The Coalfield School Story continued this past week with mixed emotions. We had a lot of great things happened that demonstrated strong school/community type characteristics. However, these things were demonstrated with a heavy heart.
First, I want to praise our staff and students for their strong leadership during my absence due to a death in my family. We have many strong, competent leaders, both staff and students, in our school who give great effort every day to make our school a strong one.
Also, our hearts were broken for our neighbors in Deerlodge and Sunbright who lost loved ones and homes with the devastating tornado Thursday evening. After this tragedy, I have seen our strong community jump in with both feet to help support and serve the victims in various ways. Please continue to lift the Deerlodge and Sunbright community up in prayer. Thank you to Mrs. Tabitha Jones-Davis, our multi-talented school secretary /softball coach, and her husband Brandon Davis for spearheading and helping organize this donation campaign. Thank you to coach Benson Napier for the use of the football box trailer to house donations .
This week also saw our high school basketball teams compete and represent our community well. The girls had a huge victory over perennial powerhouse Clarkrange and a big district win against a very good Sunbright team. Our boys competed really well in both games but came up a bit short. At the request of coach Josh Wright, in agreement with coach Shelley Burgess, our school agreed to donate the proceeds from the Sunbright game to MOCO Mutts animal shelter in honor of Melanie Addington. Greg Addington, our phenomenal voice of the Jackets and Melanie’s husband, in the wake of the devastating tornado, wanted the proceeds to go to the victims of the storm in honor of his beloved wife. Thank you to all involved in making this heart felt event possible. It was a wonderful example of strong community character.
Another characteristic of a strong school, Our middle school boys basketball team and our cheerleaders are STATE BOUND! Congratulations to the coaches, players, and cheerleaders for making the final four in the entire state. Our student section was incredible as well cheering on our boys throughout this quest for a state championship. Our boys will play Friday, February 14th at 8:00 PM central time at Rockvale Middle near Murfreesboro. They will play a team from the Memphis area. We are so proud of our CMS student-athletes and coaches. They are 2 wins away from a state championship.
Thank you to all the staff and parents who have worked so hard to put a Valentine dance on for our high school students last night.
Please continue to pray for our school, students , staff, and community.