Growing up on a farm, you get to know your neighbors intimately. While the distance between your house and the next driveway is longer than most, the tether of young friendship is a bond that age, distance and maturity could never break. That was the bond shared by Packers offensive tackle Mark Tauscher and his neighbor, childhood friend, extended brother, Troy Schmidt (37).
Their fathers were best friends and each cared for the others children as if they were their own. Totaling 8 kids between them, these patriarchs had great games of catch, football, baseball, kickball, basketball, whatever activity you can think of, they did it together. There wasn't a winter night that went by that all of the kids didn't play "all out" games of basketball inside the machine shed that Mr. Tauscher had specially built for just such occassions and activities.
As Mark traveled forward in his football career, first at Wisconsin and then into the NFL and his home state team the Green Bay Packers, Troy grew into his adulthood first as a boyfriend and eventual husband to his wife Ann and then as a father 5 times over. Troy, residing in Colby, kept his Wisconsin roots close to his heart and landed within the Marshfield School System as a social sciences teacher at Marshfield High School. He had been teaching there since 1997.
At 1:30 a.m. this past Friday, October 17th, the Wood County ’s Sheriff’s Department was dispatched to a train/car accident. A mini van, for whatever reason, had stopped on the tracks at a railroad crossing and was hit broadside then pushed several hundred feet down the tracks. When the oncoming train stuck that minivan the life of Taucher’s lifelong friend Troy Schmidt ceased to exist.
Not sure whether or not to tell Tauscher before he faced the Indianapolis Colts, the decision was made to fill Mark in on the loss of one of closest friends. The loss affected Mark in a deep way. The usual path of concern was taken; phone calls to family and additional friends to see how they were coping, a phone call to the parents of his friend to offer his condolences and arrangements to be there for Ann and the kids.
As Mark takes the field of play today, he’ll carry with him the memories of his friend Troy, a heavy heart and the knowledge that Troy’s brother will be watching him in the stands here at Lambeau Field. After the game, win or lose, Mark wants to spend some time with the neighbors he’s known all his life, with his extended family, to share, remember and console one another as they prepare to say goodbye to Troy later this week.
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