We came across this AP article and wanted to share it with you. It says so much about the power of high school sports.
Tornado-ravaged
Joplin unites around high school football game
Published: Sunday, September 11,
2011, 10:08 PM Updated: Sunday, September 11, 2011, 10:44 PM
JOPLIN, Mo. -- There's a scar through the middle of Joplin,
a mile wide and six miles long. All that's left are a few twisted tree stumps,
chunks of chewed-up pavement and the tattered remains of homes and businesses.
The football stadium still stands. So much of the town is
gone.
The tornado that churned through southwest Missouri on May
22 forever altered its landscape. More than 2,000 buildings were reduced to
rubble, 160 lives were lost, an estimated $3 billion in damage left in its
wake.
About the only thing the storm didn't destroy was the spirit
of the people who call Joplin home.
On Saturday night, they converged on Junge Stadium for the
first home football game. More than 10,000 fans jammed into a facility built
for 4,500 to watch their Eagles face Springfield Hillcrest, the biggest crowd
anybody could remember.
There were 22 seconds of silence, a bald eagle soared
overhead and a National Guard helicopter that assisted in the storm relief swooped
over the field. Then the game kicked off.
And for a few hours, there was a sense of normalcy.
Under the twinkling lights of a warm autumn evening,
teenagers forced to grow up too quickly played football. Coaches cried out
instructions, cheerleaders clapped, band members marched in perfect order. A
flash mob at halftime danced to Journey's "Don't Stop Believin' " as
the setting sun turned the clouds brilliant shades of purple and red.
Although the Eagles ultimately lost 21-9, in many ways they
won just by taking the field.
"They're going to be able to talk about this for the
rest of their lives," said Dan Hueller, Joplin High's assistant principal.
"These are the kinds of things we want our kids to remember, not the
disaster that's taken place. These are the kinds of memories you want to have
for your kids."
Determination
The fact that there's football this fall is a testament to Jeff Starkweather's
determination.
The longtime athletic director thought school officials were
crazy when, just after the storm, they vowed to start classes on time. The high
school had been gutted, practice fields were ruined, jerseys and equipment
simply gone. But Starkweather knew the best way to get over the trauma was to
get to work, so that's what he did.
"It was a lot of logistics, things you take for
granted, when you walk right out of school to your practice facility and there
you are," he said. "There was no practice field. There wasn't even a
school."
There are plans to rebuild the 50-year-old high school, but it'll
take time. For now, freshmen and sophomores have class at the old Memorial High
School, which escaped significant damage. Juniors and seniors attend a
makeshift school built inside an empty department store at the mall.
The temporary facility is tricked out with flat-screen
televisions and plush lounges, and every student has a laptop thanks to a
donation from the embassy of the United Arab Emirates. But all the technology
in the world doesn't make up for what's missing: walls that block out noise from
neighboring classrooms, a kitchen attached to the cafeteria, trophy cases full
of achievements and all those memories of students past and present.
"It's not ideal," Starkweather said, "but
really, what is about this? We're proud that we got that together. And we're
competing on time, and athletics are moving forward."
Josh Banwart wasn't sure that would be the case.
The senior linebacker was home with his two younger sisters
and a family friend when the tornado sirens went off. He didn't think much of
it at first -- happens all the time in the Midwest -- but as the rumble kept
getting louder, he headed for the basement. When an eerie silence finally
settled over town, he emerged to find almost everything in his neighborhood
gone. His own home had the roof and siding ripped off.
"We were hearing the windows breaking," he
recalled, "and you could smell the grass and the dirt."
Banwart's parents were celebrating their anniversary in
Jamaica and learned about the storm on television. They got a text message
through, but with cell towers down, Banwart didn't speak to them for six or
seven hours.
"We walked up to the high school that night,"
Banwart said. "You couldn't drive anywhere, so we kept walking into town,
and as you got further it got worse."
Banwart knew Will Norton, the teen who was driving home from
his high school graduation when the tornado sucked him through the window of
his truck. Norton's body was found in a nearby pond. He was one of seven
students and a school administrator killed by the storm.
"The first day of school, it was interesting to hear
the stories," said Dayton Whitehead, a senior wide receiver who scored the
Eagles' lone touchdown Saturday. "At practice, you see construction trucks
driving by all the time, and it helps to know that you'll have a football
season, just like last year, before anything happened."
Whitehead said there are still cliques like those found at
every high school, but the feeling in the hallways has changed. Athletes,
artists and everyone in between have been through something they'll never
forget.
"You still hang out with the same people you hanged out
with," Whitehead said, "but when you see people you didn't know, you
kind of try to take into consideration that maybe you should say 'Hi' to them
once in a while, because you never know what could happen."
Getting ready
The first home football game Saturday was a triumph for Joplin, said Chris
Shields, their 35-year-old coach. He was hired a couple of months before the
storm hit and hadn't moved to town yet. In fact, he had only met with his
players twice to organize summer workouts and fundraisers.
All of those plans went out the window when he heard the
news.
"The first few days, football takes a backseat,"
Shields said. "It's about finding loved ones, making sure everyone is
accounted for, seeing what you can do. Then you look around and figure out what
to do next."
The goal was to get back on the field as soon as possible.
Everyone knew it wouldn't take long.
"High school football is a way to get back to
normal," said booster club president Dan McCreary, whose three children
all graduated from Joplin. He lost his home and vehicles in the storm and could
be spending his time rebuilding. Instead, he spent Friday at Junge Stadium
stocking the vending stands with soda and chips.
"It's time to rejoice over something a little less
significant," McCreary said. "I mean, it seems really important when
you're a kid out there and you drop a pass or miss a tackle -- it seems pretty
big sometimes -- but I think it helps to get back to normal. It helps all of
us."
Everyone affected by the storm has a story, even if it hurts
to tell. They'd rather talk about the outpouring of support they received, the
volunteers who helped clean up, the rebuilding effort already under way.
Country music singer Kenny Foster grew up in Joplin. His
parents still lived in the same house near the high school that the tornado
turned to splinters. After the storm, he penned a song entitled
"Hometown" that can be purchased from his website, with all the
proceeds from its sale going to the relief effort.
Foster performed it for the crowded grandstand prior to the
game, in part because he believes something as simple as high school football
can help heal the scars the tornado left behind.
"Who from high school didn't go to football games on
Friday night? It's a pastime, a pastime anywhere in Middle America," he
said with a smile. "There's going to be a gap to fill here in the spirit
of the people. It's nice to bring that back into focus. If it takes football to
do that, so be it."
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