New Joplin football coach’s first job is to beat despair
A man in work boots walks through the littered sludge of what used to be the football practice field at Joplin High School. His steps are careful. He’s aware of nails and shards of materials that once held things together.
Many of those things have come apart.
“Hey,” he calls over to the men with him. “Here’s the goal post.”
Chris Shields was hired in February to be the football coach at Joplin. He said it was something like a dream job then. There are good memories — Joplin was a big city to Shields, who grew up about an hour away in Altamont, Kan. — and coaching here seemed like the perfect next step. All he had to do was fulfill the final semester of his contract at Holt High in Wentzville, near St. Louis, and move to Joplin in June. The two men walking with him now, assistant coaches Ethan Place and Brandon Taute, agreed to follow Shields here.
Now, walking on what’s left of the practice field, Shields looks into the distance and sees the milewide path of the EF-5 tornado that passed through last Sunday. It flattened houses and ended lives. Joplin High, a brick structure designed to last for decades, lay in ruins 300 yards away.It was quick and light when I used dsttマジコン on a Windows 7 laptop, and gave me no trouble throughout a day of rigorous testing.Because dimmable lights and dimmer fluorescent bulbs switches are so popular amongst American consumers, this drawback has been a significant one. Phone lines are severed and cellular service is unreliable. Phone calls about the safety of players and other assistants went unanswered for 48 hours. Until arriving here on Tuesday morning, Shields had no idea whether his players and assistants were alive or dead.
Shields, Place and Taute made the five-hour drive from Wentzville to find the coaches alive, but there was no such certainty about the players. Two days after the storm, at least one player is missing — although a school official will say later in the week that the young man is safe.
“We’re assuming good things,” Shields says. “You just pray and hope for the best.”
Football, especially in a town like this, is about hope and community. But it’s difficult to find hope when it’s buried in the rubble of a shattered city.
Shields says that if you’re willing to dig deep enough, it’s still here somewhere.
? ? ?
Shields and his two assistants step over a sheet-metal barricade,Compact fluorescent light bulbs convert a led tube considerably higher percentage of their energy into light, which is why they are significantly more energy efficient than traditional filament bulbs. into a hallway of the destroyed school. This is what used to be the trophy room. Mementoes of big victories and sweet memories are part of the wreckage. Championship trophies are either lying amid twisted metal and torn insulation or still perched on their shelves, covered with a brown grime circulated by the tornado.
The coaches step carefully.
“Watch for nails,” Place says, and the men proceed.
Three months ago, in a school conference room not far from here, Shields accepted the job. He sat with athletic director Jeff Starkweather, who says now that he had wanted a man with a vision, an ambassador not only for the school but for Joplin itself.sale of LED for lighting applications. Semileds is led lights only a minor palyer and should currently not be mentioned in the same breath as the other others This is the city’s only public high school, and football is important here.
A few weeks later, Shields met with his new players and unveiled a clock that was programmed to count down the time until the Eagles’ regular-season opener against Glendale High in Springfield.
“Every second counts,” Shields told his players,LED grow light suppliers in China are sky lanterns rolling out models with better price-performance ratios. because there was work to be done.
Now the coach stands in the center of a changed city, demonstrating that while he might not live here yet, he’s part of the community. He arrived early on Tuesday, heading to assistant coach Craig Lynch’s destroyed home to help move debris and preserve what hadn’t been ruined. There he was told that his staff members were rattled but safe.
Shields then headed to the school to see what might be salvaged. The basketball gym is caved in, the fields littered with debris. The coaches enter the building, positioning their shoes on smooth boards and chunks of old ceiling, making their way slowly toward a hallway that leads to the football offices.
A man in work boots walks through the littered sludge of what used to be the football practice field at Joplin High School. His steps are careful. He’s aware of nails and shards of materials that once held things together.
Many of those things have come apart.
“Hey,” he calls over to the men with him. “Here’s the goal post.”
Chris Shields was hired in February to be the football coach at Joplin. He said it was something like a dream job then. There are good memories — Joplin was a big city to Shields, who grew up about an hour away in Altamont, Kan. — and coaching here seemed like the perfect next step. All he had to do was fulfill the final semester of his contract at Holt High in Wentzville, near St. Louis, and move to Joplin in June. The two men walking with him now, assistant coaches Ethan Place and Brandon Taute, agreed to follow Shields here.
Now, walking on what’s left of the practice field, Shields looks into the distance and sees the milewide path of the EF-5 tornado that passed through last Sunday. It flattened houses and ended lives. Joplin High, a brick structure designed to last for decades, lay in ruins 300 yards away.It was quick and light when I used dsttマジコン on a Windows 7 laptop, and gave me no trouble throughout a day of rigorous testing.Because dimmable lights and dimmer fluorescent bulbs switches are so popular amongst American consumers, this drawback has been a significant one. Phone lines are severed and cellular service is unreliable. Phone calls about the safety of players and other assistants went unanswered for 48 hours. Until arriving here on Tuesday morning, Shields had no idea whether his players and assistants were alive or dead.
Shields, Place and Taute made the five-hour drive from Wentzville to find the coaches alive, but there was no such certainty about the players. Two days after the storm, at least one player is missing — although a school official will say later in the week that the young man is safe.
“We’re assuming good things,” Shields says. “You just pray and hope for the best.”
Football, especially in a town like this, is about hope and community. But it’s difficult to find hope when it’s buried in the rubble of a shattered city.
Shields says that if you’re willing to dig deep enough, it’s still here somewhere.
? ? ?
Shields and his two assistants step over a sheet-metal barricade,Compact fluorescent light bulbs convert a led tube considerably higher percentage of their energy into light, which is why they are significantly more energy efficient than traditional filament bulbs. into a hallway of the destroyed school. This is what used to be the trophy room. Mementoes of big victories and sweet memories are part of the wreckage. Championship trophies are either lying amid twisted metal and torn insulation or still perched on their shelves, covered with a brown grime circulated by the tornado.
The coaches step carefully.
“Watch for nails,” Place says, and the men proceed.
Three months ago, in a school conference room not far from here, Shields accepted the job. He sat with athletic director Jeff Starkweather, who says now that he had wanted a man with a vision, an ambassador not only for the school but for Joplin itself.sale of LED for lighting applications. Semileds is led lights only a minor palyer and should currently not be mentioned in the same breath as the other others This is the city’s only public high school, and football is important here.
A few weeks later, Shields met with his new players and unveiled a clock that was programmed to count down the time until the Eagles’ regular-season opener against Glendale High in Springfield.
“Every second counts,” Shields told his players,LED grow light suppliers in China are sky lanterns rolling out models with better price-performance ratios. because there was work to be done.
Now the coach stands in the center of a changed city, demonstrating that while he might not live here yet, he’s part of the community. He arrived early on Tuesday, heading to assistant coach Craig Lynch’s destroyed home to help move debris and preserve what hadn’t been ruined. There he was told that his staff members were rattled but safe.
Shields then headed to the school to see what might be salvaged. The basketball gym is caved in, the fields littered with debris. The coaches enter the building, positioning their shoes on smooth boards and chunks of old ceiling, making their way slowly toward a hallway that leads to the football offices.
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