By James Massara

NEW WASHINGTON – “He loved the weight room, and he loved you.”

Buckeye Central football coach Rob Detterman spoke those words to his players as they stood inside the Buckeye Central weight room the afternoon of Monday, Aug. 7. The players were standing among various new pieces of equipment donated by a family looking to give back to a community who supported them.

When a family lost a son, its members looked to make a difference at his favorite place to be.

Bryce’s parents, Tevin and Matt Drosky and Kelly and Lona Lutz, took $12,000 leftover from the donations given to the family and bought brand new equipment including new bars, weight cages, waist belts, a surround-sound stereo system, a fan and 1,200 pounds of weights.

“We wanted to start a scholarship fund, but didn’t have the $25,000 needed up front to start it,” Tevin Drosky said. “We decided to put it into the weight room, because it was his second home.”

Junior football player Grant Bishop, son of the late coach Brett Bishop, said the Bucks know the best way to honor Bryce, coach Bishop and Tyler Niese, whose pictures all hang on the wall of the weight room, is to give everything they have to the program.

“We need to work hard,” Grant Bishop said. “The guys whose pictures are on the wall, they gave everything they had every day to this team and we need to work just as hard as they did.”

Detterman echoed his player’s sentiments.

“I’m not going to say we’re going to go out and win every game in their honor,” he said. “But we will go out there every day and work as hard as we can for them.”

Detterman said the three plaques on the wall will be constant reminders of the need to work hard in their fallen teammates’ honor.

“These guys currently on the team, they knew Bryce personally,” Detterman said. “But those plaques will tell all the future players who use this room about the work ethic some guys had before them.”

The team lined up and thanked the family members present at the unveiling of the weight room before heading to practice. The Bucks also recently named Bryce’s 9-year-old brother Braden Drosky as the honorary captain for the Bucks first game of the season.

Tevin Drosky said any funds collected in Bryce’s honor will continue to fund improvements to the athletic facility.