State hoops: Oxford tragedy hits close to home for Oakland's Trey Townsend

Trey Townsend was a sophomore in high school in early 2018, when the nation was rocked by a school shooting in Parkland, Florida, where 17 students were killed and 17 more were injured.

Townsend and his classmates at Oxford High School put together a large care package for their fellow students, living nearly 1,400 miles away, including cards and donations, thoughts and prayers.

"You're thinking how big a tragedy it is," said Townsend, "but you're not thinking it could ever happen to you.

"But it really can just happen anywhere."

Townsend, who graduated from Oxford High in the spring of 2020 and now is a sophomore basketball player at Oakland University, was in the chair getting his hair cut at Kingdom Cuts near campus in the early afternoon of Nov. 30, with Golden Grizzlies practice done for the day, when a teammate who was with him started getting texts about a shooting. At first, Townsend assumed the shooting was in Chicago, because that's where teammate Chris Conway is from. 

It didn't take much longer for reality to set in that the shooting was happening in the halls where Townsend spent four years, and where his sister, Rachel, currently attends. Townsend quickly left the salon and hightailed it to the family home in Oxford.

Rachel had escaped the school, a friend of hers had a car, and they made it across the street, and eventually to the nearby Meijer, which served as a gathering and reuniting spot for parents and children.

Rachel was OK, at least physically; several Oxford students were not, including four, Townsend family friend and football star Tate Myre among them, were killed.

"I went home to be with my sister," Townsend said. "I don't think the toll of everything that happened had set in. She was kind of finding out information just as everyone else was. There were a lot of emotions, but the full extend hadn't hit her yet."

Before long, the extent was evident — Oxford was home to the deadliest school shooting in the United States since 2018, and believed to be the deadliest in Michigan since 1927. Three students, Myre, Madisyn Baldwin and Hana St Juliana, died the day of the attack. A fourth, Justin Shilling, died the following day. Seven others were injured, including one teacher. One victim remains hospitalized.

Townsend, frankly, didn't get much time to process the magnitude of the tragedy because he was on the road with Oakland basketball for three games, in Chicago, Indianapolis and Bowling Green, Ohio, from Dec. 2-7. Townsend tried to pour his emotions onto the court, and scored 22 in a win over UIC, 14 in a win over IUPUI, and seven in a loss at Bowling Green, against whom he missed a last-second layup that would've led to a victory. On a typical day, the miss would've been crushing.

But perspective becomes clearer in the wake of tragedy.

"Definitely," said Townsend, 19, one of five children of Skip Townsend and Nicole Leigh, themselves both ex-Oakland basketball players. "After the whole situation, you just look at everything and you just appreciate, not just basketball, but every facet of life. I won't ever take the smallest thing for granted again, even something like just saying 'hi' to a family member.

"From this moment on, you just don't take those small things for granted."

Because he was out of town playing games, Townsend wasn't able to participate in many of the Oxford community gatherings or vigils. He watched from afar, impressed by the outpouring of support.

To deal with his own grief, Townsend, while on the road, put together a 2-minute tribute video to Myre, 16, a junior football star and wrestler who was a good friend of Rachel's. He'd been over to the Townsend house. Townsend was a senior when Tate was a freshman, and Townsend was good friends with Myre's older brother Trent, and Zach Townsend was friends with a third Myre brother, Tye.

An aspiring photographer and videographer, Trey Townsend attended several Oxford varsity football games this fall, and it just so happened he ended up with a lot of footage of Tate. He wanted the world to see what he saw — a great person, a great athlete, who was being recruited by several Division I schools — but in many ways it was therapeutic for Townsend. The video was posted Dec. 3, with the caption, "A hero, A star athlete, A great friend, A great person, 1 of 4 beautiful souls taken from us too soon. Rest easy TM42."

The video has been viewed more than 300,000 times. It was one of several tributes, particularly from the sports community, that came in for Oxford. The Michigan football team wore a patch with Myre's initials and No. 42, as well as four blue hearts for the four victims during its win over Iowa in the Big Ten championship game. Michigan scored 42 points in the game; Myre's family participated in the coin toss. The Michigan women's basketball team unveiled a patch in Sunday's win over Minnesota, with the initials of basketball player St. Juliana, and her No. 52. St. Juliana's season was to start the week of the shooting. Michigan welcomed players from the Oxford girls basketball teams to the game, just as Michigan State welcomed Oxford athletes to its win over Penn State on Saturday. Football coach Mel Tucker met with the athletes. Lions coach Dan Campbell gave the game ball from his first victory to the community of Oxford.

