The 18-year-old's house was one of 1,000 that a tornado damaged
or destroyed Sunday in the central Illinois town of Washington.
But Tuesday in Illinois State University's Hancock Stadium,
Marshall and his teammates from Washington Community High School
didn't let the disruption from the storm keep them from a
routine they've had for years. They put on their helmets and
pads, and started preparing for a football game. This one's a
big deal: a state semifinal Saturday in Springfield.
"Yeah, this is something our town's been looking forward to.
So, no matter what, we're going to go play," Marshall said,
adding that it felt good to put the troubles waiting for him
back home aside for a while. "We used to come here for team
camps, so this is normal."
Marshall, the team's quarterback, smiled a little. The irony
of escaping to the community of Normal wasn't lost on the high
school senior. What he and his teammates left back home — 40
minutes to the west — is in no way normal.
Washington, a town of about 16,000, is 140 miles southwest of
Chicago. The powerful tornado cut a path from one corner of the
community to another — an eighth-mile-wide strip of homes and
businesses that are in many cases flattened.
Authorities say they know of only one person who died,
something that surprises most anyone who's seen the destruction.
But less than 24 hours before the storm, Marshall and the
Panthers beat Normal University High 41-7 to advance to the
semifinal, putting them a game away from a shot at the state
Class 5A championship. Washington is undefeated, a perfect 12-0
going into Saturday's game at Sacred Heart-Griffin High School
in Springfield.
Under the circumstances, getting a team of teenagers to focus
on football is a challenge. So first members of the team spent
time Sunday and Monday helping start the process of salvaging
valuables from homes. But then, coach Darrell Crouch said, it
was good for the players to get back to football.
"Us missing these next four days, there's going to be plenty
of work for the six months or a year of cleanup," he said. "Our
town's very much a football town, so this will help our town,
too."
Then came the more fundamental problems of getting a team
that lives in a disaster zone back on the field.
About 10 of the players no longer have homes to live in.
Crouch said some had their uniforms at home, and he figures
about 10 of those are missing.
While the football field in Washington is fine, the high
school — like the rest of the town — has no safe water supply.
And the cars and trucks that would have taken many Washington
High families and fans to the game are sitting under the rubble
of their owners' homes.
After a text and a call from one of Crouch's old friends,
solutions to some problems started to come together.
The friend was Sacred-Heart Griffin coach Ken Leonard. His
team, known as the Cyclones, wears T-shirts carrying the slogan
"Our goal is to be Christ-like."
"We're going to walk the walk," Leonard said.
So Sacred-Heart Griffin, the Panthers' next opponent,
chartered six buses to get Washington fans to the game. And
there's a Washington pre-game ritual the Cyclones' moms will
help with: providing peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
