MIAMI (WSVN) - Miami Edison Senior High School’s football team has been dealing with the aftermath of a fire that burned all of their equipment but have now received some good news.
Miami Dolphins President and CEO Tom Garfinkel tweeted on Monday morning that the team, along with Baptist Health, will be replacing all of their equipment.
Happy to announce the @MiamiDolphins together with @BaptistHealthSF will be replacing this equipment for @MiamiEdisonFB – @NatMoore89 ‘s high school https://t.co/zgnRbVIQgc
— Tom Garfinkel (@TomGarfinkel) June 24, 2019
On Sunday afternoon Miami-Dade Fire Rescue responded to the school’s football practice field located along Northwest 62nd Street in Miami to find the field house ablaze.
“It was crowded. You could barely close the door. Now it’s just burnt ashes,” said quarterback Keith Moore.
“Everything is basically decimated, and it’s hard for us now to get ready to compete. It’s hard,” said Madsen Marcellus, one of team’s coaches.
The team said the blaze burned and melted thousands of dollars worth of equipment.
“Blocking dummies, benches, field markers. We lost cones, we lost a lot of things like that, that the kids need for practicing,” said Principal Leon Maycock.
Maintenance crews were on scene the day after the fire to repair what they could of the field house.
“We’re not sure right now what all was lost because so much was damaged,” said Maycock.
However, the principal believes the team will be able to overcome this setback.
“They’re hurt mentally right now, but they’re very strong players right now. They’re always going to persevere through anything right now, and they’re going to fight through all of this adversity and still overcome,” said Maycock.
The football team’s head coach, hip-hop artist Luther Campbell, said the players have been going through a difficult time this month.
“You think about the kids. You think about everything that they’ve been to for the last two weeks,” said Campbell.
Last month, the team lost one of their own, 17-year-old Richecarde Dumay, in a fatal car crash in North Miami that also claimed the lives of two other teens.
“I think the devil is really busy right now so guess what? We’ll always find a way that God will provide for us despite the adversity we are facing,” said Maycock.
Campbell said he hopes words of encouragement will help motivate the team.
“It’s about just building them up and letting them know God don’t make no mistakes. Whatever we’re going through right now, we’re going to fight through it, and something good will come of all this,” said Campbell.
Even with the setback, Moore said, the team has no plans of slowing down.
“It’s going to bring us closer, because we already lost a player, so that motivates us to work harder and win a state championship,” he said.
As the investigation continues, officials said they do not believe arson is the cause of the fire.
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