October 4th, 2024 5:00am
By Eric Woods Tribune Sports Editor
In the wake of all the devastation in Northeast Tennessee and into the mountains, Tusculum head football coach Billy Taylor found himself on Sunday with a closing campus and a community without treated water.
That meant his players – the dozens of young lives for which he is responsible - were forced out of their dorms. His coaches were left without places to stay.
In a region devastated by aftermath of Hurricane Helene, there were not a lot of options.
Taylor and athletic director Josh Ealy found themselves scrambling to find accommodations for the football team and the rest of the athletics program.
Taylor – a Morristown East alumnus – used his lifetime of building relationships as an East Tennessean to his advantage.
“I’ve lived in this region for most of my life, and I have worked hard to build those types of relationships with the high school coaches here,” Taylor said. “No matter where I’ve coached at, I’ve recruited these Tennessee schools. And you know it’s good to have friends, right? And that’s why you build those relationships, if we could ever help them, we will, and it’s vice versa. And they’ve all just come to and rally to our support, and it’s just been phenomenal.”
While Taylor and his squad were traveling to a rescheduled Sunday game against Lenoir-Rhyne at Catawba, they were also trying to figure out where they would sleep that night.
They reached out to arch-rival Carson-Newman, where leadership immediately extended a hand...