Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

FROM STAFF REPORTS / Editorial

Often, we find schools don’t have funds to help different programs flourish, and that can be particularly true for athletic programs that have to do fundraisers for equipment or other necessities to compete.

But for Vincent Middle High School, they have a coach by the name of Stephanie Ledlow, who recently went above and beyond to help her girls on the basketball team have something that made them feel special and unique.

After boys’ head coach John Hadder updated their locker room a few yars ago, Ledlow’s players kept begging for an upgrade as well. Eventually, she decided it was time to take matters into her own hands and build new lockers for her girls.

Previously having to use P.E. lockers, there wasn’t enough room for storage and often times things would get misplaced or stolen.

Ledlow set out to create a locker room that would not only give her players space to put equipment and personal belongings, but one that could become a fun and safe place for them to hang out together as a team.

What started out as an idea, turned into Ledlow spending weekend-after-weekend working by hand to build the new lockers that would go in the locker room.

But what was amazing was how everyone rallied around her to lend a helping hand.

She not only reached out to the Shelby County Board of Education to help renovate the locker room, but helped get the art/shop classes at Vincent to help with her plan.

Before she knew it, what was originally going to be new lockers turned into a complete renovation project.

The school board got somebody to come in and take out old showers, put up a new wall, run new wiring and put down new floors, while the art classes run by Clint Green also helped in the design and work on the lockers.

With the collaborative effort, Vincent’s girls stepped into their new locker room shortly after and jaws hit the floor in amazement at their new state of the art locker room that looked like something from a college team.

Now, they have a sitting area with a TV and other amenities, while the lockers feature plenty of room for storage.

There are now three roomy compartments in each locker that features a bottom pull out drawer, a hanging rack and bench in the middle and a storage cubby at the top.

It’s a completely new look and one the players deserved.

Not only did Ledlow’s idea come to fruition, but it went above and beyond what she had even imagined. Her idea gave each of her teams moving forward something special, but it also showed the power of what a school and community can do when they’re behind one another.