Senior Night carries different meaning for some players

<p>As a young football player, Bryce Taylor envisioned being able to eventually stand between both parents while taking part in Senior Night festivities.</p><p>Fate, unfortunately, delivered a different outcome.</p><p>Taylor, a Greenwood linebacker who is among the county leaders in tackles this season, is one of the local senior football players who experienced the unspeakable misfortune of suddenly, shockingly, losing a parent at a young age.</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery<p>The Woodmen honor their seniors this evening before their home game against Franklin. Taylor must go through the ceremony without his father, Bill, who died of a heart attack on Nov. 7, 2015 at the age of 41.</p><p>“My dad was the reason I play football. We would do everything together. It was awesome,” Bryce said. “It was around 3 a.m. We got a call from my stepmom, and she wanted to talk to my mom. I knew something was wrong.</p><p>“My dad had had minor heart attacks before. I was taken to the hospital around 3:30, but he had already passed away.”</p><p>Next Friday, Center Grove teammates Cam Petty and P.J. Buck take part in Senior Night before the Trojans’ home finale against Cathedral.</p><p>Petty’s father, Tom, an outstanding all-around athlete at Lawrence Central in the mid-1970s, committed suicide at the age of 52 on May 1, 2013. Buck’s mom, Jill, lost her life on July 23, 2015, when a semi trailer crashed into the back of her vehicle on southbound I-65 while she was on her way back from Chicago.</p><p>The crash also claimed the lives of P.J.’s brothers, Branson and Aidan.</p><p>The Bucks had stopped due to construction when the accident occurred. In all, five persons perished, including the truck driver and the driver of the vehicle in front of Jill Buck’s car.</p><p>None of three senior football players can make sense of the pain they’ve been forced to feel. Chances are they never will.</p><p>“He didn’t leave a note saying why he wanted to do what he did,” Petty said. “He got in trouble with drinking, had a couple DUIs. He died on May 1 and he had a court date May 2.</p><p>“We were very close. After he passed away it was me, my mom and my sister, and I went to school the next day. I felt like after he went I had to show my family that I could be strong for them.”</p><p>Cam Petty was in sixth grade.</p><p>He’ll be thinking of his dad when Center Grove’s seniors are honored. The same way Taylor can’t help but think about Bill, and Buck will no doubt be thinking about Jill.</p><p>“It never goes away,” Petty said. “I wouldn’t say I’m mad at him, but mad that he didn’t want to, like, try to fight for it.”</p><p>Before Trojan games, Buck finds a quiet spot in the locker room and spends 5-10 minutes speaking to his mom and brothers. He’s confident they’ll continue to help guide him through every difficult moment, whether it relates to athletics or not.</p><p>“It just gives me that final preparation for the upcoming game. Just that extra little motivation that encourages me,” Buck said. “Senior Night is definitely something I’ve thought about just because it’s that last step of high school football.</p><p>“And while it’s sad she won’t be there for the game, I know she’s looking down on me and she’s proud of me for everything I’ve accomplished and that we’ve accomplished as a team. She’ll be there right with me.”</p><p>In the summer between his sophomore and junior years, Taylor got a tattoo covering the right side of his chest. Bill Taylor loved watches, so Bryce’s ink combines the inner workings of a watch, roses, the day Bill passed away and a lion symbolizing courage.</p><p>Taylor knows he’ll have mixed emotions during and probably after Greenwood’s seniors are honored. His father, a defensive end for Southport football teams in the early 1990s, won’t be there to embrace him.</p><p>“I want to be there because it is my senior season, but he’s not going to be there,” Bryce Taylor said. “What would he expect from me?</p><p>“I do think he’s watching me. At least I hope so.”</p>[sc:pullout-title pullout-title="If you go" ][sc:pullout-text-begin]<p>TONIGHT’S GAMES</p><p>Franklin at Greenwood, 7 p.m.</p><p>Center Grove at Lawrence North, 7 p.m.</p><p>Whiteland at Plainfield, 7 p.m.</p><p>Cloverdale at Indian Creek, 7 p.m.</p><p>Wes-Del at Edinburgh, 7 p.m.</p><p>Bloomington South at Roncalli, 7 p.m.</p>[sc:pullout-text-end]