The Incredible Perseverance of UH Tight End Christian Trahan — Needing a New Guardian at Age 8, Fighting Hurricanes and Discovering What Family Really Means

Christian Trahan goes up high to get the football and maybe it couldn’t have gone any other way. The University of Houston’s fifth year senior tight end has been through so much, overcome so much to be there for his team, that maybe he had to be the one to give this UH football team an improbable second life.

Trahan grabbed the onside kick in the air and held on for dear life. Story of his career. Story of his life.

“I’ve seen it,” Helen LeFevre, who took Trahan in when he was 8 years old, tells PaperCity. “I know how much work he’s put in. How much heart he has.

“We’re proud of what he’s done.”

How could you not be? From needing a new place to live as an 8-year-old kid to one of the real unquestioned leaders of UH’s football program. From an indifferent student to someone who will be graduating with a degree in consumer and retail manufacturing in December. From lost and largely alone to finding and fostering new family units, both in the Cougars football program and in his native Lake Charles.

Christian Trahan isn’t just a good football story. He’s a great life story.

When Trahan came down with that onside kick, allowing Clayton Tune to complete that wild unfathomable fourth quarter comeback in Memphis, he earned that break. And then some. He fought for it. Like always.

Now 3-3 Houston’s season has some fight left heading into next week’s game at Navy. The comeback win and video of Trahan jumping high to secure that onside kick, earned a long segment on Scott Van Pelt’s SportsCenter. Memphis was the victim of a very Bad Beat. And a beyond sweet win for Houston.

Maybe Christian Trahan just had to be at the heart of that.

Finding Family

Helen LeFevre is not related to Christian Trahan by blood. But that’s a poor way to measure bonds anyway. LeFevre is a well regarded girl’s basketball coach at Sulphur High School, something of a local legend really with more than 800 wins. She’s close with the Trahan family. So when little 8-year-old Christian Trahan needed someplace to live, something stable in his life, she didn’t have to mull her decision long.

“His mother was just having a really rough time,” LeFevre says. “So he needed a place to stay. At that point, we didn’t know if it was going to be a day, a week or whatever.

“Turns out once we got hold of him, we decided we love him and he fit right in.”

Helen LeFevre became what Trahan describes as a father figure to him. Yes, this humble basketball coach (she never mentioned her coaching or those 800-plus wins when I  interviewed her) may be a woman. But she’s Trahan’s father role model, the tough loving figure who gave him new hope.

Christian Trahan never left LeFevre’s loving home. Well, until Hurricane Delta completely destroyed it a few years ago.

Yes, Christian Trahan’s been though one of Lake Charles’ most devastating hurricanes too. While Trahan is the one getting a degree, he could already teach a master class in perseverance.

Helen LeFevre didn’t get the go ahead to move back into their completely rebuilt home until the morning of Houston’s win over Rice. LeFevre couldn’t wait to tell Trahan about it after the game.

“It’s been a tough two years trying to find a place to stay because everything down there was so devastated by the hurricane,” LeFevre tells PaperCity.

LeFevre’s been spending Trahan videos of the progress of the complete rebuild — really it’s a completely new home on the same plot of land — throughout the early part of this season.

“I’ve got his room ready for him,” LeFevre says proudly.

This is a family that knows how important it is to have a place to call home. Christian Trahan’s created his own second home too. Within the cocoon of the Houston football program.

Trahan battled some physical ailments that limited him in fall camp and the first few games of the season. But he’s come on as a pass catcher in the last few games, getting targeted more and more. He catches five balls for 73 yards, including a 37 yard downfield play, in that Memphis comeback. That’s one less catch than he recorded in Houston’s first five games of the season combined.

Tune clearly sees him as both a safety valve and a potential downfield playmaker.

“It’s been hard,” Trahan says when I ask about dealing with the injuries. “But you’ve got to find different ways to get through it.

“Different ways to ease the pain.”

Not being out there with his guys, blocking for Tune and USC tailback transfer Brandon Campbell, getting involved in the passing game, would be even harder.

After all, he’s a UH captain, a role Christian Trahan takes beyond seriously.

“(Him) being named a captain this year was so nice,” LeFevre says, the pride coming through in her voice. “I’ve watched him the last five years he’s been here and being a leader, I feel he’s really grown in that area.”

If you listen to UH coach Dana Holgorsen talk about Christian Trahan, it’s quickly apparent that the big tight end with the flowing curly black hair is one of his favorites. Holgorsen gushes over how hard Trahan works, how much he cares about the team, about how damn tough he is.

And Holgorsen is not a gusher. It comes about as naturally to him as mercy does to a hungry boa constrictor.

But Christian Trahan has a way of making you believe in possibilities.

Christian Trahan and The Football Path

When LeFevre got Christian Trahan at 8 years old, he wasn’t much of a talker. He’d been through too much already. Probably seen too much.

So the longtime basketball coach looked for a way she could engage the big kid under her roof. LeFevre turned to what she knows best — sports.

“We didn’t know at first,” LeFevre says. “Getting him at 8 years old, we didn’t really know what would work. Baseball a little while, Basketball a little while.

“As he continued to get bigger, football was obviously his sport.”

It’s a sport that seems to feed into Trahan’s love of teamwork and being part of something bigger than himself. Part of another family unit in many ways.

“It’s not like basketball where one guy can make a play,” Trahan says. “You need to do it together, working as a unit.”

“I’ve seen it. I know how much work he’s put in. How much heart he has. We’re proud of what he’s done.” — Helen LeFevre on Christian Trahan

Trahan talks about learn how to study film. And he seems to prepare for everything. Even calling the coin toss. Trahan credits former Cougar tight end Seth Green with always telling him to go with heads on the coin toss. Yes, Christian Trahan is the guy who does the coin toss for these Cougars. Who else?

No matter what you think of Houston football’s chances the rest of this season or how you rate the job Dana Holgorsen is doing, guys like Christian Trahan, who have given their all to this program, are a reason to keep paying attention.

Christian Trahan is the ultimate University of Houston success story. Not just a football story. A life story. A guy who overcame so much to be graduating in December, to be making big plays for Houston.

“He wasn’t much of a student when he was younger,” Helen LeFevre tells PaperCity. “It took a lot of work. For us, the fact he’s going to walk in December, we’re just as proud of that as watching him out here playing and doing well in football.”

That’s the thing, despite his childhood start, Christian Trahan now has a group of family at every UH home game and many on the road. It’s a group of Trahans and LeFevres and some others, a truly blended cheering section that redefines family the way many Americans can relate to in 2022.

This full grown, college-graduate-to-be personifies things much bigger than himself. UH football. Perseverance when your parents can’t really parent. Lake Charles’ collective hopes in the wake of two hurricanes — Hurricane Laura brought more devastation to the area less than two years after Delta struck its deadly blows.

“There were people just barely back into homes, barely getting repairs, when a big flood hit,” LeFevre  says, detailing the fresh pain that many outside of the region have already forgotten about. “People that just got new sheetrock who had to tear it out all over again.

“So that was tough. But Lake Charles is tough.”

So is Christian Trahan.