This time last year, one of Red Bank High School’s top football talents had to watch the team’s playoff run from the sideline.
The Lions closed their 2020 regular season with a 13-0 win against Loudon, but it also marked the end of Reco Trimble’s junior year on the football field as he sustained a knee injury that required surgery. After a breakout season in which he had boosted his recruiting stock, it was a sudden ending for a star safety whose versatility also allows him to play big roles on offense and special teams.
“At the beginning, it felt like football was almost over for me,” Trimble said. “I didn’t know how fast I would heal back up after surgery, but I went in and rehabbed every day and focused on getting back to being out here playing the game I love. It was hard but something I had to put my head down and go through. When they said I was cleared to play again before the season, that was the best feeling.”
Trimble has returned to making a huge impact in every way imaginable for a program that has gone 38-7 over the last four years. Now a 6-foot-1, 180-pound senior, he will be counted on as the red-hot Lions (8-3) host Macon County (8-3) in the second round of the TSSAA Class 4A playoffs Friday night at Tom Weathers Field. Red Bank is seeking its seventh straight win this year and a fifth straight appearance in the state quarterfinals; the Lions reached the 3A semifinals in 2020 before falling to Alcoa.
“Reco is a great young man, first and foremost,” Lions coach Chris Brown said. “He does whatever his team needs him to do. He was one of our best running backs last year, but we needed some more dynamic ability at receiver. He slid right over to it and has been a great force for us there. He cares about this team and his teammates.”