Friends, coaches mourn Burleson athlete who was ‘very rare kid’ on the field and off
It was Tre Allison’s first game as a sophomore starter on the Burleson High School varsity football team, after he proved himself to be a capable and quick cornerback during his freshman season. And he was nervous.
Vernon Bullock, a then-senior playing outside linebacker on defense with him, remembers Allison telling him before the August 2019 game against Copperas Cove how it felt different than the JV outings from the year before. The bleachers were packed with cheering fans, bright stadium lights illuminating the field. But Bullock told him, with the calm of a senior, “Only you can affect how the game goes — nothing out there is affecting it.”
In the third quarter, Allison sprung in front of a pass and pulled it in for a catch. The interception, Bullock said, was when the rising star came into his own, announcing he belonged on the Burleson Elks’ top squad.
Allison, 16, became a leader during the 2019-20 season who motivated teammates not only through his performance on the field but through his positive attitude, innate generosity and wise-beyond-his-years maturity, according to more than 10 people — friends, coaches and parents — who spoke with the Star-Telegram over Wednesday and Thursday.
On Monday, the first day of summer football practices, Bullock was driving Allison to meet up with friends to play sand volleyball when another car crashed into them and sped away, Bullock and Burleson police said.
Allison died at the scene. Bullock was taken to a hospital and later released.
“I don’t remember nothing from that day. I don’t even remember going to the hospital, being in the ambulance or anything,” Bullock said over the phone on Wednesday. “It hurts because that was like my little brother. If I could trade places with him, I really would. He was a good kid, man.”
Burleson police on Wednesday announced officers had arrested the driver of the other car on the charge of accident involving death. They pulled over Eric Padilla, of Burleson, shortly after the hit-and-run crash. He showed no signs of intoxication, police said.
Bullock, who has been recovering from minor injuries at home, said he’s still living in a state of shock.
“I can’t remember the last day I was with Tre. I don’t even remember our last conversation,” he said. “It don’t feel real.”
That sense of disbelief has rocked the Burleson community, as people come to terms with what happened while mourning a multi-sport athlete — on the varsity basketball and track teams too — whose impact extended far beyond sports.
More than 1,000 local residents stood with flickering candles in front of Burleson ISD Stadium on Wednesday night as friends and coaches rose to speak into a microphone to remember Allison. The crowd sent balloons soaring into the air.
Several of Allison’s closest friends and teammates described him as a teenager who had a grown-up ability to bring people together. He could end arguments, his friends said, and would discourage people from making bad choices like partying. He cared about his schoolwork, enrolling in AP classes. He hugged everyone — coaches, friends, parents.
His belief in God led him to lead a life guided by Christian values like kindness and respect, according to 17-year-old Jarrett Austin, an incoming senior on the football team. “A couple months ago, he told me, ‘All I need is God, my family and friends,’” Austin said.
To a coach, Allison was the ideal student-athlete, working hard and pushing others to join him. Nathan Vogel, the strength and conditioning coach for the football program, said he had recently given the teen a list of four lifts he could do after losing some muscle during the last basketball season.
“That kid was in there every day, doing those same four lifts for two straight weeks before the pandemic hit,” Vogel said. “That speaks to his determination to be a perfectionist in his craft, and makes him very rare for a sophomore in high school. A very rare kid.”
Monday started as a day of excitement for the football team, with the first day of practices and the introduction of new head coach Jon Kitna. But Allison’s death brought it all to a stop for the time being.
Kitna, a former NFL quarterback who played on teams including the Dallas Cowboys and Seattle Seahawks, didn’t have as much time with Allison as other coaches.
The 16-year-old still left an impression on him, the head coach said in a text message.
“Very rarely do you find individuals that their impact is felt across all lines,” Kitna said. “Tre Allison was a transcendent individual that impacted all those that were blessed enough to be in his circle of influence.”
Finding purpose on the football field
Though Allison loved basketball and track, football was the sport he wanted to play at a Division I college, and maybe one day in the NFL.
He aspired to play at the highest level so he could give back money to his parents, even as he understood the reality of that dream, his friends said. He knew the value of his education and excelled in an array of subjects like math, helping out his peers with their homework.
