Gary Trent won’t necessarily flash back to his dunks that shook the basket, the Mid-American Conference championship, the NCAA Tournament and the students holding signs that read “Shaq of the MAC” when his No. 20 uniform is retired by Ohio University today and hoisted to the rafters at the Convocation Center.
With his wife, Natalia, and sons Gary Jr., 13, Garyson, 3, and Grayson, 7 months, at his side, Trent might think about how close he came to being another angry inner-city youth who became a negative statistic.
As a 14-year-old at Hamilton Township High School, Trent was enrolled in his seventh school and sleeping on the floor of an aunt’s house in Obetz because his father was in prison and his mother had abandoned him.
What happened at Hamilton Township and Ohio turned his life around.
“If it weren’t for people like Randy Cotner, my high-school coach, and Elmo Kallner, the superintendent at Hamilton Township, I would be dead or serving a life sentence,” he said. “Then I came to Ohio University and coach Larry Hunter took over. I would not be here without any of them, because I had no idea how to live. Those men were my surrogate fathers. They caught me when my life was ready to fall.”
Trent, 37, returns to the scene of some of his greatest accomplishments as much more than an athletic icon. He is a husband, father, elementary school teacher and coach.
Bobcats fans remember Trent as a 6-foot-8, 250-pound monster of a player. He totaled 2,108 points and 1,050 rebounds before becoming the 11th player taken in the 1995 NBA draft, by the Milwaukee Bucks. He is the only player in MAC history to be voted Player of the Year his first three years.
“Gary was the most intimidating force I have ever seen because he wanted to be great,” said Hunter, who now coaches at Western Carolina. “Gary was so competitive. He once dunked with two people hanging on his arms. He landed on the floor and stared at them as if to say, ‘Is that all you’ve got?’ Gary could bench press 500 pounds.”
None of that would have been possible had the staff at Hamilton Township not had its hands all over Trent from day one.
Athletic director Mark Beggrow, Cotner and Kallner told Trent that he wouldn’t touch a basketball if his grades and conduct weren’t up to snuff.
“Gary stubbed a toe so many times, but he eventually listened,” Beggrow said.
They put him to work after school, cleaning and performing odd jobs, and got him tutors. Kallner bought him a bed out of his own pocket, and Cotner drove Trent to school every day.
