BRITTON — Trevor Zuehlke is still impacting Britton-Hecla High School’s football program and community. 

In 2019, Zuehlke suffered a traumatic brain injury after he collapsed during a high school football game. The 21-year-old died on Aug. 8 after suffering a massive seizure and the family posted on his CaringBridge.com page, “It is with extremely heavy hearts that we write this. Trevor’s soul has Passed On to Heaven this morning after nearly five years of numerous struggles and battles. Trevor had been feeling a little off for a few days and yesterday morning suffered a massive seizure, and he was airlifted to Sioux Falls. He was surrounded by many loving family and friends. This struggle was his last one and now he is at complete peace with his loved ones in heaven. We appreciate all the love and support we, and especially Trevor, have received over the past years. We are so at peace knowing he is no longer dealing with hardships and struggles, and he is able to be free once again in Heaven.”

Zuehlke’s stamp on the Braves remains strong, however. Britton-Hecla football coach Jacob Skogstad said at a recent practice, assistant coach Preston Kilker encouraged the high school football players to help with the youth program. 

Because that’s what Zuehlke, who wore No. 10 for the Braves, would do. 

“We got done with practice and the youth kids were starting their practice around 5:30-6 o’clock,” Skogstad said. “One of our assistant coaches said ‘Hey, what would 10 do right now? He wouldn’t go home. He’d go help out the kids.’ I think 90% of our roster stuck around for at least a half an hour for youth football practice and helped them with some of their fundamentals. Just hung out with them. Kids look up to the high schoolers no matter who they are, and I just think it’s special and our whole program has kind of changed for the good because of what Trevor did while he was here.”

Britton-Hecla, which opens the season at Hamlin today, is now honoring Zuehlke. The Braves are wearing helmet stickers shaped as a football that say #ForTrevor and with his No. 10 in the center. 

The Britton-Hecla coaching staff, along with some current players, were behind the idea and ran it by Trevor’s parents (Nicole Stiegelmeier and Kurt Zuehlke) before ordering the stickers. 

“The kids that I have on my roster right now have all kind of grew up with Trevor showing up to their youth practices and helping them out,” Skogstad said. “So they all looked up to them. A couple of the boys actually asked if we could do something like that.”

Skogstad was not at Britton-Hecla during Zuehlke’s incident, and took over as head coach in 2020. But he immediately felt Zuehlke’s positive influence when he arrived. 

“I could just tell right when I got here the impact that he had on the whole town,” Skogstad said. “Not just the football program. So we felt it was special to kind of do something to pay our respects toward him.”

The Zuehlke family gives out scholarships through their foundation Pass It On #ForTrevor and a number of fundraisers were organized during Trevor’s recovery. 

Skogstad said the helmet stickers are a reminder to “carry ourselves the way he did.”

“He put his hand prints all over this community and all over the program,” Skogstad said. “When I got here, I was just ingrained into that whole attitude of showing up early for practice, staying late for practice, getting extra lifts when you can, watching as much film as you can. Just kind of embracing that mantra that you can always do more. I think that was really what Trevor was about.”

Donations for the foundation can be sent to: 

Pass It On #ForTrevor 

C/O Norstar Credit Union 

P.O. Box 917 

Britton, SD 57430