Well, at least that Eisenhower High School senior Owen Trumbull never gets tired of.

After the Knights had a perfect 2020 regular season, the quarterback/defensive back was named Region 5 Player of the Year.

The 6-foot-4 co-captain and three-year starter for the Knights had a stellar senior season, completing 79-of-128 passes for 1,294 yards and 18 touchdown passes with just three interceptions. He also rushed 44 times for 388 yards and five more touchdowns.

The offensive highlight of Trumbull’s season was an 11-for-14 performance for 252 yards and six touchdowns against Iroquois.

Trumbull also started at defensive back and had 11 solo tackles, 25 assisted tackles, and six tackles for loss.

Let’s just say, he was good. Good enough to get an opportunity to play for Division III Thiel College, beginning this fall.

“Well, with Owen, he’s easily one of the best leaders I’ve had,” said Eisenhower head football coach Jim Penley. “The only way to get to the point where you can be that kind of leader is you, yourself have to do the work, and Owen put in countless hours into being the best ballplayer and teammate he could be. That’s what makes Owen so special. When he would tell you that he needs you to do something, or he needs you to show up to practice, or he needs you to work harder in a lift, there were very few guys that I’ve had who could command that because they themselves work as hard or harder than they were asking you to do as a teammate.

“As a coach, it was great working with him because he would not only do just about anything you asked, but he was also going to ask a hundred questions on how we could get better. It wasn’t just good enough to do what you said, but he wanted to find a way to be even better than what you asked for. And as a quarterback he was just an exceptionally bright competitor. I’ve been blessed to have some really good quarterbacks and he’s there with every one of those guys that were outstanding in terms of his understanding of the game.

“I know that as a competitor, he’s going to a program where he will definitely be counted on heavily, but kind of like an old coach once told me, I know that he will be successful because he’s going to work harder than everyone else around him,” Penley added. “And the reason he’ll be successful when he goes to Thiel is the same reason why he was so important to our team.”

The son of Mark and Wendy Trumbull of Lottsville, Owen has always wanted the ball in his hands. What ball has always depended on the time of year.

“All of the sports I have played have been a great passion of mine because of the fact that I like to compete and stay active,” said Owen. “Football was a little different from the first day because there’s something about getting knocked down and getting back up that you never get tired of.

“Some of my greatest memories from youth league on up consist of being able to play with my friends since the first day of football and going undefeated in youth league and reliving it my senior year,” said Trumbull, who quarterbacked the Knights to a 7-0 regular season in the fall, with Eisenhower winning in double-overtime over West Middlesex, 22-21, in the District 10 1A semifinals before falling in the D10 title game to Reynolds.

“I guess it was a foreshadowing of the future,” said Trumbull. “The West Middlesex game this season to advance to the D10 championship is a very fond memory, but there are several more memories that took place that will forever be etched in my memory.”

He’s not done making memories; not by a long shot.

“The decision was very difficult because of the several great schools I had offers from, but Thiel stood out because of their friendly students and staff, as well as their smaller on-campus student size,” said Trumbull. “My goals at Thiel consist of learning from my teammates and creating a new culture within the rebuild of the program. Overall, our goal as a team is going to be to win. A personal goal I have is just be the absolute best football player I can be.”

Trumbull has the vision and drive and character to get there.

“I am going to major in environmental science, specifically focusing on wildlife and forestry,” he said. “After graduation, I hope to secure a job with the Forest Service or Pennsylvania Game Commission — around the Warren County area is the dream.”

Owen’s parents and people close to him have obviously taught him to set goals and dreams, and that hard work is how you reach them.

“Lots of people have had influence on my career as a football player and individual,” said Owen. “When I was young my dad would always tell me, ‘On the field, be an animal, but as soon as you step off for the day, be a nice, polite kid.’ This is something I live by.

“My mother would also push for me to be a nice, young man,” said Owen. “My coaches and teammates have pushed me to become as good of a player as I can be, as well setting me up with opportunities to succeed.”

That echoes the sentiments expressed by one of Trumbull’s teammates, lineman Jared Beers, who has also committed to Thiel.

“Yes, we talked about how much we liked the staff and campus as a whole,” said Trumbull of Beers, “as well as thinking it would be cool to continue the dream of playing football for another four years. I think it hit me when I first visited there, it felt like I had already been there, and that’s when I knew it was going to be the school.”

As he once told his dad when he was little, “I can do this. I can be the quarterback.”

And much more than that.

“I always hear people talk about this player’s a captain or that player’s a captain,” said Penley, “but being a captain is more than a title. Being a leader means that you’re the type of person who will yourself work harder and take a team where you want them to go. In my opinion, there are very few leaders out there. I was blessed to have a number of them this year, which showed in the win-loss record. But just because someone says they’re a leader or just because people listen doesn’t mean that they’re a leader.

“A leader has to have people follow them, and if nobody follows you or if you can’t be successful then you’re not really leading,” Penley added. “And Owen is a leader and that’s what made him so special and is going to make him special when he goes to Thiel.”