Trevor Rumbaugh’s journey with injuries pays off with big soccer, football seasons at Karns City
Trevor Rumbaugh described his high school sports career as “a heck of a journey.”
You could say that.
The senior serves a placekicker for the football team that will play for the District 9 Class 2A title this week against Central Clarion, but he doubled as a playmaker for the boys soccer team, too. Rumbaugh, a captain, netted eight goals and had seven assists this fall.
All while battling hip issues. In fact, injuries have followed Rumbaugh for much of his high school career.
Despite the hip issue and two concussions, Rumbaugh knew he needed to step up on the soccer field to fill in for graduated losses from last season’s District 9 Class 2A championship team.
Rumbaugh had taken up soccer just two years ago, beginning as a center back. He suffered his first concussion while trying to score a goal when moved up to forward, which ended his season. He trained hard that offseason and proved to be a useful scorer as a junior until being knocked out with another concussion nearly halfway through the season.
The latter caused severe headaches for 3-4 weeks, Rumbaugh said. They made it hard for him to focus at school. He rested as much as he could at home.
“When you have a player that had back-to-back head injuries, coming into the year was a little scary,” Gremlins head coach R.J. Carson said.
“I had to pretty much start from zero,” Rumbaugh said. “I was basically almost afraid to go into any kind of contact. … I just tried to stay away from (opponents), at least all spring.”
Rumbaugh adjusted his playing style, not heading the ball quite as much as before and being aware of when to proceed with caution. Carson monitored him, “just trying to make sure that he doesn’t put himself into those bigger 50-50 opportunities, to run through it, just making sure he knows, ‘OK, this one I might need to stay a little further back on.’”
“It’s taught me to bring the ball down with my foot more and just keep going with the game and play slower,” Rumbaugh said.
As a whole, the Gremlins had, as Carson put it, “an up and down season.” Despite its bench not being as deep as previous campaigns, Karns City boys soccer reached the district playoffs and Wednesday was ousted by Redbank Valley.
During the season, though, Carson was even able to slide Rumbaugh back to the defensive end at points. The highlight of his campaign was a hat trick against Central Clarion on Oct. 12. Rumbaugh said he was looking for his teammates throughout that night, not chasing the accolade.
“He was really happy because we clinched the playoffs with the .500 rule,” Carson said. “He was happy to be there for the team, and he didn’t really focus more on himself.”
