NORMAN — Tony Smith got his first, good look at the damage Tuesday.
The former Little Axe football coach, who led the team to its first playoff berth last fall, took in what was left after a large tornado ripped through the north part of school property Monday night.
What he saw was devestation.
“The football field is gone, the whole grandstand,” Smith said. “It got blown across the street. The administration building is gone, and the field house, we were adding to it, it’s got a lot of damage.”
Even the football coaches office wasn’t spare. A portable building, the coaches office sits east of the field house, southeast of the field’s south end zone, adjacent to the main parking lot. It was pushed off its foundation by the tornado, but considering what happened less than a block to the north, the fact there’s any building left at all is a blessing.
When the tornado moved through Monday night, it crossed right over the main bleachers and the field the Indians called home. The press box and main grand stands were taken completely, leaving nothing but cement and asphalt behind where it stood.
Instead, the remains of the bleachers and box were thrown about, some parts hitting the field house and doing damage, others tearing huge gouges in the playing surface. Finally, the metal, wood and cement continued east, where it helped demolish the administration building before being hurled into the forest across the street like bullets into the trees.
“All our light poles are gone, and some of the equipment in the concession stand is damaged,” said Smith, who resigned as football coach and is now the school’s assistant principal. “I’m really not sure we’re even going to be able to play on it next season.”
The season is just four months away, and fall practices begin the second week of August. Getting a new grandstand built in that time would be difficult. Add in the lights, repairing the field house and coaches office, getting a new play clock, a new scoreboard and the plethora of other things Little Axe will need to get a football field ready, and it could be out of the question that the Indians would be able to play at home.
If they aren’t, they’ll have to depend on the help of some neighboring communities, like Bethel (a major division rival) or Noble.
Noble might be the more likely place for Little Axe to play its home games in the fall, especially since it’s holding graduation ceremonies there due to the field’s destruction.
Right now, there’s no monetary estimate available on the damage done to the property. An insurance adjustor was out Tuesday considering the damage. But that’s just the first step to rebuilding.
“It’s going to be tough,” Smith said. “There’s just so much.”
