By Dan Weber
NKyTribune sports reporter
They came, more than a thousand strong, to say goodbye to a man none of them could have ever imagined leaving this special place . . . and them.
Not now. Not this soon.
It started, as it should have, at the Conner High School football stadium where David Trosper had been patrolling the sidelines the last 18 years – on a Friday. And then the rain came. And everyone went inside.
But the stories they told did not change. And by the time they’d told them, it was clear that although the man they missed was in the casket at center court draped with a red-and-blue Conner Cougars banner, the beloved football coach and business teacher, family man, friend and teammate, gone too soon after a heart attack last Saturday at the age of 55, was not leaving any of their lives.
As they entered the gym to the sound of “Dancing in the Moonlight” – from toddlers to super-seniors, full families together, some in wheelchairs, others with walkers or canes – it was obvious this would be no typical wake. A ‘celebration of life,” they called it correctly. As David Trosper would have coached them up to do. As his pastor, Travis Whalen, noted of what would be a time “to mourn . . . and celebrate.”
And remember, as did Matt Ballard, his football coach at Union College, how on his first recruiting trip to Boone County High School where David’s equally legendary coach, Owen Hauck, instructed Ballard on how to watch No. 44 on film. “He’s not the prettiest thing out there . . . he can’t run . . . but he’s a good old boy . . . just follow the ball, watch the ball,” Hauck said. “That’s where No. 44 will be.” Making the tackle.
“A 50’s-60’s throwback,” Ballard called him, someone who “plays every play.” And figured out the night before his final college game that as diligent a business major as he was with a supportive family encouraging him to make his mark as a millionaire the way they knew he would, David Trosper realized that coaching the game he so loved was the way for him to go.
“A great dad, husband and father,” said former Boone County High coach Bryson Warner, who spoke of how he’d “coached 16 seasons against David Trosper.” That rivalry “was the most intense I’ve ever felt,” Warner said. “Why? Because I wanted his respect.”
“You weren’t just a part of his program,” Warner said, “you were a part of his life.” As his next Conner team, seated together in their black jerseys, were told, “that 2024 was not Coach David Trosper’s last football season, 2025 is . . . that will be David Trosper’s last season.”
Trosper’s lifelong best friend, Gary Peace, described their playfully contentious relationship with “big brother” David coming along as a sophomore to senior “little brother” Gary, a former teammate who ended up “coaching 16 years with him.”
“He was born to be a coach,” Peace said. “His character was better than his talent. He didn’t just coach football, he built young men.”
And had a running battle going with Peace where Peace would tell him to “Shut up.” “No, you shut up,” David would respond and the pair would go round and round. “He’d never let me get in the last word,” Peace said, “all I wanted for him to do was shut up. And now it’s Friday at his football field and he’s shut up and I’m devastated.”
One last word from Peace to David: “Tell Coach Hauck (and other teammates who have passed) we miss them.”
“He was more than a coach,” said Cameron Fogle, who played for Trosper and whose family coached with him with his mother the Conner “team mom.” “A great coach, a great mentor but more than anything, a great man,” Fogle said. “He was one of one, his legacy will live on forever.”
Conner AD Jim Hicks read a note from his son, Jared: “Coach Trosper, you made us better as athletes and people,” and “left a permanent mark on my life . . . he never gave up on any of us . . . and he made football fun.”
His younger brother Kyle described an older brother who bought him his first football gear for Christmas, taught him the game and then in his 30s, “a grown man and his little kid brother” would be bringing him to work with him “as a 12-year-old.”
“Today, I find encouragement from him,” Kyle said, looking at his brother’s casket. “David was big on fundamentals. He practiced them as much as he preached them. He measured his success on your success.”
From his stepdaughter Christen, speaking for his three stepdaughters: “David came into my life as my stepfather,” she said, “he left as my best friend.”
His wife of 10 years, Ginny, described what David told her, a widow, when they were dating about how football can be pretty much all-consuming for a coach. Only it wasn’t. “He was the most loving, caring, loyal husband I could ever ask for,” Ginny said, “I loved football season . . . I loved watching him coach.”
One of David’s favorite coaching drills was to hit his team with a “sudden change” scenario to see how they’d react. “I know David is still coaching, just from a different sideline,” said Ginny, who David called her “Momma.” “We were a great team. David, I love you and will be forever grateful for our life together. Keep coaching. I will see you again.”
Contact Dan Weber at dweber3440@aol.com. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @dweber3440.