College sports 'fraternity' jumping in to help athletes from schools impacted by Hurricane Helene

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — UNC Asheville soccer player Xander Naguib and his teammates are preparing to spend the next several weeks — or perhaps months — at the state's sister school in Charlotte, where they will be housed, fed and be able to continue playing sports.

Given what Naquib has been through in the last week, he couldn't be more grateful. He and his teammates are among many programs in the area that have relocated to other schools in what one athletic director called a stirring example of colleges helping each other amid dire need.

Naguib and his friends were in Asheville when Hurricane Helene arrived, leaving a path of destruction in its wake with more than 200 people dead and countless others still missing. Without power, water and cell phone service and their off-campus apartment taking on water, Naguib was forced to evacuate even as flooding washed away local roads.

“It felt like we were blocked off from the world,” Naguib said.

Hours later, Naguib found a hotel and contacted his worried parents in Frisco, Texas, who quickly booked him on the next flight out of Asheville.

With UNC Asheville's campus closed for the next 10 days and classes cancelled until at least Oct. 28, the school has asked students to return home or placed them on other campuses. Athletic teams have the benefit of being with their teammates; for Naguib, it means living and playing soccer two hours away in Charlotte.

UNC Charlotte athletic director Mike Hill had reached out to Asheville AD Janet Cone to offer any assistance in the wake of the disaster.

Cone took him up on his offer, and Charlotte will host Asheville's men's and women's soccer teams and volleyball squad in the days ahead, putting them up at an overflow dormitory, feeding them meals in the cafeteria and allowing them to use their athletic facilities. They will have access to medical attention to treat injuries.

“We want them to feel comfortable,” said Chris Thomasson, Charlotte's executive associate athletic director for internal affairs. “A lot of people worked hard to make it happen. And our coaching staffs have been terrific. It's interesting, on the field or the court our coaches are fierce competitors, but when they heard Asheville needed help they were like, ‘whatever we can do — anything.'"

UNC Charlotte hasn't been the only school to step up.

Asheville's tennis teams will be living and practicing at High Point University. Its swim teams will stay at Gardner-Webb University. The golf teams will be head to Wofford College next week.

Cone is still working to get all the school's athletes placed, including the school's basketball teams as part of what she called “a logistical puzzle with a whole lot of pieces.”

But she's confident the school will get through it.

“The world of college sports is a really tight-knit group,” Cone said. “It’s been really heartening for me to see. So many people have gone out of their way to help us. I've received calls from schools all over the state and all over the country saying, ‘what can we do?’ There is a lot of trouble in this world and people sometimes do crazy things, but at times like this it makes you feel good to the see the care in people's hearts."

UNC Asheville isn’t the only college impacted by the hurricane. Schools such as Tusculum, Lees-McRae, Western Carolina, North Greenville, Appalachian State and Montreat are among those whose campuses were hit hard, including sports facilities. Fall sports schedules are severely disrupted.

Still, colleges and high school sports teams are finding their way.

With no water available in Greene County (Tennessee), Division II college Tusculum had its teams leave the Greeneville campus with help from sports rivals, a pair of former Tusculum coaches, alumni, friends and neighbors. Josh Ealy, Tusculum’s vice president for athletics, said the school won’t be able to do anything on campus until water service resumes.

Tusculum’s football team is staying in spare space at a residence hall and eating on campus at rival Carson-Newman in Jefferson City. The Pioneers are practicing at Jefferson County High School, which is coached by Spencer Riley, who was Tusculum’s offensive line coach for seven seasons.

The Pioneers’ women’s soccer team is in Baneberry, Tennessee, with former head coach Mike Joy reaching out to family and friends to host the players. Joy helped coach many of the current players who are practicing at Lakeway Christian Academy in White Pine.

The men’s soccer team accepted help from rival Lincoln Memorial University to stay, eat and train on campus in Harrogate.

Lincoln Memorial also is serving as the host for games for both of Tusculum’s soccer teams and volleyball. Tusculum’s first-year women’s volleyball coach Hannah Barrett tapped into her connections for her team to stay with people in the Knoxville area. Her team is practicing at the University of Tennessee.

“This has been a tremendous undertaking which came together very quickly due to the hard work of so many people," Ealy said.

Cone said she is optimistic that UNC Asheville's fall sports teams will play close to a full schedule, even if games will mostly be away from campus.

On Friday, Cone and her staff returned to Asheville to retrieve sports equipment and uniforms that were left behind in the evacuation process. They plan to distribute them to their students hosted at other schools.

Returning home was tough. The destruction to the tight-knit community is unspeakable.

“I can’t emphasize this enough, sports is a very, very small part of all this because we’re talking about people who've lost their lives and their homes — they lost everything,” Cone said. “It's my job to try help our student-athletes get back to some sense of normalcy and our staff is working to do the best we can to help them.”

For Naguib, that means the world.

“If we are able to play, that's all that matters,” Naguib said. “I feel thankful and blessed to have a place to stay and do what I love.”

AP journalists Teresa Walker, Aaron Beard and Barry Bedlan contributed.

