A Northern Kentucky baseball dugout was thoroughly wrecked by a weather phenomenon known as a thunderstorm downburst. The result left a high school program in disarray and needing extra help from the community to get their facility in working order for the season.
In an intriguing twist, the damage to the dugout occurred precisely as one of the program’s former managers was being laid to rest.
As reported by Cincinnati ABC affiliate WCPO, the Conner High School baseball dugout was struck by a dangerous downburst on Thursday night, at approximately the same time that former Conner team manager Dallas Willoughby was being laid to rest following his sudden death in March.
“It’s Dallas’s last gift to Conner baseball,” Conner coach Brad Arlinghaus told WCPO. “We’ll get a new dugout out of it. He was up there, he was working for us. He knew how bad our dugouts were.”
Apparently so did the community, which rapidly rallied around the Conner program in a time of need. According to the coach, multiple people in the community came forward and offered to rebuild the dugout within four days so it could be ready before the team’s season opener.
And that’s the one silver lining to Conner’s sudden disaster: The team claims it needed another dugout. Not it has a need to create one for itself out of thin air.
