After chaos struck Sulphur on Saturday night, many were not sure what would happen, especially with big upcoming athletic events.
The Sulphur track team had the biggest event of the year on Monday, a trip to Madill for the Class 4A Regional meet.
But still, without transportation and the community wrecked, head coach Emile Heitland and the rest of his team were not certain about anything.
“I wasn’t sure the regional track meet was going to happen for the us due to the devastation the community of Sulphur endured on Saturday night,” he said, “All of our buses were damaged during the storms and due to electricity being out, we had no way to charge cell phones,” “I wasn’t sure I could even get in contact with all of our athletes to give them a game plan for the regional meet.”
But Sulphur’s biggest rival stepped up and helped the Dogs make things possible.
“The Davis school system stepped up and let us borrow two buses to transport our kids,” Heitland said. “I can’t give enough thanks to them for helping us out.”
With a way to get south, Heitland showed up early Monday and was happy to see his group climb aboard the bus to make the trip. “All the kids got the message one way or another that the meet was still on and made the bus at 7:15 a.m. in the morning,” Heitland said.
As has been noticed in many facets, schools from around the state were eager to jump in and help Sulphur and the team with whatever it needed on Monday, including the simplicity of water from a local school.
“It was amazing all the coaches from different schools were calling and asking what we needed,” Heitland said. “The Byng track team brought our athletes an ice chest full of bottled water. Coach Sawyer from Byng stated he knew we had a lot of other more important issues to worry about then loading up water for a track meet.”
“It was really moving to see all the compassion and kindness other schools we compete against showed us in a time of need.”
And during a time where track was likely the last thing on most athletes and coaches minds, Sulphur delivered.
“Overall we had our best track meet of the year,” Heitland said. “It was amazing watching our kids put all the other stuff out of their minds and taking care of business. I couldn’t be prouder of our athletes.”
The boys were the regional champions and are sending 14 athletes to state, while the girls qualified one relay team and five individuals total.
Sulphur will be at the state track meet in Catoosa on Friday and Saturday.
