Help has been pouring in from across the country to Princeton and nearly a dozen other western Kentucky communities impacted by tornadoes that ravaged property and took lives earlier this month.
As teams descended on Caldwell County this week for the annual West Kentucky Hoops Classic — a two-day high school basketball event that showcases teams from across the South — one school brought more than just players, uniforms, and shoes.
Arlington, Tennessee is located northeast of Memphis. Its high school played twice in the Hoops Classic. While they lost on the scoreboard, they won off the court. Arlington brought with them supplies to help in the tornado recovery effort. On Monday, they delivered the supplies to tournament organizer Torey Hammett.
Blaine Brewer is in his first year as head coach of the Arlington boys’ basketball team. Living in west Tennessee for a short time, he has learned to take any severe weather warning seriously. So on the night of December 10, as storms moved from Arkansas into Tennessee, he and his family took shelter.
While the storms missed Arlington, he soon realized Caldwell County, the place his team was headed in two weeks to play basketball, wasn’t as lucky. That’s when he and the basketball teams decided to make a difference.
Brewer said it’s this type of servant leadership that is important for coaches to teach their players to help show them there’s more to life than X’s and O’s.
As for Hammett, who brought teams in from Kentucky, Arkansas, Missouri, Mississippi, and Alabama to the Hoops Classic this week, he said the supplies Arlington brought will benefit people in multiple communities.
Hammett reiterated what Brewer said in teaching a message of servant leadership.
Arlington High School is just one of many examples of schools from across the state and region to help in the tornado recovery efforts of western Kentucky.
