VICKSBURG, Mich. — Long before Travis Van fired up Vicksburg football locker rooms with his dance moves, broke down postgame huddles or became known simply as “Coach Trav,” the Bulldogs found a way to give him something he’d never forget.
One play.
It was Oct. 16, 2009, and Van, a Vicksburg senior with Down syndrome who already led the Bulldogs onto the field each week, suited up for the first time and stepped under the Friday night lights.
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For his father, Roger, watching his son play the sport he loved is a moment that still sticks 17 years later.
“It doesn’t get any better than that, being out on a field at a high school on a Friday night,” Roger Van recalled.
One snap eventually became 16 more years on a Vicksburg sideline.
Since graduating in 2010, “Coach Trav” has become one of the most recognizable faces not just around Vicksburg football, but across the entire Bulldog community. His infectious energy lights up practices, his dance moves bring laughter to the locker room and his postgame breakdowns have become part of the memories shared by generations of players.
Now, after 16 years on the Bulldogs’ sideline, 35-year-old Coach Trav is set to retire from his role as an assistant football coach.
Having spent nearly 20 years of being a source of encouragement and an unforgettable presence around Vicksburg athletics, he isn’t saying goodbye either.
Long before Vicksburg football became Van’s passion, however, Vicksburg became his home.
Roger and his wife, Julie, moved their family of five into the Vicksburg school district when Travis, the oldest of three siblings, was young, searching for a better fit for their son.
What they found, Roger said, was a community that welcomed him from the start.
“This school district embraced him from day one,” Roger said. “Whether it be the principals, the teachers, and right up through (athletic director) Mr. (Mike) Roy and the football program, basketball program, and the kids, they just accepted him for what he was. And he just flourished here.”
Football was almost too perfect of a fit.
Van gravitated toward sports, particularly football, and formed a bond with longtime Vicksburg head coach Tom Marchese, who first knew Van as a student after arriving at the school roughly two decades ago.
For Marchese, that relationship felt natural.
Growing up in Pennsylvania, Marchese’s high school basketball program had a manager with Down syndrome named Andy Warner, someone Marchese remembers constantly being around the team and leading the players onto the court.
Years later, Marchese made sure Van knew there would always be a place for him around Vicksburg football.
“I’ve always told him, ‘As long as I’m here, Travis, you’re always welcome.’ And he hasn’t left since,” said Marchese, who’s in his 18th season as Vicksburg’s head coach. “That is what life is about; you take that stuff to your grave.”
Whether it was football practices, Friday nights, basketball games or even stints as a junior varsity girls basketball assistant coach, wherever the Bulldogs were, there was a pretty good chance “T-Van” wasn’t far away.
“It’s something that makes him happy,” Roger said. “When he’s out here, and he’s with these boys and he’s with these coaches, he’s happy. They’re his favorite people.
“It’s always been his happy place.”
‘We want Travis’
Eventually, simply being around Vicksburg sports became something more.
After Roger stepped away from coaching for a period, one of his son’s former teammates asked him to return to the Vicksburg staff.
Roger had one condition.
“It’s a package deal,” he remembered telling them. “If (Travis) can’t come, then I don’t come.”
No negotiation necessary.
“We want Travis,” Roger remembered Marchese saying.
What followed was a run that made Van a fixture around the program, bringing energy to practices and barking out encouragement from the sideline on game nights.
Marchese is quick to emphasize that the relationship has never been one-sided.
“Hopefully it brings some joy to his life,” Marchese said. “It actually brings a lot of joy to our life, as well.”
Players concur.
Last season, when Vicksburg was making its unforgettable postseason tear to its first-ever state semifinal, Van made sure to set the tone before the Bulldogs’ regional final against Portland.
“He was in the locker room just hyping everybody up, dancing to the music and making sure we’re all ready to go,” Vicksburg senior Bo Vallier said.
Marchese has seen Van be there for players in difficult times, doing the little things like sitting next to an injured player and put a comforting arm around them. If somebody is hurt, he’s there.
Marchese said it doesn’t take much for Van to brighten his day — even if it’s just Van yelling “Marchese!” from across the field.
“He’s on the sideline yelling my name and just pointing at me the whole time. Out of nowhere, there’s no rhyme or reason for it.”
Marchese then smiled.
“I’ll hear him in the back of my head during practice,” he said. “I’m gonna miss that. I’m gonna miss that a lot.”
The feeling is mutual.
Roger says his son and Marchese have become best friends over the years, their bond extending well beyond the football field.
