Just a little over a year ago, Tracy Area High School senior Trevor Smith’s car was broadsided by a charging semi and pushed into a ditch as he was going to his home in Balaton from Tracy after school.
Trevor didn’t walk away from the scary scene, but his injuries weren’t severe enough to keep him in the hospital very long. Even so, the accident did put his immediate future in question.
“The day after, when I started remembering things, I thought, ‘Wow, this could’ve been it,’” Smith said. “I could’ve been killed, or not be able to move. It’s kind of crazy honestly — the thought of never being able to play sports again or do everything normally, that was scary. After a while, it just kind of settled in that I’m going to be OK.”
Turns out, better than OK.
Today, the only remnant of the accident is a slight crook in his smile, a result of his Bells Palsy, and Smith has more than made up for lost time. He earned All-State, All-Conference and All-District honors in football, and in January, weeks after scoring his 2,000th point, he passed his brother, Spencer, on the all-time Panther boys’ basketball scoring list, setting a record that’s as close to being unbreakable as any.
More post-season accolades followed the basketball season, and now, after one-upping his brother on the court, he matched his big sister, Cassidy, off it by earning the Class A state Triple “A” award — an honor given to one girl and one boy from Class A and Class AA schools, each who will receive a four-year $1,000 college scholarship. Cassidy earned her honors in 2019.