Remembering Trevell

(Trevell is the player to my left, technically off my right shoulder)


(Trevell is in the blue polo shirt. He and Baby T were rapping at our hip hop service).


On the late evening of Friday January 7th (or possibly into the early morning of Saturday January 8th) 18 year old Trevell Martin was gunned down outside of a party in the south suburbs. He was shot 3 times in the chest and 1 time in the back. There are different stories and theories circulating as to what led to his shooting. It is believed to have been "gang related." However, the particulars that led to his death seem almost trivial when I reflect on the tragedy of a high school senior with so much potential losing his life in the midst of the senseless cycle of violence that is claiming so many young men's lives on the streets of Chicago. Another sobering detail of Trevell's death is that he is survived by his twin brother Terrell. However, Terrell is currently serving a 9 month sentence in Cook County Jail. I traveled to the prison with another neighborhood pastor to deliver the news to Terrell, that his twin brother Trevell had been shot and killed the night before. Pastor Brad had to yell "the news" through the prison glass as Terrell sat and cried into his prison uniform.

I first met Trevell during the summer between his 7th and 8th grade year. That summer he played for our basketball team in the Miracle League. That same summer he also spent a week at Sunshine Cove with the rest of his teammates (His mother recently told me, that week really impacted he and his brother.) That next school year I would attend 4 or 5 Fiske grade school basketball games to watch Trevell and the other guys (Terrell, Baby T, Pierre) play in their regular season and then playoffs. Later that spring I attended Fiske's 8th grade graduation. Over the next 3 summers I would coach Trevell and the guys in the Miracle League. During the summer of 2009 Trevell was even interviewed and featured as part of our web site and Sunshine's blog. That same summer, I also did a blog entry highlighting my Miracle League players.

I wrote the following about Trevell in that particular blog entry...
Trevell "I Need More Touches" Martin - After one of our first games, Trevell told me and his teammates that we would be better off if he just "got more touches." As the season progressed I believed him. Trevell is a streaker shooter with 3-point range, and an ever-improving mid-range jumper. He models his game after his idol, Tracy McGrady, and he continues to develop his game each summer. Trevell will be a junior at Team Englewood High School this fall.
I remember Trevell consistently reminding me with his big smile that he had NEVER missed a practice during ALL his summer seasons with the Sunshine Warriors. Trevell loved the game of basketball. He loved playing with his "guys" from Fiske. He loved to laugh and clown with his teammates. On the court, he played intense defense and was a streaky perimeter shooter. I could count on Trevell to motivate his teammates in a positive way.

This past summer, I dropped down and coached a junior high team. My high school players continued to play in the league with Sunshine, but they played for some different coaches. Every time I would see Trevell at Moody's Solheim Center (where the league games are played) he would approach me with a big smile and say, "Coach Dave we need you to come back." Even as recently as the week after Christmas he had created a "Bring Back Coach Dave" Facebook page. He had invited Pastor Brad and all of the former players to the page, and was trying to convince me to come back and coach the high school team for one more season.

Trevell had aspirations to play college basketball. He would have graduated from Team Englewood High School this spring.

It really hurts my heart as I reflect on his life and on his tragic passing. I do know that we had Gospel conversations over the course of the summers that I coached him. I know that he consistently heard the Gospel each week during the Miracle League season. I wish I could say with confidence that Trevell had believed on the Gospel, but I can't. I only know that IF he did, there is eternal hope.

Trevell is the second of my players (who I began with in the summer of 2006) to lose their life to gun violence. Damian Turner was also tragically shot and killed late last spring. They are certainly not the only young men whose lives have been claimed by violence over the last year. It just doesn't make sense. The youth homicide statistics in Chicago right now are sobering. These "numbers" are personal to me now. I know this ongoing violence breaks God's heart. I am asking Him to continue to break my heart for my young brothers who are caught up in the streets, in search of identity and community in the wrong places. More importantly, I am asking God to break the Church's heart for these same young men. May we not view them with suspicion or fear or self-righteousness, but may we view them through the lens of Christ so that we might respond with compassion and courage.

Please continue to pray for Trevell's mother Pat, his twin brother Terrell (who is scheduled to be released in May), and for his many friends!