memory of his mother, P.J. Buck takes a moment to mentally wade through the thousands of choices before settling on one.He pauses for a moment before sharing the story from about three years ago.
“We were driving to a soccer game up north, playing the radio pretty loudly and singing along,” Buck said. “We stopped at a light and my mom turned down the music and looked at me.
“She said, ‘You’re going to be something special someday.’ ”
When it came to the closeness Buck experienced with his brothers, the three were best friends, despite P.J. being five years older than Branson and seven older than Aidan.
“There were definitely some fights where we didn’t get along at all, but there weren’t very many,” Buck said. “We were very close.”
Branson Buck was only 10 when his life was cut short.
A happy-go-lucky boy, Branson, who was born with Down Syndrome, loved to wear cowboy boots regardless of the situation.
“He had two different pairs of boots. He would wear either cowboy boots or firefighter boots to almost everything we would go to,” Buck said, his face breaking into a smile. “We would go to a fancy dinner or something, and he would dress up nice and have his cowboy boots on.
“That was something he always loved to wear, so his elementary school (Maple Grove) put together a T-shirt that says, ‘We wear boots for Branson.’ “
Buck still has his shirt. He wears it no less than once a week in honor of his brother.
When thinking of those loved ones lost, Buck, who has always had a deep faith, leans upon a saying he was told not long after the accident:
God gives his toughest battles to his toughest soldiers.
P.J. Buck soldiers on.
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”The Buck file” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
Name: P.J. Buck
Age: 15
Born: Greenwood
Family: Parents Paul and Jill; sisters Grace, 20, and Olivia, 17; brothers Branson, 10, and Aidan, 8
Favorite TV show: “SportsCenter”
Favorite food: Steak
Favorite movie: “Friday Night Lights”
Favorite athlete: Pat McAfee
Favorite team: Indiana Pacers
[sc:pullout-text-end]