This photo provided by Kelly Benware shows flooding around the football field at Asheville Christian Academy in Swannanoa, N.C., on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (Kelly Benware via AP)

This photo provided by Kelly Benware shows flooding around the football field at Asheville Christian Academy in Swannanoa, N.C., on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (Kelly Benware via AP)

This photo provided by Kelly Benware shows flooding around the football field at Asheville Christian Academy in Swannanoa, N.C., on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (Kelly Benware via AP)

This photo provided by Kelly Benware shows flooding around the football field at Asheville Christian Academy in Swannanoa, N.C., on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (Kelly Benware via AP)

A view of damage in Asheville, N.C., is seen during an aerial tour with President Joe Biden who looked at areas impacted by Hurricane Helene near Asheville, N.C., Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rocket fired from Yemen hit an area of Tel Aviv overnight, leaving 16 people slightly injured by shattered glass, the Israeli military said Saturday, days after Israeli airstrikes hit Houthi rebels who have been launching missiles in solidarity with Palestinians.

A further 14 people sustained minor injuries as they rushed to shelters when air raid sirens sounded before the projectile hit just before 4 a.m. Saturday, the military said.

The Houthi rebels issued a statement on the Telegram messaging app saying they had aimed a hypersonic ballistic missile at a military target, which they did not identify.

The attack comes less than two days after a series of Israeli airstrikes on Yemen’s Houthi rebel-held capital, Sanaa, and port city of Hodeida killed at least nine people. The Israeli strikes were in response to a Houthi attack in which a long-range missile hit an Israeli school building. The Houthis also claimed a drone strike targeting an unspecified military target in central Israel on Thursday.

The Israeli military says the Iran-backed Houthis have launched more than 200 missiles and drones during the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. The Houthis have also been attacking shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden and say they won’t stop until there is a ceasefire in Gaza.

The Israeli strikes Thursday caused “considerable damage” to the Houthi-controlled Red Sea ports “that will lead to the immediate and significant reduction in port capacity,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. The port at Hodeida has been key for food shipments into Yemen in its decade-long civil war.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said both sides’ attacks risk further escalation in the region and undermine U.N. mediation efforts.

In the Gaza Strip on Saturday, mourners held the funerals of 19 people — 12 of them children — killed in Israeli strikes on Friday and overnight.

One of the strikes hit a residential building in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing at least seven Palestinians, including five children and one woman, and injuring 16 others, health officials said.

In Gaza City, another strike on a house overnight killed 12 people, including seven children and two women, according to Al-Ahli Hospital where the bodies were taken.

Mourners gathered at the hospital in Gaza City Saturday morning. Women comforted each other as they wept over the bodies before they were carried away. One man, stony-faced, cradled a tiny shroud-wrapped body in his arms as he carried it along the funeral procession.

In Al-Aqsa Hospital of Deir al Balah, white body bags containing those killed in Nuseirat were taken from the morgue and loaded onto the back of an open truck to be taken for burial.

Overall, Gaza's Health Ministry said Saturday that 21 people had been killed and 61 were wounded over the past 24 hours.

Israel faces heavy international criticism over the unprecedented levels of civilian casualties in Gaza and questions about whether it has done enough to prevent them.

Israel says it only strikes militants, and blames the Hamas militant group for civilian deaths because its fighters operate in residential areas.

More than 45,200 people have been killed and more than 107,500 wounded in the Gaza Strip since October 2023, when a Hamas attack in Israel killed about 1,200 people and triggered the devastating 14-month war in Gaza. Local health officials do not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but have said more than half of the fatalities are women and children.

The Israeli military organization dealing with humanitarian affairs for Gaza said Saturday it had led a “tactical coordinated operation” delivering thousands of food packages, flour and water to the Beit Hanoun area in the north of the Gaza Strip.

The organization, known by its acronym COGAT, said trucks from the U.N. World Food Program transported 2,000 food packages, 1,680 sacks of flour and thousands of liters of water to distribution centers in the area on Friday.

Aid groups have said previously that military operations and armed gangs have hindered their ability to distribute aid to civilians in need.

Gaza's Health Ministry issued an urgent appeal Saturday for medical and food supplies to be delivered to Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, near Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza, while the hospital director described dire conditions.

The ministry said in a statement that there was continuous gunfire and Israeli shelling near the hospital. “Shells have struck the third floor and the hospital’s entrances, creating a state of panic,” the ministry said.

Hospital Director Dr. Husam Abu Safiyeh said the facility was “facing severe shortages."

“Despite promises, we have not received the necessary supplies to maintain electricity, water, and oxygen systems," Abu Safiyeh said. "Our requests for essential medical supplies and staff have largely gone unmet.”

He said the World Health Organization had delivered 70 units of blood, but that the hospital requires at least 200 units to meet urgent needs. He said 72 wounded people were being treated at the hospital.

The shortages extend beyond medical necessities. “Food is very scarce, and we cannot provide meals for the wounded. We are urgently calling on anyone who can provide supplies to help us,” he said. “The staff is working around the clock, yet we cannot even provide meals for them.”

Shurafa reported from Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip. Associated Press writers Elena Becatoros in Majdal Shams, Golan Heights, contributed to this report.

Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

Bodies of victims of an Israeli airstrike at the Nuseirat refugee camp are prepared for the funeral prayer outside the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Men pray over the bodies of victims of an Israeli airstrike at the Nuseirat refugee camp during a funeral prayer outside the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Saturday Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Bodies of victims of an Israeli airstrike at the Nuseirat arrive at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital before their funeral in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

An Israeli soldier observes the site where the missile launched from Yemen landed Jaffa district, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Tomer Appelbaum)