“I had a life and death experience when I was two. I was running around the coffee table, like ten or fifteen times, got dizzy and ran smack into the fireplace. If I had fallen forward I would have been dead, instead I fell backwards, touched my nose, saw blood and passed out.” That was Trey Burton’s first experience with contact sports.
If you look at photos of Trey growing up, and his mom has a lot of him and his brothers, you will see a little boy holding a football in almost everyone. You will see him playing flag football, running around in the yellow and green colors of the Venice Vikings pop-Warner program, and you will see him as he is now donning the green and white of a Venice Indian.
Looking at Trey now it is hard to picture him ever being small. Standing at 6’2”, and weighing 210 pounds, Trey is a force to be reckoned with both on and off the field. He exudes confidence and a level of maturity that very few high school seniors, let alone fifteen-year-old sophomores have. Excuse me, Trey will be sixteen the end of October.
“Ever since I knew what football was I’ve wanted to play”, says Burton. Playing football runs in the family. His grandfather, Larry Burton, who was drafted by the New Orleans Saints in 1975 as their number one pick, played at wide out in the NFL.
When Trey was in eighth grade he couldn’t play pop-Warner because he was too big. “I almost went and played for the Redskins, but I had to weigh 150 pounds.” He was 175 at the time. “I would have had to lose twenty-five pounds, and I knew I was going to play high school the next year. So I sat out a year. I realized how much I missed playing.” That year Trey started playing basketball, he is now a Captain on the Indian’s team. He was also elected to the football squad’s Leadership Council this year.
It wasn’t too long ago that the talk of the town was a kid named Tre who played for the Venice Indians. He had overwhelming athletic ability, and was a show all by himself. Friday night was his night and the football field was his to shine on. Venice has since seen Tre Smith, who helped the Indians win a State Championship in 2000, graduate and go on to become an Auburn Tiger. Fast-forward six years, and the talk of the town is still a boy named Trey. When Tre Smith was playing for Venice, and even after his graduation, community members would constantly talk about him. It didn’t matter if you knew him or not. You would always hear, “Hey, I knew Tre Smith”, or “I remember this one time I saw Tre at…” he had that draw over a lot of people. He had captured the town and everyone in it. This Trey has the same effect on people that Smith had. You can’t help but want to attach yourself to him because you know you’re witnessing something special.
How special? Well, Venice hasn’t had a quarterback throw for over a thousand yards in a regular ten game season in a very long time. It didn’t happen in 2003 when the Indians went to the Regional Finals. It didn’t happen in 2002 when they won the Region and played in the State Semi’s, and it did not happen when they won a State Championship in 2000. The 2007 Indians have only played six games thus far, Trey already has racked up 857 yards, and is on pace to crack a thousand in a game or two. He is the number one rated quarterback in the area with 54 completions out of 99 attempts, with only one interception. All of this coming from a kid who hasn’t taken a snap at quarterback since he played flag football. Trey is also Venice’s second leading rusher behind Paul Costanzo with 395 yards. Talking to Mike Bartlett, who is Trey’s position coach, he says that Trey is a phenomenal athlete who understands the game and is willing to learn. “You could play Trey at any position on the field, he is just that type of athlete, he has the build. It is a pleasure to work with him. He is very intelligent and because he never played this position it is easy to teach him. Trey is constantly listening and asking questions, we didn’t have to break him of any bad habits, it has been really fun.”
What makes Trey truly special is his relationship with the rest of his team. Even though he is younger than the seniors that he is playing with, they all respect him and treat him as their equal. Trey thrives under pressure and that translates into some of the respect he has garnered from teammates. This year’s team is much closer than they have been in the past. “We are very close this year, says Burton. “Unlike last year where everyone was kind of in their own little groups, we are a team. Coach Peacock has done a really good job of holding everyone accountable. We are all well disciplined and working hard. You can see that it is paying off.” When you ask Trey about his future he says that he would love to play at the next level, especially for Florida, but he is not too concerned with that right now. He has a “the future is now” type of attitude. “I don’t care about down the road right now. I want to win States, we have a really special team this year, and this could be our best shot. I’ve played with these seniors for so long, and they’ve done so much for me, that if I can have something to do with it, to get there, I want to do something for them.”
Trey Burton and the Venice Indians have the opportunity to take a huge step towards their goal tonight. With a win over Charlotte it pretty much guarantees a play-off birth, and a shot at the district title next week against Manatee. This is a big game tonight for the Indians. We will see just how good Trey is under pressure. Trey’s response, “I love it, the more pressure the better.”
