Video: Student Athletes Grow Stronger Through Shared Tornado Experience

[syndicaster id=’5733904′]

SMITHVILLE/EAST WEBSTER, Miss. (WCBI) —  Four years ago Monday, tornadoes leveled much of East Webster and Smithville schools. The districts that oversee both considered moving or consolidating them rather than rebuilding. The communities fought to keep what they called their hearts and souls.

The experiences the students at each school shared is producing something special.

Experts say people who face adversity together often develop a kind of bond that lasts for years if not a lifetime. When tornadoes leveled much of East Webster and Smithville schools on April 27, 2011, their athletic teams were left without homes.

East Webster moved to makeshift facilities at the former Wood College. Smithville teams did what they could where ever they could, often practicing in different church gyms or playing fields.

“Our practice field actually was a disaster area and we cleaned it up enough to practice on. I told the students we’re not going to use it as an excuse. I said we’ve got a tradition to carry on here, a job to do and we’re going to do it,” explained forme4r Smithville football coach Billy Tacker.

Tacker is now principal at Nettleton High, but he is a Smithville native and coached football there for 15 years. Doug Wilson has been football coach at East Webster for five years, including the year of the tornado.

Both say those life-changing times have produced a unique sense of pride, teamwork and internal strength, especially among students who were eighth and ninth graders at the time.

“This year they came, played great all year, stuck together, a lot contributed to the bond these guys had. Of the groups I’ve coached, this one had the best chemistry of any group I’ve been around and a lot probably had to do with what they went through,” Wilson says of last fall’s championship team.

“I think the disaster that happened there not only built them stronger as teams but built them stronger as individuals,” added Tacker.

Both schools have rich athletic traditions. But in the last two years, they’ve reached new levels of success, winning state titles across several sports. The students may not even realize it yet, but the coaches say the bond created by the shared tornado experience played a role. And it’s lessons that’ll stay with them a lifetime.

“That’s just part of the good people around this area. They taught them how to pick up and move on and overcome adversity,” Wilson said.

“They just went through a situation where people lost their lives, so in those aspects the game is nothing compared to that. It’s an easing stepping stone then because they’ve faced adversity and overcome it already,” Tacker said,

Both Smithville and East Webster have teams favored to advance deep into this spring’s baseball and softball playoffs.