The guy I'm gonna talk about today is Trent Hearne, and if you haven't heard about him, well that's alright, because you will. In 1999 Lancaster started a senior at tailback and gave him almost every carry.
A sophomore behind him got 34 carries. He turned those 34 carries into 165 yrds (just under 5 a carry) and got a few TDs. Not bad, but not spectacular.
Well come the next year Lancaster looked to be a passing team, and just about passing only. They were sitting on Armon Dorrough, one of the top 2 or 3 wideouts in the state, an experienced QB, another stud WR Calvin Washington, and nobody at tailback except this junior. Matter of fact Coach Black let it be known that his number one concern was tailback.
Enter Hearne.
In 2000 Hearne was in a district with Baxter Box, a senior returning starter at tailback for Highland Park, Mesquite POteet and Ashlan Davis, Desmond Agykem (D1) from Richardson Pierce, and some dtout defenses, and he came out of nowhere to become the 1st Team All-District back.
How do you do that? damned near 1,900 yards. At 8 a crack.
Here he is:
Lemme tell you about a conversation I had with a coach you know of from out of state:
Coach: Who you seen lately that you can send me info on?
Me: Brother, I saw the Dibbles kid the other day and I would take him and give up 3 scholarships to have him.
Coach: Yeah, we ain't gettin that guy. He won't even much mess with talking to us. I sure like that running back though.
Me: Yeah I liked him pretty well. What's the story on him?
Coach: The state's full of 5'9" guys. The kid from the Colony is 5'9", the kid from Arlington Houston is 5'9", Barnett's 5'9", I saw Moats yesterday and he's 5'9". This kid could be 6'2", 200 by the time he comes out and he's as fast as any of em. Hell he's the only tailback up here with any size."
Coach is right. I looked back at my list of all the backs in Texas and it's a year for smaller guys, and big fullbacks. Not a lot of true 6'1", 190 pound tailback types. Everyone is big or tiny.
Here's Hearn's questionnaire before I go on:
Trenton Hearn - RB - Lancaster
"Matrix" - #8
6'1", 180, 4.47
Bench press: 290 (got that number from the official testing list - highest in the state for a tailback)
Vertical leap: 31.5
2000 Offensive Stats:
1 attempt, 1 completion, 5 yards
213 rushes, 1,858 yards, 23 TDs
5 receptions, 60 yards (Hearn was the only player on the team to have yardage running, throwing, and receiving)
1st Team All-District
Offensive Player of the Year in 13-4A
Your current favorite colleges?
1. TCU (Letters, offer)
2. Texas A&M (Letters - "at least two a week")
3. LSU
4. Arizona (Letters)
5. Nebraska (Letters)
Which colleges do your parents like best?
1. TCU
2. Oklahoma
3. Texas
Do you plan to commit early or wait? Wait
Which camps will you attend this summer?
1. TCU
2. SMU
3. Texas
Do you want to play as a freshman or redshirt? Play
What is your current high school GPA? 3.4
Which colleges seem to like you most?
1. USC
2. TCU
3. SMU
4. Arizona
So anyway as I'm standing watching drills Dibbs says "watch Matrix. Watch this..." and I say "who is that?" and he says "Trent, #4 over there". Well I say "Is he a science fiction nerd or something? What the heck kind of nickname is that?" Dibbles says "wait til you see him move."
Ever seen the movie? Seen the way those guys do all those crazy moves? Well, I figured it out. This kid can deek for a 6'1" tall running back.
Check this set of shots out. When you look, in the first two frames he's moving straight ahead. THe third frame looks off, and that's because in between frames (which has to be like a 1/4 of a second) he pops right, then two frames forward like that and another pop and then goodbye. My camera couldn't keep up with the move.
Hearn didn't have a great practice the whole way through. Why? Because he was gassed by 1/2 way through live drills. After he'd break the line and be in the clear with maybe one guy a yard or two behind him the staff would yell "score!! Score!! Take it in!!" so there's Hearn hauling [deleted] in the open grass by himself. 60 yards. If he did it once he did it 10 times. He'd make a move, deek some guy, speed up for 10 yards, fake out a corner or a safety, and then they'd yell "Score! Take it to the house!! Go all the way!!" By the time I got over to talk to him after 8 of these he looked like he'd been beat with a shovel. They were wearing him down.
So I said "you alright?" He goes "just gotta catch my breath. I'm a 30 carry guy. This is nothin'."
I don't know if hes a 30 carry guy but anybody who averages 8 and three quarters yards a run in that district is doing something right.
Here's a closeup of Hearn:
I have talked to four coaches about Hearn. Here were the four responses:
Yeah, he's a slasher isn't he? We like him.
Speed runner. good breakaway.
Who?
Must be something wrong with him. How do you get 2,000 yards and nobody talks about you?
I've talked to another coach in that district about Dibbles, who I think is a top 5 player in the state, and he said "Dibbles is great but I can triple team him if I have to. It's that tailback who killed us last year."
My favorite tailback in the state is Jonathan Ayers. Great speed, power, and moves, but you watch and I'll bet you see this guy move up the lists on one thing alone, the recommendation of college coaches. Everyone else is 5'9" this year, or they're abig fullback, and other than that there's Selvin Young, Jonathan Ayers, Fuller and Ballew really. And Hearn is still the tallest of that lot and has the highest per carry average of the bunch other than Ayers.
I'll lay five bucks with anyone who'll take the bet that says this kid ends up a Top 75 player in the state before this season is over, barring injury.
[This message has been edited by Big Cat (edited 05-28-2001).]
[This message has been edited by Big Cat (edited 05-28-2001).]
