SOUTH FORT MYERS
A team who’s there for each other on and off the court.
The athletes from Canterbury High School are working together to help their coach after hurricane Ian.
He had damage to both his house and family business.
Matt Dunn grew up on Sanibel, but when the hurricane approached, he evacuated to Estero, not knowing when they might return.
Once they did, it was time to clean up.
“We had to dig through all the stuff down there, and a lot of it was memories and keepsakes and pictures especially. Because those are things you can’t replace,” Dunn said.
In the days and weeks after the storm, basketball was secondary. He became a teammate for others in need.
“All I was doing every day from 8 to 7 was like helping friends out. Like taking out drywall, doing yard work,” Dunn said.
Dunn wants to be back on the court with his Canterbury teams. Normalcy is hard to come by these days.
“I can go to school. I can come play basketball doing things I love despite there being like a horrible storm that destroyed my hometown,” he said.
As the team captain., he could never forget his fellow Canterbury teammates or his coach Michael Hibbs.
The outside of the Hibbs’ home was a mess.
And the family’s shops at Sanibel Outlets were destroyed.
So these basketball brothers banded together to help their coach.
“With all the debris that was there and then all the trees and everything, cutting down stuff, and then some of them even went with me and my wife over to our businesses and clean up there, get stuff out that wasn’t ruined,” Hibbs said. “I’m sorry, but that really meant a lot to me. It showed me the character of this basketball team.”
The team has already been through so much adversity, but they are stronger because of it.
“We always have responded and come back. And I think that’s what Southwest Florida is about right now,” Hibbs said.
Dunn said their season is still a priority.
“Give all of our possible effort we can,” Dunn said.
Because after all that work, it’s time to play.
WINK NEWS