The phone call left Crenshaw Christian Academy (Luverne, Alabama) football coach Wayne Grant shocked. The news reverberated Tuesday through the rest of the team, the rest of the school and the entire community.
Trey Strickland, a rising senior and a starting running back, died in a two-car crash late Monday night in Pike County. A third car, after the initial accident, crashed into the first two, Grant said.
Three died, including Strickland, and five more were injured.
“It’s going to be tough on everybody, parents and everything,” Grant said Tuesday. “It will take time to work through this but, as the saying goes, everything moves on.
“We have to focus and move forward.”
The Cougars canceled a scheduled team workout on Tuesday afternoon and won’t begin practice on Thursday when the AISA allows, Grant said. The school’s volleyball team and cheerleading squad have also have also canceled upcoming workouts and practices.
Funeral arrangements, Grant said, were pending as of midday Tuesday. Local pastors were at Crenshaw Christian on Tuesday to counsel students, Grant said.
“These players, cheerleaders, volleyball players lost one of their good friends, classmates, partners, teammates,” Grant said. “It’s going to take them a little while to get over it.”
Grant, unfortunately, has gone through similar before.
In 1984, when he was the head coach at Pike County, the team took an end-of-summer trip to Panama City Beach, Florida, as a reward for the players who had gone through summer workouts.
One player drowned.
“That was pretty hard to contend with,” Grant said, “and this one is going to be the same.”