Asked what he’ll remember most about his 16 years coaching the Bulldogs, Van didn’t hold back.
“My dad and the football team,” he said.
And what does he think of Marchese?
“He’s a nice guy,” Van said of Marchese. “I love him the most, I do.”
A light in the team
The players will miss Van plenty, too.
Vallier talks fondly of Van’s energy, his encouragement and the occasional reminder when he believes somebody isn’t doing his job.
“He makes practice more fun, just brings a lot of light in our team,” Vicksburg senior Graham Kubiak said.
At practice on a recent Wednesday, Van bounced from player to player, tapping Bulldogs on the shoulder as he passed. He high-fived coaches after practice and talked with quarterback Easton Moughton, who was wearing a T-shirt featuring Tennessee Titans quarterback Cam Ward.
Naturally, Van has a Titans connection of his own.
In 2017, Van was gifted a Corey Davis jersey for Christmas, and his reaction reached the former Western Michigan star receiver on social media. Roger said the family was later invited to Tennessee, where Van visited the Titans’ practice facility, met players and even got an opportunity to break down the team.
For Van, though, his favorite football sideline has always been much closer to home.
Van’s presence at the front of Vicksburg’s charge out onto the field every Friday night has become tradition. For years, he’s led the Bulldogs out onto the field and once the game ends, he’s there again, helping lead the chant after a victory.
Ask Van what he enjoys most about those postgame moments, and his answer is simple.
“It’s fun,” he said.
Marchese says that’s something he’ll never forget, particularly the game against Plainwell on Sept. 11. He’s fond of a picture taken of Van leading the team out then.
“That picture, that moment, I remember all the time,” he said.
Ask Van how it feels to lead the Bulldogs onto the field and he doesn’t need many words.
“Happy,” Van said.
Roger has seen that happiness up close for years. He says his son has a way of stripping down life to what matters most.
“The nice thing about Travis is, all the other stuff that you and I might worry about, he doesn’t worry about it,” Roger said. “His whole life is about making people happy, doing the things he wants to do.”
‘He is one of our own’
With Van giving so much to Vicksburg athletics, the Bulldogs finally stopped for a moment to return the favor earlier this fall.
At halftime of the Bulldogs’ rivalry game against Three Rivers on Sept. 25, Van was honored in front of the home crowd and community that had embraced him years earlier.
His family wore special pins declaring “Coach Trav, Bulldog Legend.” Around the stadium, others donned T-shirts bearing his name.
Van stood at midfield with his family as the home crowd applauded a man whose presence has stretched across generations of Bulldog athletes.
Then came a line over the public-address system that summed up his place in the program.
“He isn’t just someone who has been around our teams, he is one of our own.
“Thank you, T-Van.”
The crowd didn’t hold back their appreciation.
Then, Marchese and Roy presented Van with a framed No. 7 Vicksburg jersey, the same number Van wore on Oct. 16, 2009, when he stepped onto the field for that one unforgettable play.
Nearly 17 years later, Vicksburg had squared up.
“The fact that they did something that big for him,” Roger said. “It just (shows) what I’ve been saying about this school and how they are to him. They didn’t have to do anything like that. But they did.”
Marchese added: “There wasn’t a dry eye in the stadium, I don’t think.”
‘He’ll never go away’
At this point, the Van family is the fabric of the Vicksburg community.
Roger’s other children, Hunter and Jessica, both graduated from Vicksburg as well. Hunter played for the Bulldogs’ varsity football team, while Jessica returned to the district as a teacher at Vicksburg High School.
And while Van’s commitment to athletics might be different moving forward, this is hardly a farewell.
The day-to-day grind of practices has become more difficult, but attending games remains a priority. Roger says they’ll still be around on Friday nights, and there may even be opportunities for Travis to lead the Bulldogs onto the field again.
Marchese put it more simply.
“He’ll never go away,” Marchese said.
Van had a shining moment against Three Rivers this season, holding the Swine Bone Trophy high into the night sky and celebrating with the Bulldogs after a 26-21 victory.
For the current players, there isn’t a version of Vicksburg football without him.
“I feel like there won’t be another Coach Trav in Vicksburg football,” Kubiak said.
A retirement won’t change what Van’s impact has brought to Vicksburg. The Bulldogs gave Van and his family a place to belong, and he’s given plenty back.
Stepping away from coaching doesn’t mean Van is leaving the place Roger says has always made his son happiest.
Standing on Vicksburg’s football field on a recent Wednesday, Roger looked toward his son.
“You feel like you’re at home here, huh?”
“Yeah!” Travis said.
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