By TOMMY REZAC
St. Joseph Post
The Lafayette girls' tennis team had been holding summer practices at the Northside Tennis Courts in Krug Park.
Near those courts is a city-owned storage building, where the team had stored all of their equipment.
Unfortunately, it was discovered this past Tuesday that the team's equipment, everything from ball machines to tennis rackets, had been stolen. Locks on the doors had been apparently cut.
After news of this robbery had been made public on Facebook, many people in St. Joseph have stepped in to help, including the St. Joseph Mustangs.
The Mustangs are holding a 50/50 raffle on Friday night at Phil Welch Stadium during the MINK League Championship Series game with proceeds going toward the Lafayette tennis team.
The team has already agreed to donate $100 to the team up front.
Lafayette head coach Kara Berry was blown away with how fast the Mustangs responded.
"I know there's a lot of Lafayette alumni that work the Mustangs," Berry said. "I don't know how it all came about, but I couldn't believe how quickly everyone came to our rescue. That was really, really nice of everyone and we greatly appreciate that."
Several Lafayette alums play for the Mustangs, including Brayden Luikart, Ike Book, Jayden Little and Cole Slibowski. Jennifer Koch, the team's host family coordinator, works at the high school and Phil Welch Stadium operations director Stan Weston was once the head baseball coach at Lafayette.
Berry says there have been others outside the Mustangs who have contacted her about donating equipment.
"It's so great that everyone is rushing to help us right away," she said. "People have contacted me separately that have donated things. My brother teaches (tennis) lessons and he immediately sent us four used rackets. Anything is helpful, especially when our kids don't have the funds to go out and purchase nice, new rackets."
Benton and Maryville's tennis teams have contacted Lafayette, asking if there's anything they can donate. Lafayette is coming off of a district runner-up finish in 2022. They also sent a doubles team, Erinn Lotspeich and Brooklyn Lorenz, to state last year as well.
As unfortunate as the circumstance is, Berry says the generosity from the community has been a silver lining.
"I really appreciate the St. Joseph coming together and helping us out with everything."
You can follow Tommy on Twitter @TommyKFEQ and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.