COLUMN: Hempfield's Trimble is one part discipline, one part obsession

Anyone that belongs to a gym/health club knows that Saturday afternoon is prime time for the gym rats to feed, so to speak, in an empty facility. Let's face it, it's a time when most people are out socializing or following through on plans they made throughout the work/school week.

For high school students, the weekends are sacred. Most of the week is simply preparation and anticipation for the Friday-Sunday events.

So you can imagine my surprise when I noticed a young man pushing himself to the limit in the gym a few weeks ago in the heart of a beautiful Saturday afternoon.

As I walked by the young man, I realized that I had met him before. It was Hempfield defensive end Nate Trimble, who I had had interviewed last season after he made a game-winning sack against Lampeter-Strasburg in his first varsity start. READ ABOUT IT HERE

Trimble and I briefly chit-chatted about the stuff that "gym bros" typically discuss but the fact that a 17-year-old was sacrificing the best hours of the weekend didn't really hit me until I was on my way home.

"I love when people call me a 'gym rat'", Trimble said. "If I could rent out a room at the gym, I would. I think I could live there."

The soon-to-be senior thought back to when his obsession with working out began.

"It started around eighth grade. I don't know what it was or what lit the fire under me but the gym was always a way for me to get away from things and get time for myself. If I was feeling angry or stressed, the gym was the place to be."

In addition to giving up time on the weekends, Trimble has a weekly schedule that can only be classified as crazy; juggling school, a job, football and working out.

"During the school year, I'd wake up around 3 or 3:30am and go to the gym for 2-3 hours, get a shower there and then head straight to school for seven hours," Trimble said. "After school, I'd go to football until 6pm and then I would either go to work or get a few more hours in at the gym."

Now that school is out, a lot of students are taking it easy with some much needed rest and relaxation.

Not Trimble.

"In the summer, I changed my work schedule so I can go to football in the morning, then go to the gym and then go to work," he said. "I'm not the type to sit around and play video games all day. I need to be doing something."

Trimble said would like to play football in college and his intensity only rose when schools began to show some interest.

"When colleges first started talking to me, it really motivated me to push even harder."

Trimble's military-like schedule will serve him well seeing that he plans on joining the armed forces after college.

"I'm looking for a college that has the ROTC program. If I didn't plan on going to college, I'd enlist right after high school," he said. "After four years of college, I plan on being a lifer in the military."

Among the schools Trimble is interested in, he said that West Point is near the top of his list.

While any coach will tell you that seasons are won and lost in the offseason, not every player truly buys into that notion.

Fortunately for Hempfield, it doesn't appear that Trimble has an offseason.