ESPN's Outside the Lines turned its focus on Joplin High School football today with a program on the school's recovery from the May 22 tornado.
On the same page of ESPN's website that features the video of the program is a powerful sidebar, which includes the thoughts of one of my former South Middle School students, senior Mariah Sanders, on the tornado and its aftermath:
On May 21, she became the only Joplin track and field athlete to make it to the big meet in Jefferson City, Mo. Still giddy from the accomplishment, and worried that she might get injured before state, Sanders decided to skip softball practice that Sunday. She visited friends in nearby Seneca, Mo., instead.
It was a beautiful day, she says. Sanders had no idea that some 20 miles away, tornado sirens were going off in Joplin, and her family's house was about to be hit. Her mom and dad and little sister were huddled in a closet when the twister chewed through their neighborhood.
Upon hearing the news that a tornado had hit Joplin, Sanders checked her cell phone. She had eight missed calls and eight unread texts. They were from her family. She talked to her dad briefly before the cellphone towers in Joplin went down. He said they were OK.
Her 13-year-old sister Miranda sent a text: EVERYTHING IS GONE. Nothing was more important to Mariah, from that moment on, than getting home. She got into town the next day, and found her family, bruised and sore. An entire neighborhood down the street was completely wiped out. Much of Sanders' house was damaged, but the middle bedroom, the one with the closet her family took refuge in, was intact.
"All of me wishes I was there," Sanders says. "I hate that I wasn't here with my family. I think it was worse for me being away. Not knowing was the worst part. I can't help it … I didn't know it was going to hit, but I feel like I just left my family, you know? I wish I was here for my family the whole time."
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