All eyes in Bluffton were on Paris as the hometown hero Trevor Bassitt raced in the men's 400-meter hurdles semi-final Wednesday.
BLUFFTON, OH (WLIO) - All eyes in Bluffton were on Paris as the hometown hero Trevor Bassitt raced in the men's 400-meter hurdles semi-final Wednesday.
The support shown for Trevor by his hometown is something that can inspire Pirates of all ages and a renewed sense of pride.
Roughly 200 people packed the stands as the community gathered in the Bluffton High School gymnasium, watching the Bluffton Pirate turned United States Olympian compete. The word was put out Tuesday after Trevor had qualified for the semi-final. All ages were present as some kids made signs and painted their bodies, and some who had seen Trevor grow up from a boy to a young man. The show-out crowd shows just how close the Bluffton community is and that "once a Pirate, always a Pirate."
The word was put out Tuesday after Trevor had qualified for the semi-final.
"Trevor's a great kid. Once after he graduated at a football game he was walking along the rail, I was in the crowd and I yelled out 'There goes a champion.' and he kept walking and turned his head a little bit and said thank you. Little did I know he was gonna be a great champion," said Bill Herr, former math teacher at Bluffton High School.
The support shown for Trevor by his hometown is something that can inspire Pirates of all ages and a renewed sense of pride.
The Allen County native improved upon his round one time by over a second, crossing the line fourth in his heat in Wednesday's 400m hurdles.
"There's always a lot of support, and when that crowd made that loud noise just before the race, that's why I've always said Pirate Pride is forever and Trevor is helping to make that true," added Herr.
"He's the best. He's gotten so far. It's not every day that somebody from Bluffton, Ohio, gets to go to the Olympics," commented a group of young fans.
Bassitt was less than a tenth of a second behind the cutoff.
The Allen County native improved upon his round one time by over a second, crossing the line fourth in his heat in Wednesday's 400m hurdles. After the top two finishers clinched the finals, there are two more at-large bids to claim. Yet when the dust settled, Bassitt was less than a tenth of a second behind the cutoff. He and his teammate C.J. Allen were the first two out, and Trevor's historic Olympic journey came to an end. Trevor is Allen County's first Olympian in 88 years.