If you look at photos of Trey growing up, and his mom has a lot of him and his brothers, you will see a little boy holding a football in almost everyone. You will see him playing flag football, running around in the yellow and green colors of the Venice Vikings pop-Warner program, and you will see him as he is now donning the green and white of a Venice Indian.
Looking at Trey now it is hard to picture him ever being small. Standing at 6’2”, and weighing 210 pounds, Trey is a force to be reckoned with both on and off the field. He exudes confidence and a level of maturity that very few high school seniors, let alone fifteen-year-old sophomores have. Excuse me, Trey will be sixteen the end of October.
“Ever since I knew what football was I’ve wanted to play”, says Burton. Playing football runs in the family. His grandfather, Larry Burton, who was drafted by the New Orleans Saints in 1975 as their number one pick, played at wide out in the NFL.
When Trey was in eighth grade he couldn’t play pop-Warner because he was too big. “I almost went and played for the Redskins, but I had to weigh 150 pounds.” He was 175 at the time. “I would have had to lose twenty-five pounds, and I knew I was going to play high school the next year. So I sat out a year. I realized how much I missed playing.” That year Trey started playing basketball, he is now a Captain on the Indian’s team. He was also elected to the football squad’s Leadership Council this year.
It wasn’t too long ago that the talk of the town was a kid named Tre who played for the Venice Indians. He had overwhelming athletic ability, and was a show all by himself. Friday night was his night and the football field was his to shine on. Venice has since seen Tre Smith, who helped the Indians win a State Championship in 2000, graduate and go on to become an Auburn Tiger. Fast-forward six years, and the talk of the town is still a boy named Trey. When Tre Smith was playing for Venice, and even after his graduation, community members would constantly talk about him. It didn’t matter if you knew him or not. You would always hear, “Hey, I knew Tre Smith”, or “I remember this one time I saw Tre at…” he had that draw over a lot of people. He had captured the town and everyone in it. This Trey has the same effect on people that Smith had. You can’t help but want to attach yourself to him because you know you’re witnessing something special.
How special? Well, Venice hasn’t had a quarterback throw for over a thousand yards in a regular ten game season in a very long time. It didn’t happen in 2003 when the Indians went to the Regional Finals. It didn’t happen in 2002 when they won the Region and played in the State Semi’s, and it did not happen when they won a State Championship in 2000. The 2007 Indians have only played six games thus far, Trey already has racked up 857 yards, and is on pace to crack a thousand in a game or two. He is the number one rated quarterback in the area with 54 completions out of 99 attempts, with only one interception. All of this coming from a kid who hasn’t taken a snap at quarterback since he played flag football. Trey is also Venice’s second leading rusher behind Paul Costanzo with 395 yards. Talking to Mike Bartlett, who is Trey’s position coach, he says that Trey is a phenomenal athlete who understands the game and is willing to learn. “You could play Trey at any position on the field, he is just that type of athlete, he has the build. It is a pleasure to work with him. He is very intelligent and because he never played this position it is easy to teach him. Trey is constantly listening and asking questions, we didn’t have to break him of any bad habits, it has been really fun.”
What makes Trey truly special is his relationship with the rest of his team. Even though he is younger than the seniors that he is playing with, they all respect him and treat him as their equal. Trey thrives under pressure and that translates into some of the respect he has garnered from teammates. This year’s team is much closer than they have been in the past. “We are very close this year, says Burton. “Unlike last year where everyone was kind of in their own little groups, we are a team. Coach Peacock has done a really good job of holding everyone accountable. We are all well disciplined and working hard. You can see that it is paying off.” When you ask Trey about his future he says that he would love to play at the next level, especially for Florida, but he is not too concerned with that right now. He has a “the future is now” type of attitude. “I don’t care about down the road right now. I want to win States, we have a really special team this year, and this could be our best shot. I’ve played with these seniors for so long, and they’ve done so much for me, that if I can have something to do with it, to get there, I want to do something for them.”
Trey Burton and the Venice Indians have the opportunity to take a huge step towards their goal tonight. With a win over Charlotte it pretty much guarantees a play-off birth, and a shot at the district title next week against Manatee. This is a big game tonight for the Indians. We will see just how good Trey is under pressure. Trey’s response, “I love it, the more pressure the better.”
