Monday night, the Times Free Press’ Best of Preps banquet will honor the hundreds of star high school athletes from our area.
It’s an awesome event that this newspaper embraces and the rest of the industry would love to duplicate.
As of right now, Allison Meadows will not be in attendance.
Yes, she was invited. Meadows, one of the area’s best softball players, became a star at Silverdale Baptist Academy and will play at the next level at Lee University.
Yes, she wanted to go — desperately in fact, as she said over the phone Wednesday.
“I am a huge Braves fan,” she said with a hint of sadness about missing the chance to hear soon-to-be Hall of Famer John Smoltz speak. “I know a bunch of my friends from Silverdale are going and maybe they can try to get me his autograph.”
Relax, Allison. We’ll make sure that happens.
Meadows will be out of town Monday, playing the role of hero in a real-life story that was not of her doing. Meadows will be a participant in the trial of the man accused of stabbing her repeatedly in Pittsburgh, Pa., in March 2013.
It’s a daunting and scary trip for anyone.
“Absolutely, I’m nervous,” she said. “But I’m 100 percent committed.”
In a time when far too many offer far too little to help the authorities to keep us safe, Meadows and her family are focused on justice.
They never asked to be part of this. Who would?
They were visiting family in Pittsburgh 26 months ago when a nightmare walked into their lives.
Leon Raymond Walls, then 41, came into a Target holding a knife — running from and looking for trouble.
He already had stabbed multiple victims and was being pursued, according to authorities. He had nothing to lose, and the eyewitness descriptions of Walls paint the picture of desperation and rage.
As Walls was looking for a way out of the store, police said he grabbed Meadows and held her at knife-point. As the circle of people trying to apprehend Walls and help Allison tightened, Walls stabbed her repeatedly, police said.
Meadows was rushed to the hospital. Through surgery and prayer she recovered and was back playing softball before the end of that season.
She fought for her life then and refuses to quit the fight until it’s finished.
“(The Pittsburgh authorities) have mainly been talking to my dad,” Allison said about the case, which includes multiple assault charges and an attempted murder charge against Walls. The authorities have multiple eyewitnesses and videotape.
According to FBI stats as reported at victimsof crime.org, the most recent tabulations of all aggravated assaults known to law enforcement in 2012, a little more than half were cleared by an arrest.
Half. It’s a number that staggers and frightens. And a stat of which Meadows is determined to be on the right side. She is determined to have a final say in the closing of an unexpected nightmare.
“I know this whole thing has made me trust God a whole lot more,” Allison said. “Everything that I’ve gone through has brought me closer to Him.
“I’m not sure how I’ll remember this in 10 years, but right now I know how thankful I have been for all the support both here and in Pittsburgh.”
Now she’s ready to close this legal chapter even if the emotional scars linger. She’s ready to embrace the fear and the nightmare because it’s the right thing do against the worst kind of predator.
Forget Best of Preps, Allison Meadows is the best of what we should all aspire to be.
Heck, here’s saying John Smoltz should ask for her autograph.
Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfree press.com or 423-757-6343. Follow him on Twitter at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com. His columns appear on A2 on Thursdays and Saturdays and in the Sports section Tuesdays and Fridays. Read his online column “The 5-at-10” weekdays starting at 10 a.m. at timesfreepress.com.