He lost his son just before the season, but Friday nights are still their bond

Friday nights used to be an escape for Charles Truitt, a place where he could coach the game he loved alongside his son.

Now, Friday is the hardest part of his week.

Randolph-Clay’s football coach had a pregame routine with his son, Brenton Truitt, who was his assistant defensive coordinator and linebackers coach. Between team meetings and warm-up drills, the Truitts would sit down for 10 minutes to review their game plan.

Football was central to Brenton and Charles’ relationship. Brenton was a standout linebacker for his dad at Monroe — where the elder Truitt coached from 2004 to 2020 — and he coached under his father at Randolph-Clay for the last three years of his life.

Football was also one of the last things they talked about before Brenton died in a three-vehicle crash July 27, less than a month before the start of the season. Brenton and Charles lived close to each other, and they left practice around the same time that Monday night.

Charles wasn’t far behind his son when the accident occurred.

“That’s a feeling I want no parent to (feel). When you pull up and you see your child, and then you’re trying to perform CPR on your child, and you’re trying to get him going,” Truitt said. “That was a tough pill to swallow, but I guess sometimes we can’t understand exactly why it happened, but it happened.”

Truitt lost his other son, Brandon Truitt, four years ago to a sudden illness. Charles and his wife were suddenly reliving their worst nightmare.

“It’s hard. We’re just leaning on our faith right now because we don’t understand why things happen,” Truitt said. “We understand that we aren’t always able to live on Earth, but at the same time, I guess you’d say it’s not fortunate to lose two young men and two great guys in that time frame.

“So it’s hard. It’s a test, and we try to deal with it, but we have good days and bad days.”

Through the tragedy, Truitt said he finds gratitude knowing he was able to coach and then later coach with Brenton.

“Just being able to coach him in high school and then turn around and be able to see how well he did as a coach himself was really one of the fondest memories I had,” Truitt said.

Senior linebacker Dre’Shawn Clyde played for Brenton for three years. He said the son’s coaching style was a lot like the father’s, but he compared Brenton to family.

“He was just so comfortable around us to (where) we could talk to him about anything we needed to,” Clyde said. “Being like us, like an older brother basically.”

Charles Truitt has leaned on Clyde and other players over the past few months. The 24-year head coach took just two weeks off after the accident before returning to coaching.

Getting back into football without his son was difficult for Truitt, but the Red Devils have tried to help however they can.

“That first two weeks off, I just couldn’t see myself going out there without him,” Truitt said. “But once I got out there and the kids were encouraging me and they were into it, it made it better.”

He also credited support from the Randolph-Clay community as crucial to his recovery.

“It’s just been so important,” Truitt said. “It’s been people coming out from everywhere to support and give us prayer. It’s really the reason why me and my wife have still been able to go to work and be functional.”