Oakland, the county's lone Division I school, will honor Oxford with a moment of silence before the game against Michigan State at Little Caesars Arena on Tuesday, Dec. 21.

And Townsend will honor Oxford every game he plays.

"I play for everything that happened," Townsend said. "I play for the town of Oxford.

"We all have each other's backs."

Slam dunks

►The Michigan State women's team suffered another big loss last week when Alyza Winston, a junior guard from Muskegon who was second on the team in scoring at 12.2 points, surprisingly entered the transfer portal. No reason was given, with Winston writing on Twitter, "I am super excited to see where the rest of my journey takes me," while also thanking the coaching staff, including head coach Suzy Merchant. Michigan State already was without two starters from last year, senior guard/forward Tory Ozment and junior guard Julie Ayrault, lost to season-ending injuries before the season even began. The Spartans are testing their depth, and are 7-4, including a 75-60 win over Illinois on Thursday in their first game without Winston. Matilda Ekh had 20 points in that win, and was named Big Ten freshman of the week.

►In all the years of the Convocation Center, which opened in Ypsilanti in 1998, Eastern Michigan men never played a four-overtime game. In one game at the newly renamed George Gervin Center, the Eagles have played one, beating Florida International, 92-88, on Saturday, the day they celebrated the "Iceman." It was the first four-OT game in program history, and could prove to be a turning point in Stan Health's first year as coach. Eastern Michigan improved to 5-5, rallying from 13 points in the second half, thanks to the play of a dynamic duo in freshman Noah Farrakhan (27 points) and junior Bryce McBride (15 points, clutch 3's), the latter the Mid-American Conference player of the week. Senior Monty Scott (17 points, 11 rebounds) and freshman Mo Njie (10 points, 11 rebounds) had double-doubles.

►Former Western Michigan men's coach Steve Hawkins made his debut as head coach at Portage Northern last week, his team falling to Kalamazoo Christian, 47-40. K-Christian is led by first-year coach Seth Dugan, who played for Hawkins at WMU. "I taught the young pup too well," Hawkins wrote on Facebook this week. "It was so much fun to be on the floor coaching with Seth on the other side. So proud of him." Hawkins is coaching high school for the first time since 1984. He coached WMU from 2003-20.

►Detroit Mercy men played their first nine games of the season on the road. The Titans made their home debut Saturday with an 83-64 win over Western Michigan — their first of seven straight home games, the program's longest home stand in more than three decades. Senior Antoine Davis (20 points, 10 assists) led the way and now is 60 points from the program career record, and junior Madut Akec (18 points, 12 rebounds) also had a double-double.

►Oakland senior Kahlaijah Dean was named Horizon League co-player of the week after scoring a career-high 34 in a 79-58 win at Central Michigan on Tuesday. Dean was 11-for-16 from the floor, 4-for-7 on 3-pointers, and 8-for-8 from the free-throw line for the Golden Grizzlies (4-5). 

►The Mott Community College men's basketball team is 9-0 and ranked No. 1 in the nation in the NJCAA Division II poll. The program is looking for a fifth national championship this century, and first since 2012.

State power rankings

MEN

1. Michigan State (9-2)

2. Michigan (6-4)

3. Oakland (7-3)

4. Detroit Mercy (3-7) 

5. Eastern Michigan (5-5)

6. Western Michigan (3-6)

7. Central Michigan (1-9)

WOMEN

1. Michigan (10-1)

2. Michigan State (7-4)

3. Oakland (4-5)

4. Western Michigan (6-2)

5. Eastern Michigan (3-4)

6. Central Michigan (2-6)

7. Detroit Mercy (0-9)

Games of the week

MEN

►Southern Utah at Michigan, 7 Saturday (BTN)

►Central Michigan at Detroit Mercy, 1 Sunday (ESPN+)

►Western Michigan at Notre Dame, 8 Monday, Dec. 20 (ESPN+)

►Michigan State vs. Oakland, at LCA, 7:30 Tuesday, Dec. 21 (TV20)

WOMEN

►Eastern Michigan at IUPUI, 2 Saturday

►Michigan vs. Baylor, at Connecticut, 1 Sunday (ESPN)

►Western Michigan at Indiana, 1 Sunday

►Central Michigan at Green Bay, 8 Monday, Dec. 20

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tpaul@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @tonypaul1984