A triumphant day for App State was a reminder to Western NC residents: ‘This is home’
Danny Caddell acknowledged that if you sat on the front porch of his house in Boone a month ago, as Hurricane Helene forever changed a generation of Western North Carolinians, you might not notice much.
You wouldn’t see the rerouted rivers. Wouldn’t see the toppled trees. You’d never know there was a storm, Caddell said, “except for the sound of helicopters and chainsaws” echoing off the mountains: The same helicopters that airlifted life-saving supplies, the same chainsaws that carved exits out of Appalachia.
“It’s been a challenge for everybody,” the 73-year-old App State alum said. “But also, it’s brought out the best.”
It was Saturday morning on Appalachian State’s campus. Tailgating hours had arrived. Soon, Caddell and his wife, Carolina, and their granddaughter, Hannah, and 33,000-plus attendees would flow into Kidd Brewer Stadium to watch the Mountaineers’ first home football game in 37 days, since the hurricane came and stalled life in this part of the state.
But the stories that flowed across Boone on Saturday morning weren’t about quarterback performances or play calling or the conference matchup with Georgia State. The stories instead were about the strength of neighbors this past month. They were about the organizational power of volunteers. They were about a Friday night at the Highlanders Grill and Tavern, in Banner Elk just 13 miles southwest of Boone, where patrons pitched in to ensure first responders wouldn’t need to pay for their meals.
For App State — the largest university in Western N.C. — playing a game at home at all symbolized a win. Playing a game at all represented hope.
It offered a reminder, too.
“We love it here,” Caddell said. “This is home.”
Saturday wasn’t a homecoming for App State. Homecomings indicate choice. An initial choice to leave. A later choice to come back. The Mountaineers and their fans didn’t have that for over a month. And you felt that reality in every crowd roar, in every stadium pulse.
After the Mountaineers scored their first touchdown of the day, the entire offense stormed to Miller Hill, where thousands of their classmates stood together again, and the whole offense Lambeau Leapt up there. They earned an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for the celebration. They didn’t care; neither did their coach. After the team’s final touchdown, fireworks shot into the sky. The game wasn’t yet done.
When the score was at long last its final 33-26, on the last patented call-and-response chant of the day — “APP!” “STATE!” — head coach Shawn Clark tried not to let his emotions shake with the stadium.
“We’ve been playing for something bigger than ourselves the last few weeks,” Clark told reporters after the game. He added, “Just like our community has battled their tails off the last four weeks to get some normalcy in their lives, our program is doing the same thing. Our community is behind us 100%, and we’re behind our community 100%.”
App State football bringing Western North Carolina hope
You didn’t have to look far to find people who had reasons this game mattered so much to them.
Talk to Craig White, for instance. The 1982 Mountaineer alum lives in Winston-Salem now, but he comes down every home game, a well-worn tradition that has recently eluded him.
“The game’s part of it,” White said. “But today, to me, that’s secondary to the fact that we’re back here now.”
Helene dumped 40 trillion gallons of water across the mountains and the Southeast United States. It was the “deadliest and most devastating storm to ever hit North Carolina,” Gov. Roy Cooper said on Saturday in Charlotte. It has killed 98 people — that number is expected to climb — and caused $53 billion in damage, not including the tourism dollars that still aren’t filtering like they normally do at this time of year, when Appalachia looks like a fall painting one can’t wait to step into.
Charlie Richards agrees with White.
Richards is a freshman at App State and wore a student staple of black-and-yellow striped overalls at his tailgate. He said App State has been a haven for Western North Carolinians in many ways the past few weeks. One example: The campus opened up the dining hall to non-students during the peak of the storm, and newly unhoused families sat shoulder-to-shoulder with ASU students, the campus awash in humanity.
“I’m close with this area now,” Richards said. “I’m from Charlotte, but being near the area, knowing what people are going through, devastation, people’s lives changed forever: you definitely feel a different connection.”
Lauren Kincer, a Burlington native and 2016 ASU graduate who’s been going to Mountaineers games with her parents all her life, said she worried that the game wouldn’t be well-attended. For a moment, that is. Travel is still difficult in some parts of the state, and it’s understandable if people’s priorities aren’t what they once were. But when she rolled onto campus Saturday, she said she felt something special in the air.
“Being able to do it at home and not an away site is a big deal,” Kincer said, referencing the fact that the team explored options of finishing its season at Wake Forest or UNC Charlotte. “And the fact that Boone can even hold this many people after the hurricane is impressive.”
She added: “I think everyone just getting back here is a win.”
‘Today is hopeful’
Well after the final second ran off and Clark shook hands with his opposing coach at midfield and App State moved on to 11-0 all-time against Georgia State, throngs of fans hung out in the stadium, on the field, soaking in the win.
It felt like no time had passed all day. As if time had stood still.
It felt just as if it was hours before kickoff, and Caddell — the aforementioned alumni — was talking through his Saturday emotions.
“Today is hopeful,” Caddell said. “There’s hope for the storm recovery. And hope for our Apps, man.”
He smiled.
“We got a game to win!” he said.
They’d already won.
This story was originally published October 28, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
