Concord Triopia’s glory days no longer a thing of the past

Dave Kane

Thursday

Nov 27, 2008 at 12:01 AMNov 27, 2008 at 3:36 PM

For Adam Brockhouse and the rest of the Triopia High School football players who live in Chapin, the daily trip to school includes a left turn off Illinois Route 104 and onto the Concord-Arenzville Road. That turnoff on Route 104 also includes a reminder of the Trojans’ past glories.

SJ-R.com's Dave Kane talks with Triopia Kellan Phelps about the Class 1 title game

Kane talks to Triopia coach Rich Thompson

Kane and Jim Ruppert preview the Class 1A title game.

For Adam Brockhouse and the rest of the Triopia High School football players who live in Chapin, the daily trip to school includes a left turn off Illinois Route 104 and onto the Concord-Arenzville Road.

That turnoff on Route 104 also includes a reminder of the Trojans’ past glories. There’s a billboard directing travelers to Triopia, and the sign also includes the football team’s three appearances in Class 1A state championship games in 1974 (runner-up), 1975 (champions) and 1976 (runner-up).

If the billboard isn’t enough, Brockhouse gets a daily reminder simply from another guy who lives under the same roof in Chapin. His father, Rex Brockhouse, was a sophomore special-teams player and junior lineman for the Trojans’ 1975 and ’76 teams.

But now, Adam and his teammates can inspire future Trojans.

“Growing up and passing that sign every day, seeing those title games, you can’t miss it,” said Adam, a senior offensive lineman and linebacker for the unbeaten Triopia/Meredosia team that will take on Toulon Stark County for the Class 1A state championship at 10 a.m. Friday in Champaign.

“You always go by there thinking, ‘I want to put our team up there someday.’ That’s always the thing when you play here. When we got to junior high, one of the first things we did was go down by the high school gym and look at the state trophies.”

There are two other members of this year’s team whose fathers played for longtime coach Don Kemp during those years.

Lucas Aufdenkamp, a junior lineman who’s been sidelined by injury this season, is the son of Kent Aufdenkamp, a lineman on the ’74 and ’75 teams. And 1976 graduate Keith Kircher, a reserve lineman, is the father of current freshman Adam Kircher.

Rex Brockhouse said he and his teammates, at the time they were playing, probably didn’t realize the significance of their accomplishments. But after 31 seasons without an appearance in the state title game for Triopia, father said son and his teammates need to savor the moment now — regardless of Friday’s outcome.

“It’s funny; at the time, you didn’t think you were all that great,” Rex said. “But as the years passed, we thought, ‘Hey, maybe we weren’t too bad after all.’

“When we played, (the playoffs) were new. It was exciting to go, but now it’s just super. It’s something that might not happen again. It’s harder to watch than it is playing. I’m a nervous wreck now; I don’t remember being like that when I played.”

The billboard and the state trophies aren’t the only reminders of the sensational ’70s at Triopia. The football field is named for Kemp, who died two years ago. He coached at the school for 30 years beginning when Arenzville, Concord and Chapin consolidated to form Triopia in 1959.

Jay Wessler, a standout running back from 1974 to ’76, served as the Trojans’ head coach from 1994 to 2005 and currently assists coach Rich Thompson.

Wessler said Kemp’s influence went beyond the X’s and O’s of football, but that influence steered Wessler into coaching himself.

Wessler admits that times — and coaching approaches — tend to change over 30 years, even if the Triopia tradition hasn’t. He still remembers Triopia’s very first playoff appearance: a first-rounder at Illiopolis on a Wednesday afternoon in 1974.

“He (Kemp) took us to the Heritage House in Springfield for a pregame meal,” Wessler recalled. “He loaded us with meat and potatoes and fried chicken and all this stuff. We got back on the bus and went over to Illiopolis.

“But he dropped us off at the edge of town. He had us walk through town, to the high school. That way, we’d walk off all that stuff we’d eaten. We did that anytime we had a long road trip. It was different.”

Andy Phelps, a 1981 Triopia graduate and current assistant coach, was too young to play on the state championship teams. But he remembers idolizing players such as Wessler and Rex Brockhouse. He figures a lot of current grade school and junior high kids at Triopia — along with football co-op partner Meredosia — are idolizing current players like his son, quarterback Kellan Phelps.

“I have nieces and nephews right now who are about the age I was back then (the mid-70s),” Andy Phelps said. “To see them looking up to Kellan and these boys, they just stand there in awe.

“They’re thinking, ‘Someday, maybe I’ll be that player.’ These kids are idols right now.”

Triopia celebration

Triopia principal Cheri Madson said Wednesday that the football team, on its return home Friday afternoon from Champaign, will be escorted to the high school starting at the Triopia sign at Route 104 and the Concord-Arenzville Road.

In addition, an official reception for the team will take place at 1 p.m. Dec. 6 at the high school.

Dave Kane can be reached at 788-1544.

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