“He could’ve done anything he wanted to in life,” Bullock said. “But of course he wanted to go to the league. That’s what everybody wants.”
Allison met two of his best friends — 16-year-old Jaden Kindles and Austin — when they were kids playing peewee football. They became close even as they attended separate elementary schools, though they they took it upon themselves to make sure they were on the same high school team.
Austin went to Burleson first, and then insisted Allison and Kindles should transfer. So their families moved into the Burleson district zone just so they could all be together.
Kindles, who now attends Nolan Catholic High School, has been jokingly known as Allison’s twin from the time they were 4 or 5. That was partly because Allison’s real first name was also Jayden, he said. They also hit it off from the moment they met, like brothers.
The two have spent about every weekend together for years, Kindles said, playing pick-up football, or going to the movies, or walking to an area park to swing on the swing sets. Allison was a “loving person” who would “never do you wrong,” he said. He would always be there, without fail, if any of his friends needed him.
Some of Kindles’ favorite memories of Allison were when he would insist they watch a scary movie at his house, only so he could pretend to cower in fear and jump on him. Or there were all the times he wowed him on the football field.
During the second game of their freshman season, Kindles remembers, coaches brought in Allison after halftime as a running back. The team was trailing by three or four touchdowns.
Allison bolted through defenders for multiple long runs over 50 yards, making it to the endzone three times and helping lead Burleson to a victory.
“He just loved the game. He felt happy doing it,” Kindles said. “He wanted to turn his dreams into reality.”
Mike Smith, one of Allison’s close friends at Burleson High School, only played basketball when the two first met in middle school, he said. Allison convinced him to try football, which he has continued to play into high school.
The qualities that made Allison a good teammate — like loyalty — also made him a good friend, Smith said. At sleepovers at his own home, he remembers how Allison would sleep on the floor instead of his bed to be with his friends. He always “kept us together,” Smith said.
“He knew when something was wrong with you and he’d put a smile on your face,” he said. “He was the best person in the world to be cool with.”
It’s “hard to believe that my boy really gone,” he said. He’s been trying to the best of his ability to not cry, since that’s not what he thinks Allison would’ve wanted.
He got a tattoo on Tuesday on the backside of his lower left arm to memorialize his friend forever.
It reads: “Long Live Tre. #20.”
‘Something great is going to come from this tragedy’
Kevin Ozee, the Burleson district athletic director, joined the superintendent and high school principal in stopping by Allison’s family home on Wednesday evening before the vigil.
His mother, a “very strong lady,” is holding up as best as she can under the tragic circumstances, though she’s been understandably emotional, Ozee said. Several family members were surrounding her, he said, and he could see it was a loving and supportive group.
Allison’s friends told the Star-Telegram he has at least two older brothers, a younger sister and some step-siblings.
Ozee, who started as athletic director this March, told them about the first time he met the football team — and how Allison was “easy to pick out,” with a big smile and teammates gravitating to him. He also told the family that district officials want to honor him, even if they don’t know how yet.
“Something great is going to come from this tragedy, because Tre was such a great kid and so popular,” he said. “We don’t know yet what that great thing is going to be ... We’ll look back years from now and say, ‘That’s what it was.’”
The Burleson community has already shown its support for Allison’s family online, raising more than $11,500 for them through a GoFundMe page as of Thursday afternoon.
The message from the football coaching staff has been that sports aren’t a priority at this time, with practices canceled all week. The field has been left open, however, if players want to be together in that space with coaches present.
Jacob Owen, the assistant head coach of the program, said it will be completely up to the players to decide they feel it’s the right time to come back. They want to do what’s best for the kids, he said — not “what’s best for us.”
Coaches have begun discussions about how to best honor Allison this season and beyond, though they haven’t yet come to any concrete decisions.
Players and coaches who spoke with the Star-Telegram said, at the very least, he’ll be on their mind, motivating them.
On the field and off.
“He was a great athlete but an even better person,” Owen said. “God doesn’t make too many like Tre Allison.”
This story was originally published June 11, 2020 at 4:47 PM.
