Iowa native Trevon Young earns Brian Piccolo Award for courage
DES MOINES, Iowa —
At Lincoln High School, Trevon Young was quite a force.
The other central Iowa kids didn't know what hit him.
The Hawkeyes gave him a scholarship.
Young seemingly had it all figured it out.
In summer 2013, though, it all started to fall apart.
"During that summer, I was running around with the wrong crowd, doing stupid high school stuff," Young said.
After some minor run-ins with the law, the Hawkeye coaches took their offer off the table.
"Multiple things led to me getting my scholarship taken away," Young said.
He could have lost much more than that.
On June 5, 2013, Young and his friends were out at 2 a.m. at a Des Moines park. Another man opened fire.
"My heart dropped to my toes," Young's mother, Regina Young, said. "It's the scariest thing that ever happened in my life."
"I couldn't believe it," Young's father, Miles Young, said. "Is he OK? Where did he get shot?"
Trevon Young got shot in the wrist and ankle. He said is lucky to be alive.
"It made me more cautious of who I am around and the things I'm doing," Trevon Young said. "Everything happens for a reason. That happened because I was doing stupid things. I don't regret it happening because I got to college and I was wiser to realize to not be out there doing things I shouldn't be doing."
Instead of the bright lights of the Big Ten, Trevon Young packed his bags for Iowa Western Community College in Council Bluffs.
"Nobody's fault but mine," Trevon Young said.
"He went through a bad stage of depression because of losing his scholarship," Miles Young said. "The day he got there, I got a picture of it. He said, 'Don't worry, Dad, I am going to handle my business.' I said, 'Don't say, just do it.' That's what he did."
"At Iowa Western, Trevon was a beast," Regina Young said. "He would be out there for half a quarter. He would rack up stats beyond what most people did in three to four games. He was fabulous. He was great."
"Iowa Western is a great community college, but I just felt I shouldn't have been there," Trevon Young said. "I wasn't academically ineligible, so I could leave as quickly as possible and move on to the next level."
Arkansas, Iowa, Iowa State, Indiana and many others came calling. He opted for a fresh start at Louisville. After a limited role as a backup his first year, Trevon Young exploded on the scene as a junior.
In 2015, the linebacker had 8 ½ sacks, 10 tackles for loss and a pick, and he helped Louisville to an 8-4 season. NFL scouts began to notice.
Then, at the Music City Bowl against Texas A&M, he fractured and dislocated his hip. He dropped like a rock.
"It was probably the most pain you can imagine," Trevon Young said. "I got shot, and it was worse than that. I went to redirect, and I planted my foot in the ground and it popped out. I didn't hit anybody or anything."
He had surgery the next morning.
"When he had his surgery, the surgeon said he had never seen so much muscle around the hip.
Miles Young said his son suffered from depression for three to four months and didn't know if he would play again. "It was tough on all of us," the elder Young said.
Trevon Young needed another surgery six months later to repair his labrum, meaning there'd be no football in 2016.
"Realistically, looking at it, not many people who get this can perform at a high level," Trevon Young said.
"He was maybe going to go to the NFL, and at that point he decided to stay in school and get this degree, which he did," Regina Young said. "He never gave up. He worked so hard and he got stronger and bigger."
This past fall, Trevon Young suited up for his senior season.
"You always have these thoughts: 'What could happen?' As soon as the season started, that went away and my mind was right."
Incredibly, Trevon Young did not miss a beat.
He played in all 12 games, posted nine tackles for loss and re-established himself as an NFL draft pick.
Last weekend in Charlotte, North Carolina, the American Athletic Conference awarded Trevon Young the Brian Piccolo Award, which is given to the conference's most courageous player.
"Miles and I both went to the award ceremony," Regina Young said. "The pride we felt knowing what he had been through, the fight energy he wanted, overwhelming pride was more than I expected."
"It made me think about all I have been through to get to this point," Trevon Young said.