After a Tornado, Solace on the Ball Field

 

“I love you to death,” Robert Dale told his children. “If something happens, I’ll see you in heaven.”

Within minutes, the Dales had a clear view of the heavens — from the bathroom, which was spared. The roof was peeled off and the house damaged beyond repair.

No sooner had their heart rates returned to normal than Slade began fielding messages from baseball teammates concerned about his safety. Word was spreading that their school, a deep fly ball’s distance from the Dales’, was wrecked.

Few places were pummeled harder by a gang of tornadoes — at least 178 in 14 states, according to the National Weather Service — than Ringgold, a northwest Georgia town of 2,800.

Eight lives were lost. Two students were storm casualties, one a former football player who had such a big heart, according to Robert Akins, the athletic director and football coach, that he would apologize to an opponent after knocking him down. It was estimated that half of the community’s businesses sustained damage, and at least 75 houses were not salvageable.

After Mother Nature unleashes fury, human nature inspires the targets to resume their routine. For the Ringgold Tigers, that meant jump-starting the pursuit of a state title they were denied in the final a year ago.

Players and parents flocked to the school the next day, eager to rescue the season. Akins could not wait; he drove there in the darkness not long after the storm passed.

“I saw things that broke my heart,” Akins said. When the sun rose, illuminating the scene, “it was worse.”

The high school and the middle school next door were ravaged, the outdoor athletic facilities unplayable. Much of the baseball equipment was a lost cause.

Brent Tucker’s first thought: a season of such promise is over. He coached the team, 21-2 and ranked fifth in Class AAA, that was minus only one senior from last year.

The team began picking up the pieces. Scattered gear and soaked uniforms — the slugger Caleb Jones found his pants hanging in brush — were retrieved amid broken glass, loaded into a truck and distributed to players.

“Looked like a rummage sale,” Tucker said.

His cellphone rang incessantly with offers of bricks, lumber, earth movers, shovels, rakes and helping hands.

“I’m not so sure we wouldn’t have had our stadium already rebuilt,” he said. “People were ready to go to work. It’s almost been overwhelming.”

Fellow coaches cut Ringgold a break by approving the cancellation of its last two regular-season games and waving it through to the tournament. Akins said he and superiors never hesitated accepting: “We want our kids to feel the love the community has. In order to do that, you’ve got to start playing.”

The reward was a “home” game. Akins, inundated by 15 invitations from schools to use their ballparks, chose crosstown Heritage High, which left some still-gracious players asking if a less intense rival were preferable.

On Friday, under a sky so magnificent that it seemed Photoshopped, the Tigers opened a three-game playoff series against Riverwood High with Ringgold banners draped — by the hosts — along the outfield fence. Ringgold’s old English R replaced Heritage’s H in chalk behind home plate.

“It gave you goose bumps,” Tucker said.

Near the baselines, in foul territory, the number 42 was twice inscribed in tribute to the Ringgold supporter and retired baseball coach Bill Womack, who died of cancer in February.

Hanging in the Tigers’ dugout was a tattered and torn American flag that had been ripped by wind off the flagpole at their stadium.

The few hundred fans, nearly all wearing blue “United We Stand” T-shirts, observed a moment of silence.

Friday’s games marked the first event for the school, which is unusable at least until the fall term because the tornadoes struck nine days earlier.

“Who knows? This may be the last chance for these players” while associated with the existing school, said David Kafka, the father of Corey. Both had been at the school, returning bats, 15 minutes before it was hit. “They are fighting in case we can’t rebuild.”

The parents’ appreciation for the season’s resumption was evident in their words and smiles.