SHS baseball in Gatlinburg

Adyson

Over spring break, Springville High School’s baseball team participated in the Smokey Mountain Classic, a baseball tournament that took place in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.  The team arrived in their cabin on March 29th ready to play some baseball and experience everything the mountains had to offer. However, the next day a brush fire sparked due to the dry conditions the mountains of Gatlinburg had been experiencing. Due to the 80 mile per hour winds, helicopters were unable to put out the fires, and the fires continued to spread. Because of the high winds and threat of the spreading fire, many attractions such as the sky bridge, chair lift, and tram to get up to Ober Gatlinburg were closed. Luckily the boys got to experience Ober Gatlinburg before they closed it to the public; however, this good day took a turn when they were forced to evacuate their cabin as the fire was approaching close by. The coaches handled the situation by making the players go stay with their families in different cabins, (the players and coaches were originally in the same cabin, and the parents chose where they wanted to stay in different lodging places located around Gatlinburg) and the coaches pitched in and shared a hotel room. This forced evacuation caused the players and coaches to have to leave their stuff behind, but luckily many of the players’ parents were able to sneak back to the cabin to grab the very valuable baseball gear and luggage.

While this was not an ideal start to the baseball team’s experience in Pigeon Forge, they were able to have a successful tournament and won three out of four games. The wildfire continued to spread 2,498 acres and approximately 219 structures were impacted, but luckily the fire has been 100% contained.