Julius Bridges stepped into DICK’S Sporting Goods in D’Iberville, Miss., to look for baseball equipment days after his team had lost all of theirs along with the use of their facilities in an EF-2 tornado that ripped through Moss Point, Miss., on June 19.
Superintendent Oswago Harper had given him a directive to return with quotes for the needed items. Bridges met DICK’S Store Manager Robbie Black, who helped him determine prices for the equipment on his list. The two struck up a conversation about how the storm had decimated the team’s supplies and Black brought up the company’s sports grant.
“I told him at that moment, it would be amazing to receive and that whatever I need to do to try to get it, I was willing to do it,” Bridges told Mississippi Free Press.
Bridges completed the school’s part of the application and submitted it, but after months passed, he forgot about the grant. At 6:30 p.m. one October evening, he noticed a missed call and listened to the voicemail. It was from Black.
“Coach Bridges, we got it,” Black said.
DICK’S Sporting Goods awarded the district’s athletic department $75,000 through its 75for75 Sports Matter Foundation. In celebration of DICK’S Sporting Goods’ 75th anniversary, the foundation is giving 75 youth sports organizations across the country grants to help alleviate their financial burdens. The program brings awareness to underfunded sports programs and gives funds to youth and athletic programs to go toward their facilities and equipment.
‘We Lost Everything’
Moss Point will use the funds to repair its softball and baseball facilities. The tornado struck the town at about 3 p.m. on June 19 and appeared to first touch down near Moss Point High School. The storm did considerable damage to homes, churches and city buildings such as tearing the relatively new roof off the high-school gymnasium. Fifteen students and 10 faculty members were sheltering inside the gym when the storm hit. The tornado also ripped the school’s press box from the football stadium and significantly damaged the softball/baseball complex.
“We lost everything,” Bridges said. “All of our equipment