News : \'Deepest of all heartaches\' for CPU player\'s teammates, friends and best girl

Alexis Waddell will speak at Friday's funeral service, sharing memories of Triston Randall.

Triston and Alexis, Homecoming 2014.

Triston Randall hated photos, but smiled for this one, courtesy of 3chipmedia.com.

Classmates left tributes at Triston Randall's locker.

The cross near the crash site includes hand-written notes from several who were close to Triston.

When the grief-stricken Center Point Urbana High School student body joined the Stormin' Pointers football team in a prayer huddle Friday to mourn the death of senior Triston Randall, they surrounded Triston’s teammates, who had formed a tight circle around the classmate who was most profoundly affected by his death – cheerleader Alexis Waddell, who, two years ago today, said "Yes!" when Triston asked her to be his girl.

Alexis stood in the center of the circle as she held up Triston's helmet, which his teammates had signed, while members of the CPU Fellowship of Christian Athletes led a prayer for Triston and his family, and every student in the gym expressed the determination to do their best to take care of each other through this terrible, trying time.

"I first saw him at a lunch table when I was a freshman," says Alexis. She and Triston started talking soon after that; their friendship blossomed into romance. On April 14, 2013 he asked her to be his girlfriend.

“We were going on a walk that day, and just talking,” Alexis recalls. “I had a feeling he was going to ask me to be his girlfriend but I wasn't for sure. Eventually he said, ‘Now that I've worked up all my confidence…’”

Triston then pulled Alexis close to him and whispered “Will you be my girlfriend?”

“I said ‘Of course,’” Alexis recalls. “I swear I have never been happier.”

This week, instead of celebrating the milestone, Alexis is looking for the words to say on Friday, when she keeps a promise she made Triston last year. After seeing the movie, "The Fault in Our Stars," the pair had a tearful, five-hour discussion which led to a promise by each to speak at the funeral if the other one died first.

Triston died last Thursday, along with his younger siblings Hunter and Zoey Tuttle, and friends Quentin Ary and Nicole Jacobson. He was a passenger in a truck that was hit by a semi. The Iowa Department of Transportation has begun a review of that intersection of Highway 150 and 55th Street; local residents have said for years that the intersection, controlled only by a stop sign, is too dangerous.

Yet Alexis and her friends say they want people to remember Triston and the rest of the “Urbana Five” more for how they lived, and who they were, rather than how they died.

The day after the accident, at the home of one of her best friends, Anna Taylor, Alexis sat in the middle of the couch, with Anna on one side and Devin Havener on the other,

The three best friends laughed and cried as they shared stories about Triston. His favorite color was orange; he was a very good cook and his favorite food was pizza. He hated posing for photos. He loved helping Anna’s mother, Jennifer, with the concerts at Blitzcreek, an area on the Taylor property west of Center Point. National acts often perform there; later this month the American Hitmen, a band of former soldiers who first sang together in Afghanistan and later competed on “America’s Got Talent,” will sing there. Triston loved helping with those concerts, and listening to and meeting those performers.

He loved football, although he was not a star, or even a starter. He had to miss much of his senior season because he tore his rotator cuff – in a wrestling match with Alexis.

“Those two were like an old married couple,” says Jennifer, who recalls how they were clearly in love, but loved to argue over the littlest of issues.

Alexis tells how they once had an argument over crayons.

“I made the clouds purple,” she recalls, adding that Triston did not approve.

Part of the family

Although the couple was years away from discussing marriage, it was clear that Alexis was already very much a part of Triston’s family. She became close to his mom, Tia, and his siblings. If they were arguing, little sister Zoey was sure to take Alexis’ side and give Triston an earful.

On that tragic Thursday, when Triston and his siblings didn’t come home, Tia and Alexis both went looking for them, desperately hoping that Triston had not been involved in the horrible accident they had heard about. Alexis says she will always remember the phone call that began with Tia saying, “I’m sorry.”

After the accident, as they gathered with family and friends at the Urbana fire station, who joined them in facing the shock of the five deaths, Tia made it clear that Alexis will always be part of her family.

“She told me that now, I am her only daughter,” Alexis recalled, while her friends on the couch reached over to squeeze her hand.

‘The brother I never had’

Anna Taylor first met Triston when she arrived as a new student in seventh grade.

