This year, the village gets to root for one of their own, Trevor Bassitt.
BLUFFTON, OH (WLIO) - More people than ever are tuning into this year's Olympics. School faculty who knew the hometown Olympian in his teens tell us more about the mark that a local kid turned world-class athlete leaves on a high school sports program.
"The community's been totally excited. I mean, there's signs up all over town; people are talking about it wherever you go, so there's a great deal of buzz, and we're really excited and proud of what he's doing."
Bluffton is home to just under 4,000 people, less than half of the number of Olympians competing in Paris. This year, the village gets to root for one of their own, Trevor Bassitt.
"The community's been totally excited. I mean, there's signs up all over town; people are talking about it wherever you go, so there's a great deal of buzz, and we're really excited and proud of what he's doing," said Mike Minnig, the principal of Bluffton High School. "Most of the people here in Bluffton were watching the Olympic Trials and seeing if he was going to make it."
"We were watching it on TV, and it was pretty cool. I gave my wife a high five, just very ecstatic about it," recalled Bluffton track coach Bill Theisen. "The odds of somebody going that far are pretty slim, and it's just incredibly impressive that he made it that far."
He's even come home several times to help current Bluffton track and field athletes prepare for their own state bids.
Hurdler Trevor Bassitt is used to the view from the top. He brought home two state titles for the Bluffton High School track and field team, 10 national championships at Ashland University, and he earned four medals in 2022 and 2023 at the World Athletics Championships and World Athletics Indoor Championships. Though nobody knew it at the time, the signs that Bassitt would one day make it to the Olympics were always there.
"He just got better and better and better as the years went by. Bigger and stronger, and just got faster and faster. He did work very, very hard at it. Even in the winter, when he was training for basketball, he put in some time for running also. Just a really good athlete that puts in a lot of time," Theisen added.
He lives in Florida now, but Trevor hasn't forgotten his roots. He's even come home several times to help current Bluffton track and field athletes prepare for their own state bids. Now that he adds the title of Olympian to his laundry list of accolades, he's going to be a positive influence on all Bluffton kids for years to come.
Trevor Bassitt competes in the first round of the 400-meter hurdles at 4 a.m. on Monday, August 5th.
"I think it'll be a great motivational factor, just to say your friend, your neighbor, somebody just like you, worked hard enough, trained hard enough, and was able to do this great thing of making it into the Olympics," Theisen said.
"Kids know who he is right now. They know the families, and it's a small, knit community. So, they know that with hard work and if you're blessed, then you might have an opportunity to really do some great things. Whether it's the Olympics or anything else beyond, so yeah, it does provide a great deal of inspiration for a number of our kids to really work hard and follow their dreams," Minnig said.
Trevor Bassitt competes in the first round of the 400-meter hurdles at 4 a.m. on Monday, August 5th. You can watch live on USA Network, Peacock, or NBCOlympics.com.
