News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
As Tennessee Tech prepares to play a home football game Saturday, several members of the football staff will be extra glad to be home.
Six members of Tech Football’s traveling party got separated from the rest of the football traveling party. They were stranded for more than 24 hours due to flooding in North Carolina’s mountains. Graduate assistant Kendall Medders said she is thankful everything turned out okay, but noted there were alarming moments.
“We were already in Black Mountain and we had waited for hours for someone to be able to bring us gas,” Medders said. “Enterprise said they were 30 minutes away and never showed up. And I think that’s when we realized that this was going to be a tough situation and we need to lock in and be there for each other.”
The journey began on Friday morning at 9am when all parties departed from Cookeville to Boiling Springs, North Carolina. Out of gas, the van and its six occupants had no roads available for help to reach them. Athletic Director Mark Wilson and his wife left the football game at Gardner-Webb University in the fourth quarter to drop off some gas, but ran into more issues.
“At that point, they didn’t realize what efforts it was going to take to get to us,” Medders said. “They though they would just bring us gas and we would all leave. But at one point they were eight miles from us and couldn’t get to us. And I think that’s when it set in for all of us that this was going to take more than a gas delivery.”
Medders said that Wilson must have driven 15+ hours looking for a way to reach them and even had to cut and remove downed limbs from roadways to clear a path for cars.
“We were so blessed and grateful to have not only them fighting for us, but to have homes to go back to,” Medders said. “A lot of the people we interacted with in Black Mountain have nothing now and they did such a good job taking care of us when they’re in such a devastating time of their lives.”
Medders said that no one at the van ever lost their cool. She speculates that everyone was freaking out internally, but remained relaxed externally. The group of six did not return back to Cookeville until 7:30pm Sunday evening. Medders said it was an experience she will not forget and is in awe of the effort that was put into rescuing them.
“We are so grateful to everyone that we interacted with there and for the people fighting to get us out,” Medders said. “It’s just honestly unbelievable the efforts they made to get to us.”