“The first day of class, we sat next to each other in science class,” she recalls. “Instantly we had a bond. He was the brother I never had. We had the perfect friendship, where one of us could say exactly what we thought, good or bad, and the other took it and improved themselves.”

Alexis described the day as a freshman that she came to sit with Anna and lunch and first noticed Triston.

“Yeah, I got them together,” says Anna.

‘Through and through part of the team’

While Triston’s number on the varsity team was 76, he preferred the number 53 he wore as a freshman and sophomore.

Although Triston knew he wasn't going to play in his senior season because of his injury, he was there until the season ended, doing what he could to help his teammates.

“Being a cheerleader I was lucky enough to see every one of Triston’s games,” Alexis says. “He always had so much heart in football. I swear that from August to November, that's all he would talk about. His eyes would light up so brightly and he would beam talking about different plays and his teammates. Even though he knew I may not have known everything about what he was talking about, he would still share stories anyway and I'm so glad he did. I know I will never lose that memory.”

Triston teammates have many memories of how his efforts helped them become better players.

“He made himself a part of this team by a bond through and through,” said Stormin’ Pointer freshman Tyler Childress. “Triston was selfless on that football field. Playing or not playing, he protected his family and every man at CPU is part of that family.”

Tyler remembers one specific story that demonstrates how Triston loved working one-on-one with the members of his football family.

“He was running me through drills and finally we got to the 40-yard dash,” says Tyler, who adds that this story offers much insight into Triston’s role on the team.

“We started with Triston; he ran a 4.8 and to play tight end you gotta be somewhat fast,” said Tyler, whose time was 5 seconds flat.

Triston then made a surprising promise: He said he could help Tyler cut a half-second from his time.

“If you know football, you know that's physically impossible,” says Tyler.

But Triston stayed with Tyler on that field from 10 in the morning to 8 at night.

“It was getting late and Triston was making me run 40s constantly,” Tyler remembers. “I finally just got so frustrated and I quit.”

But Taylor wouldn’t let him stop.

“He grabbed me and dragged me back on that field, telling me, ‘I'm a man of my word and if you don't want this neither do I. But if you do, we're going to get this 40.’"

Tyler believed him; he says he will always remember how that faith and hard work paid off.

“Triston got set at the end zone and I ran it again; this time I ran a 4.6, my record time. It was not quite a half-second, but it was my record time and Triston did it all for me because he knew I wanted to be faster,” says the freshman. “He always told me I can get it and truly without him I'd be a very different athlete with a very different head on my shoulders.”

Triston has been there for Tyler for years; not having him there is going to be very hard, he says. But the lessons Triston taught Tyler will remain through high school and beyond.

“Triston basically protected me up until now,” says Tyler. “Going from having him with me for more half my lift to not having him here at all is hard. But I know Triston wants me to try awfully hard to get an athletic scholarship.”

The football players will give Triston's helmet to his family.

Future plans

Triston, as a senior, was considering both college and career options; he had scheduled a field trip to Modern Piping in Cedar Rapids for last Friday. Yet, says Alexis, Triston had made it clear that being near her was a very important factor in his future plans.

“He told me he would go to Kirkwood for a year, and then if I went to Upper Iowa, he would go there, too,” says Alexis, who is currently a junior

Just hours before the accident, Alexis was giving Triston another one of her motivational speeches, reminding him that “He could do anything his set his mind to do.”

“Just 24 hours ago I was telling him that,” said Alexis.

Yet it’s her last conversation with Triston that will haunt Alexis forever.

“After school on Thursday, I asked if he wanted to ride home from school with me. But he said no; he needed to ride with his siblings.”

If she knew what was going to happen next, she says, she would have done anything to make him get in her car instead.

'Make him smile'

Now, as she marks what would have been their second anniversary, Alexis is pondering what to say, and wondering how she will be able to stand in front of the mourners in the grandstands and tell Triston’s story.

This week, Alexis wrote on a white cross a phrase she and Triston said to each other often over the past two years: "Forever & always, you and me every day." That cross now stands near the spot where Triston died.

"This is the deepest of all heartbreaks," Alexis wrote on her Facebook wall immediately after the accident.

“I have done a lot of thinking on what to say,” she says. “I feel like there are a million things to say but not enough time to talk. I just hope whatever I come up with will make him smile up there. I hope he realizes how much I love that kid.”