The Truth About Trinity

A biography from the front lines

Friday, October 6^th, 2017

The night was a cool one, with energy palpable, but not abnormally so. I sat in the locker room, listening to Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight as superstition forced me to before every game. I realized we were probably going to lose. Our front 7 was softer than Charmin double ply, and Trinity Christian Cedar Hill was a solid squad. Following the addition of Deion Sanders (yes Prime Time hall of famer Deion Sanders) after the UIL shut down his charter school exploration, a plethora of national recruits flooded into TCCH. They looked good on film, but not like world-beaters. Shedeur, Deion’s son, was painfully average for a freshman QB, but they had a lot of dudes in other spots to make up for it. Based on the film we were looking at, they didn’t look any better than a team like Waskom or Malakoff. They got their doors blown in by Brock, won a 1 point game against Houston STH, and were within a couple scores of ESD and Faith. We understood the chance of victory was low, but certainly not zero.

Opening Kickoff:

“Oh ****”

That game is probably the most humbling experience of my life. After that kick got taken back about 109 yards, TCCH went on to score 53 straight unanswered points, beating us 60-0. On our homecoming. With all of our dates in the stands.

What was the difference you ask? How could TCCH have gotten that much better that quickly? Two words my friend. Maurice Washington. An athlete at the King’s school in California, Washington was recruited by Sanders to join the Tigers, and rumor has it was flown down to Texas days before the game against Grace. And without any sense of hyperbole or exaggeration, this man was, is, and most likely forever will be, the greatest high school football player I have ever played against. Don’t get me wrong, TCCH had a lot of dogs in other spots, but none of them could hold Washington’s jock. I could keep describing his abilities, but I think it would be easier to just let you watch. Roll the tape Jamie:

Pardon the text from Ryan at the end there.

Keep in mind that is one game. And yes I’ll go ahead and congratulate myself on putting some of the most humiliating footage of myself on the internet for everyone to see.

(I did Sack Shedeur and force a fumble on Maurice in case you want to see that here, I’ve gotta balance the scales somehow.)

You get to a certain point in that game where you just get to the sideline, look at your teammates and pray the operator runs the clock. That’s the level of hopelessness TCCH enacted in almost every team in TAPPS.

The only somewhat close game TCCH had the rest of the season was against DC, which ended 27-14 in favor of Trinity. And from the stories I’ve heard, it almost came to blows after the contest, and required the intervention of Dallas Police.

Deion was an A-hole man. I’ve dropped the grudge but good lord I hated him for 4 solid years after that season. They cruised to a state championship, all while there was a full on documentary crew filming everything they did.

To this day I have no idea how TAPPS allowed that. That team single handedly exposed the lack of enforceable ability TAPPS has over recruiting violations, and is why the league has garnered the nickname “the wild west”. But there was a loophole, and oh boy did Deion drive a MAC truck straight through it.

Fast forward to December. The season was over, and all our effort and hard work was rewarded with an 8 hour bus ride to Midland to lose by 26 and drive 8 hours back the way we came. I am now sitting on the couch casually watching the UA All American game, and who do I see juking out and straight up embarrassing other 5 star caliber athletes? My good friend Maurice Washington. That man won MVP of the UNDER ARMOR ALL AMERICAN GAME. FEATURING SOME OF THE BEST PLAYERS IN THE COUNTRY. WHY WAS HE PLAYING IN TAPPS DIVISION II? Apologies, something got stuck on my caps lock button. I’m not still upset about this I swear. Long story long, Washington went on to get considerable playing time at The University of Nebraska as a true freshman, before some pretty serious charges forced his removal from the team. He is currently on roster at Grambling State.

Fall 2018

Trinity is still Trinity. Not Trinity with Maurice Trinity, but still Deion Trinity? Got it? Good. They still had dudes, Lewis Cine who lined up over me signed to Georgia and just got drafted in the 1^st round by the Vikings. Qualan Jones is currently getting reps at RB for Baylor, both Shedeur and Shilo Sanders are at Jackson state with Deion. That team went 14-0 and won state, they just weren’t quite as dominate as they were with Maurice, and it showed when you played them. Shoot we were even tied with them at halftime if I remember correctly. But at the end of the day, it was still Power 5 athletes playing against plumbers and firefighters as JJ Reddick would call us. The state title was decided before the opening kick of the season.

September 5^th, 2019

         Now a freshman in college (yes I turned down my plethora of division one offers to pursue the career of a humble college student) I am sitting in front of my computer with the ESPN app up and running. I spurned the opportunity to go out to Northgate (the bar district at A&M) to watch a high school football game, and the first TAPPS matchup I can ever remember being televised by a national network. Junior sensation Preston Stone is leading the Parish Episcopal Panthers in a battle against, who else, Trinity Christian Cedar Hill.

So why, you ask, am I watching this game on a Friday night in my first year of college? Because every fiber of my being yearned to see Deion and TCCH lose. It was like a drug I had been chasing for 2 years. I had such an irrational abhorrence towards that man that I was legitimately screaming at my monitor, imploring Parish to pull through. And ultimately, they did. Goliath had been slain, by another Goliath. But that is where my soul was put at peace. As long as I could go to bed knowing that Deion wasn’t even the best in TAPPS, it was enough for me.

Now yes, TCCH did win 12 straight following that falter to capture their 3^rd consecutive TAPPS DII title.

But this one would come at a cost.

Following the state championship game against Austin Regents, TCCH was charged with 9 separate violations of TAPPS bylaws, including:

“a coach or player deliberately coming into physical contact with, or threatening harm to, an official.” (Section 138.X.H)

as well as

“The use of, or appearance of using, any controlled substance (alcohol, drugs, etc.) before, during or after games at contest sites is prohibited by TAPPS.” (Section 138.XIV.J)

From my knowledge, which is often wrong, there was champagne brought into the Tigers locker room following their state championship victory. Which is fine, except for the fact that every single player is under the age of 21, and not even particularly close to it.

Keep in mind, this is simply a rumor and you should never take the words of a college student writing blogs as gospel. This isn’t Facebook. But I’m also not saying that wouldn’t make sense given Deion’s flare for the dramatic.

2020-Present

TCCH ended up transferring to TCAL, the Texas Christian Athletic League. They played a rouge schedule, and went 9-3 while beating teams such as Malakoff and South Oak Cliff. But the relevance was fading quickly; without the maxpreps show, and a state title to play for, the spotlight grew dim around Cedar Hill. It also didn’t require a rocket scientist to figure out that Deion was sticking around until Shedeur graduated, and then was hitting the highway. Which he did, and has found instant success at Jackson State.

But that moved sentenced TCCH to death. Last year they went 4-6 playing a freelance schedule in TCAL, and have now rebranded as “Trinity Leadership Academy”. The flashy talent is gone, and with it are any championship hopes (or whatever the TCAL independent equivalent is).

Do I mourn the death of TCCH? I don’t necessarily celebrate it. If you would have asked me this question 2 years ago I would’ve been jumping up and down like a caffeinated kangaroo. But as I’ve grown older and debatably wiser, I’ve let bygones be bygones. Deion is Deion, and is doing fantastic work at Jackson State, which I respect. I also think I was justified in holding bitter hatred towards him for those TCCH teams virtually stealing 2 years of football from me.

So it goes.

Some empires last centuries, others a matter of days. The rise and subsequent fall of TCCH is something the aliens will study long after humanity has forfeited this planet. It ultimately was not a long reigning empire, but try telling that to any kid who played from 2017-2020.