Appomattox – The #SmithStrong golf fundraiser is underway.
The Falling River Country Club in Appomattox is hosting a benefit tournament to help longtime head football coach Doug Smith with his medical bills.
Smith continues to fight a courageous battle with cancer--called multiple myeloma. The treatments took him off the sidelines for
the Raiders this spring as he continued cancer treatments.
More than 500 golfers were already registered--which is massive, including coaches and friends who traveled in from states away.
Smith was instrumental in the “Power of One movement that helped the community heal and move forward in a positive direction after a string of tragedies. That power--is once again showing its strength.
”Well, you can’t even explain it. I can’t even -- I can’t even have an emotion hardly because it’s just so overwhelming to be honest with you. Because you already get a blessing when you’re coaching kids so it’s a blessing to watch the kids get better and watch them changing. And then you know, this happens, and you get a blessing again from your community and people that support you and friends that have come in here to to be here so it’s a little bit overwhelming. I don’t think I’ll really understand what happened until later,” coach Smith said.
The Raiders football team has won five Class 2 state titles in the last six years in cluding this past spring over Stuarts Draft. Stephen Castello served as the Raiders the interim coach with coach Doug Smith away from the sideline while receiving cancer treatments.