FOES TURNED FRIENDS: Draughn football coaches aiding in Avery County relief effort

Seventh-year head coach Chris Powell and the Draughn High School football team lost a week’s worth of practice in the middle of the season, plus two scheduled homecoming contests, and a third total game this week.

But they know many folks around the area lost incredibly more than that and have stepped in to do their part in the relief efforts from the devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene.

The Wildcats were originally scheduled to host Avery County on Sept. 27, the day Helene struck western North Carolina with flooding the likes of which has never been previously recorded.

The teams rescheduled the game twice but never played that week, and neither has played since.

Now, instead, Powell and Co. are loading trucks with supplies to help those in need in Newland and the smaller, surrounding Avery County mountain communities.

The Draughn coaching staff’s first focus after the storm was to help folks at home in Valdese and the surrounding area.

“Myself and (assistant) coach (Justin) Radabaugh and (assistant) coach (Jonathan) Winkler wanted to help out our community here,” Powell said. “We didn’t have power, but there were a lot of people in our community that were worse off than us. We went out and started some tree-cutting locally just trying to help some people out that needed it.”

As the whole horrifying post-Helene scene started to come into focus in the days that followed, Powell’s sights shifted to the mountains.

“Me and (Avery County head football) coach (Ethan) Farmer have been in contact really throughout the storm (and aftermath) for all but about two days because of the loss of cell service up there,” Powell said. “And so when we got back in contact that Monday evening, he just said, ‘Coach, it’s bad.’ And I asked him, ‘What can we do to help? What do you need?’

“Avery County is kind of home for me. My grandmother was born and raised in Avery County. A lot of my family still live in Avery County, a lot of my ancestors are buried in Avery County. So I wanted to see what we could do to help them out.”

Once Powell had a list of potential needs from Farmer, it didn’t take long before he and his coaching staff were making the trip up N.C. 181 to Newland.

DHS’ football relief efforts for storm victims in Avery County started with a trip on Oct. 2, followed by another on Oct. 4 and additional trips this week, including one in which DHS football players participated, with two Mitchell County supply dropoffs in between.

“(That) Friday, a lot of us football coaches and (boys basketball) coach Jerome Ramsey from East Burke all loaded up and went back up,” Powell said. “That was tough. We were in some of the most remote places of Avery, down off Three Mile, to get supplies out to people that really needed it across the mountains, creeks. Seeing the devastation was really gut-wrenching.

“The next morning we turned around, left about 8 o’clock, headed up to Burnsville, made two drops, and one of them was at Bee Log Elementary School, a place that hadn’t seen much help and didn’t have many supplies at all. In that community, we saw homes, roads, bridges, everything washed away. And then we came back home, loaded up again, and went back up to Avery.”

Farmer, 32, is in his third season as Avery head football coach. He’s a native of Tabor City, which is located on the coast between Wilmington and Myrtle Beach, S.C. As such, he said he’s experienced 10 hurricanes in his life, but noted that “just being up here in the mountains, it’s different.”

“As a community, we were obviously devastated,” Farmer said. “To witness this … For us, the biggest thing is there’s a lot of people who lost houses, some people lost their lives.

“As coaches, we’ve been out and about just trying to do everything we possibly can to help out in our community, if it’s cutting wood or cutting people out, just all of us being there for one another. Our (players) have been out helping too. It’s challenging. We’re blessed in a sense, but it’s still devastating.”

Farmer said the difference that folks like Powell are making is immeasurable.

“I can’t thank Chris Powell enough. He’s a great guy. That’s my brother,” Farmer said. “He’s been up here a lot, he and his coaching staff. We kinda grew closer together over the last couple of years. His efforts and the efforts of the folks around Morganton, Kannapolis and A.L. Brown High School, New Hanover (in Wilmington), it’s been a huge support. Everybody that has reached out and brought supplies, blackets, clothing, we can’t thank those guys enough.

“I didn’t think it was going to be so much support that was given up here and just to the entire western part of the state the way it has been. You see people out working on roads to try and get this thing back up and going. … We’re trying to get out to these (remote) locations to help people. There’s still a lot of people up here with no power, no water, no food.”

Farmer’s latest list of needed supplies, specifically for the Minneapolis community in Avery, includes box fans, dehumidifiers, damp rid, shovels, rakes, push brooms, and buddy heaters and refills.

“Continue to pray and give as you can,” Farmer said. “It’s supposed to get cold here last week and moving forward, so (there’s a need for) heaters, gas, kerosene, blankets, sleeping bags, grills so our people can eat and families that are otherwise without right now can have as much as possible.”

Powell said the trips will continue as long as needed and as long as donations are brought in.

“We’ve still got a good bit of supplies coming in from people in the community,” he said. “I’ve always been taught that if you have the ability to help somebody, then that’s what you need to do. So that’s what we’ve been trying to do just because it’s the right thing to do.”

The teams’ Western Highlands 1A/2A Conference announced a return to normalcy on Thursday, and both teams are expected to return to the gridiron next weekend, Oct. 18 and 19.

Avery County High just last week announced all of its students had been accounted for.

“Last week, I’ll be honest, I wasn’t even thinking about football with everything that took place,” Farmer said. “We had a lot going on. At first, we were just trying to find all our kids and make sure everyone and their families were safe.

“But I think sports is what we need right now to start to lift our community back up.”