A major air carrier’s meltdown the day after Christmas delivered a strong blow to the Lady Rocket basketball team’s travel plans, but the airline debacle didn't knock the local girls out.
After 17 hours stranded at Nashville International Airport on Monday, Crittenden County High School coach Shannon Hodge landed a crew of 37 players, managers, parents and supporters onto a chartered bus and left a bad experience in Tennessee for warmer circumstances in Orlando, Fla.
An historic winter storm tangled with one of the heaviest travel periods of the year provided the perfect recipe for an airline incapable of navigating perhaps deeper issues, catching tens of thousands across the country in a miserable situation. Among them were Lady Rocket basketball girls who learned that corporate struggles of epic proportions are no match for tenacity through adversity.
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“We always try to talk about what it means to deal with adversity,” coach Hodge said as her team made alternative plans to bypass the airline's breakdown by chartering a Clair Stauffer bus out of Mount Vernon, Ill.
Over the past 24 years, Hodge has planned sixth holiday break trips to Florida. This one was booked months in advance and when the team gathered at Rocket Arena at midnight on Christmas Day, it headed toward an avalanche of difficulties that at times seemed insurmountable, and almost persuaded the group to turn around and come home.
Instead, Hodge and the girls forged ahead, painting a story of perseverance that didn’t go unnoticed by Nashville television stations who got wind of their story and produced live and taped broadcasts about the girls' experience.
Across the country, Southwest Airline canceled almost 3,000 flights Monday — at least 70% of its schedule for the day, according to flight tracker FlightAware. Crittenden County’s girls ball team was among the chaos that stretched from Denver and New York to Nashville and beyond. The airline struggled to handle the flight disruption, leaving the basketball team and thousands upon thousands more stranded at airports across the country, many of them with little idea of when they might get to their destinations or how to retrieves bags checked for their flights.
As it turned out, coach Hodge and her team were caught in a remarkable travel meltdown where Southwest had more than 10 times higher flight cancelations than other carriers, according to a report by CNN.
With some logistical help from folks back home, the Rocket girls got on the road about 7 p.m., from Nashville and arrived in Orlando about 12 hours later after riding through the night. They were scheduled to play the first game in the KSA Holiday Tournament two hours later, but tournament hosts made special arrangements to postpone the game for a time.
Stay tuned for more updates.
