St. Louis, perhaps you have heard, takes a lot of pride in being a great sports city, and long is the list of reasons that prove it.
But you don’t get to pound your chest about the good things and ignore the bad, and what happened to 17-year-old volleyball player Janae Edmondson this past weekend is beyond bad.
Edmondson’s traveling volleyball club came to St. Louis from the Nashville area for a tournament at the Dome. What should have been a fun weekend of competition and time spent with family for the future volleyball player at University of Tennessee Southern instead turned into the worst kind of nightmare.
She’s now lost both of her legs because a speeding driver who should not have been behind a wheel caused a crash that nearly killed her and perhaps would have, had her father not used belts as tourniquets to slow the bleeding until help arrived.
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The Edmondsons weren’t driving. They were walking. It wasn’t yet 9 p.m.
If a great sports city is not safe for its residents, visitors, athletes, fans, family members and friends, how great is it, really?
Time to do more than think.
This devastating story is a sports story. The region’s vibrant amateur sports scene is what brought Edmondson’s team to town. By the end of next month, St. Louis will be hosting Blues games, the debut of newly launched MLS team St. Louis City SC, the XFL Battlehawks’ return to the Dome, and the Missouri Valley Conference’s latest basketball installment of Arch Madness.
Sports sell St. Louis. St. Louis sells sports.
The St. Louis Sports Commission works like crazy to get big sports events to plant their flags here instead of in other places that have passed the region by, and considering the challenges faced, the number of wins are stunning.
But the success of a dynamic and energized sports scene and its benefits — hotel rooms booked, gas tanks filled, restaurants reserved, entertainment provided, etc. — requires one very important thing.
The benefit of attending these events must outweigh the threats, real or perceived. If your job is to schedule youth volleyball tournaments, where does St. Louis rank among your options today?
It should not have to be explained to those unfamiliar with downtown driving that they really should slow down and look both ways at each green light, because a speeding car could be racing through reds; that turning lanes are often used as passing lanes around here; that they have to be on constant alert to what could be signs of pending car theft.
City SC should not be repairing gun-caused damage to a brand new parking garage before the team plays its first home game. A Blues prospect should not be robbed at gunpoint on the Arch grounds while in town for rookie camp. A Cardinals fan watching a game at Busch Stadium should not get grazed with a stray bullet.
All are recent examples on another kind of list, a concerning one that too often gets ignored or derailed by blame game and obfuscation. At last check, left and right still meet in the aisle to high-five at Cardinals home games and do the Blues’ power-play dance.
Go to Edmondson’s GoFundMe page, where donations for her medical care were closing in on $400,000 as of Thursday afternoon, and you will find that an awful event is being responded to in an amazing way.
Competing volleyball clubs are donating one after another. Clubs are sending money from Chicago, the Ozarks, deep in the South and from both coasts.
“From our volleyball family to yours,” reads a post tagged to a donation made from an Indiana team. “We were at the same tournament and are wishing you a strong recovery.”
Competitors who usually spend their time trying to beat one another are combining forces to help. What a concept. Let it be an inspiration now, a reminder of the critical things members of winning teams do every single day.
They put their individual differences aside and work together toward a shared goal. They take ownership after mistakes and hold one another accountable when jobs are not done the right way. And if someone can’t or won’t do what is best for the team, they force change.
If you take even just a little bit of pride in the label of St. Louis being a great sports city, it’s time to stop finding reasons to be divided and start prioritizing the protection of what brings so many of us together.
A great sports city — if you dare — is no slogan worth celebrating.
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson talks about crime and tourism in St. Louis at a press conference on Thursday, Feb. 23, 2023. Video by Beth O’Malley
