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Mountaineers lend helping hand to wildfire victims |
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Tuesday, 06 November 2007 |
 | Engelgau
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by LILES NEAL
Intern Sports Reporter
The Monday before Halloween, sophomore volleyball player Cassie Engelgau had one of the scariest phone calls of her life.
Her mother, Becci Engelgau, who was at the family’s home in Lake Arrowhead, Calif., spoke to Cassie just after her 9 a.m. class to tell her that she was being evacuated from their home. The California wildfire had started only a mile away.
Becci said Cassie had called to tell her about an exam she had done well on.
“I tried to sound happy,” she said, “but then I had to tell her that I was being evacuated.”
When Cassie called back after her next class, she was told to brace herself because she might never see their house again.
“She didn’t even have time to get clothes,” Cassie said. “But she got the pictures and pets.”
Cassie’s father was away on a business trip, and her brother attends
school in Northern California, so her mother was the only one left at
the house.
“She was just worried she had to do it all by herself,” Cassie said.
Fortunately, Cassie didn’t have to cope with the threat of the fire by
herself. Her second family, the ASU volleyball team, was behind Cassie
all the way.
“The volleyball team has become like my family,” she said. “The coaches
are like my parents away from home, and even the [other players’
parents] have really helped me through this.”
Luckily, the Santa Ana winds blew the fire away from the Engelgau’s
home, but not before it could consume 500 homes in Lake Arrowhead and
the surrounding area.
“There’s a community out behind our house where they lost 173 homes,” Becci said.
Many of Engelgau’s friends in Lake Arrowhead lost everything.
“On the Internet, they only give [the victims’] addresses,” she said.
“But through e-mail, I do know of a few friends who lost their homes.”
Those people are staying with friends in the area until they can
rebuild their homes. Cassie plans to do what she can to help, and one
of her “parents-away-from-home” wanted to get involved too.
Appalachian Head Coach Matt Ginipro decided to collect donations at the
team’s remaining home matches to raise money for a relief organization
in Southern California.
“We’re at home,” Ginipro said he told Cassie. “We’ll promote it. We’ll
put it up in the press release. We’ll see how much we can get out to
those people, even if it’s just a little bit.”
Donations were taken at the team’s matches on both Friday and Saturday,
and Ginipro said they will most likely extend the campaign to this
weekend’s home matches.
This weekend’s games will be held Friday at 7 p.m. against Davidson
College and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. against Georgia Southern University.
Cassie has used volleyball as a way to help her cope with the stress of the situation.
“Practice last week was definitely an escape,” she said. “It was the one time I could get my mind off things.”
Despite the difficult circumstances, Cassie has continued to perform at
a high level. Ginipro was pleased with her practice the past week, and
her 19 defensive digs and one ace in two matches this weekend helped
the Mountaineers extend their win streak to 11.
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