First and foremost, I just hope everyone is okay after Hurricane Matthew made his presence known all up and down the east coast of Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas.
Having friends who were displaced, knowing families that were displaced, and having the safety check-in function on social media kick in isn’t really a way we should all be living on a weekend. But, the fact that particular social media platforms HAVE the safety check-in function made me feel a lot better when it came to knowing where everyone was.
Games were changed, cancelled, postponed, reorganized, and otherwise redirected to other places and times.
And now seeing parts of the states that were ravaged, I think we were close to having a LOT of the shoreline and beaches taken out completely. The pictures from the air are scary, and knowing people who rode the storm out for news coverage and the stories they are telling about what went down really reminds us about “us.”
After the storm cleared out, I was going back and forth with Camden County head coach Welton Coffey trying to find out how everyone was doing without trying to be too intrusive. He left Kingsland to be back with his family in Jacksonville and rode the storm out there. He was able to return to Camden County Saturday and thought most of his staff was able to return the Sunday after the storm.
The one quote that stays with me, though: “It was something. Respect the weather. You understand how small you really are.”
Glynn County (the Brunswick area) had schools closed for the week that followed. And the island is slowly trying to get itself sorted out.
One of the coolest things to come out of Matthew, though, came from Lanier County. Head coach Carl Parker decided to pack up his team and head to Jacksonville to help in the debris removal.
Very classy move. Parker was a coach at Bartram Trail High, and his quarterback, Noah, is the son of Lakeside Church of Christ in Orange Park pastor Ryan Tuten.
Justin Barney of the Florida Times-Union went to Middleburg, Florida, to check in on the operation:
“It’s what you teach kids about in life through this game,” Parker said. “It’s important being selfless.You make better people, you get a better football player. But if you’re worried about making a better football player, you’re not necessarily making a better person.”
And I think that’s what it’s all about: Being good teammates, friends, and stewards of the communities that we’re living in these days, regardless of where we are. One act in a place not our own can have an impact across the board.
So, my question for you this month: During the hurricane and in its aftermath, what was the coolest act of kindness you saw?
Let us know on the “In The Game” Magazine social media platforms, and you can always let me know on my social media (@OSGNelson is my personal twitter.), and we’ll talk about them all for some time to come.
Play it safe everyone. I’ll see you at the stadium.
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I’m Going To Go A Little Off Script
Written by Jon Nelson
