Prep ballplayers wield chainsaws

There are certain sounds we all identify with high school baseball - most notably the reverberating ping of a metal bat making contact with a ball or the thud of a fastball popping into a catcher's mitt.

But after Wednesday's outbreak of severe storms swept through the area, many prep athletes took time to help with the cleanup process - helping create another, all-too-familiar sound across the tri-state area.

"Pretty much all you can hear all around our neighborhood are chainsaws cutting trees," said Lookout Valley senior outfielder Jordan Butler. "Even when you stop to take a break from working, you'll hear several more all around."

Butler was one of several Lookout Valley baseball players who began helping clear debris almost immediately after the first wave of storms blew through. Fifty-five trees went down along the street where Butler's and five other houses sit, including 11 in his family's yard alone.

"Luckily none hit our house, but they got close," Butler said. "When we got out of school Wednesday, it took about an hour to get home, when it normally takes me less than five minutes. I didn't know what to expect, but as soon as I got there and saw everybody was OK and my house was there, we had eight chainsaws and a backhoe working to clean up our neighborhood. We would take a break when another storm would hit, and then get back to work after it passed."

While taking a break Thursday afternoon, Butler helped load 300 one-gallon jugs of water that had been donated and began driving around Lookout Valley, distributing them to workers. Although the streets near Butler's home are now passable, there are still numerous trees and brush to be cut up and removed.

"It was our yard and our neighborhood, so we saw it as our responsibility to do the work to clean it up," he said. "We had the means, so we just all pitched in and did it."

Yellow Jackets teammate Tyler Higdon rode his four-wheeler through several city streets asking if people needed help cleaning up, and when Lookout Valley played Friday afternoon at Cleveland, Blue Raiders catcher Derek Murray called for a combined prayer at the pitcher's mound to remember both communities and other areas hit by the tornadoes and other storms.

Athletes from rival schools Bradley Central, Cleveland and Walker Valley worked together to clean up their storm-ravaged city, and several Sequatchie County baseball players spent Thursday helping storm victims in their town, Dunlap, as well.

"I was real impressed with how the Murray kid handled himself," Lookout Valley coach David Dinger said. "He was very mature, asking us how everyone was and then praying for all those affected by the storms. Once we started playing the game, I think we were all kind of numb, like we were wondering if we were doing the right thing. But I really think it was good for everyone to get to do something normal again, just for a little while before going back to face the cleanup.

"Our kids didn't have a baseball in their hands for two days; they had chainsaws. It wasn't something we asked them to do' they just did it on their own. Everywhere I drove around, I'd see some of our kids out helping people pick up brush or cut down trees or just cleaning up. I was real proud, because they weren't just helping their own family, they were helping other people in our community."

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