Love pours in for volleyball team that lost 4 in crash on way to Kansas City tourney
Some teams sent handwritten cards. Others provided gift baskets. Players from many cities displayed the numbers 14 and 22 on their shoes or on the red-and-black ribbons tied in their hair.
Support continued to pour in on Presidents Day as teams from across the country did whatever they could to comfort KIVA 12 Red, the Louisville club volleyball team that lost four people in a traffic wreck Friday on the way to a tournament in downtown Kansas City.
Two girls on the 12-and-under team and their mothers died as a result of a head-on crash on Interstate 64 in St. Charles County about 40 miles northwest of St. Louis.
Shortly after 11 a.m. Friday, a pickup truck veered off the road and ran through a cable barrier, then started to overturn before striking their car and another vehicle, according to a Missouri Highway Patrol crash report.
Lesley Prather and her 12-year-old daughter Rhyan, and Carrie McCaw and her 12-year-old daughter Kacey were killed in the crash. The girls were on their way to play in the 2020 Triple Crown Volleyball NIT at Bartle Hall.
“The outpouring of support has been incredible,” coach Courtney Robison-Dixon said Monday. “Every team that we have played has in some way come up to us and given flowers to our kids, they’ve given baskets of snacks and written them these super-sweet cards. And a lot of teams wrote the kids’ names on their wrists or on their shoes.”
Robison-Dixon said there were volleyball tournaments taking place nationwide over the holiday weekend, which marks the first time in the season that college coaches can attend games for recruitment.
“So every club-level team in the nation is competing,” she said. “And there were moments of silence held in Las Vegas, St. Louis, Louisville, all these convention centers.”
For many families involved in club-level sports, Robison-Dixon said, the tragedy hit close to home.
“All of these families are just counting their blessings right now,” she said. “They travel to and from a volleyball tournament every single weekend, but we always assume we’re going to make it there and back safe.”
The driver of the pickup has not been charged, and the crash remains under investigation, the highway patrol said in an email Monday.
“Once they complete the investigation, reports will be forwarded to the prosecutor for consideration of any charges,” wrote Cpl. Juston Wheetley of Troop C. “It could be several weeks before the reports are complete.”
Unconditional love and support
Rhyan and Kacey were the team captains of 12 Red. Their mothers — former college volleyball stars — coached a 10-and-under team. Heartbroken at the news of the deaths, the girls’ teammates wanted to stay in the tournament and dedicate it to their leaders.
They played their hearts out, winning all three of their games Saturday. After losing a game Sunday, they came back and beat the same team in a 15-point playoff that night, advancing to the gold bracket quarter-finals Monday morning.
“There wasn’t a dry eye in the house after we won that battle,” said assistant coach Jackie Napper. “There was a standing ovation. Every person there was crying. I’ve never experienced anything like it.”
The team lost Monday but the girls were champions in the eyes of those attending. Twitter posts described them as “warriors” and “rock stars,” with one saying they showed “a true display of grit.”
Napper said Rhyan and Kacey “were literally our two best players, the glue to our team.”
“They never came off the floor,” she said. “They were best friends, and their mothers were very good friends.
“On behalf of the family and the KIVA administration, we can’t express enough how much we appreciate the unconditional love and support that was given toward the families and all of the KIVA coaches and kids. “
Triple Crown NIT event director Jared Rudiger said in a written statement that everyone connected to the event was devastated at the loss.
“Words are unable to express our sadness at the loss of Carrie and Kacey McCaw and Lesley and Rhyan Prather; we have been close partners with KIVA through the building of this event, and we will stand by them in this moment, along with all the KIVA families and loved ones,” he said.
A tough road
Parents of the team members couldn’t say enough about the support they’ve received.
“It’s been overwhelming,” said Kelly Kerberg of Jeffersonville, Indiana, whose 11-year-old daughter, Dannah, is on the team. “There were a lot of amazing teams that came and did wonderful stuff. The very first match of the day, a team brought our girls flowers and made some posters and prayed with us. It really is healing the girls.
“All of the teams, they do this. They travel with each other, the parents become best friends, the kids become best friends, they grow up together. And all of the teams just saw themselves in our teams and could see how it could have been any one of them.”
The girls may not have won gold, Kerberg said, but they fought hard.
“No one expected to ever be in gold,” she said. “We weren’t even sure if we should play a game. There’s no rule book for this. You don’t know how to react.
“Some people don’t understand and say, well, why wouldn’t you have gone home, or why would you keep playing? But for them to be together, because they share this bond that no one else fully understands now, it really helped them start the healing process.”
Napper said Monday the girls were drained.
“This morning, you could tell the exhaustion,” she said. “We were just emotionally defeated today. We had nothing left.”
She said the team has a tough road ahead.
“It’s going to start really kicking in now and for the weeks to come,” she said. “After this weekend, it’s our reality. We’ll walk into practice and these girls aren’t going to be there. And I think it’s just going to get harder from here.”
That why, Napper said, the kind gestures are so appreciated. Like being contacted by a woman who stopped to try and help at the crash site Friday.
“She wanted the family to know that she prayed over Rhyan, she talked to her the whole time, she was rubbing her hair,” Napper said.
“She wanted the family and us to know that it wasn’t a crazy, frantic moment. Her last moments were very peaceful, and she was loved and she was cared for.
“Not that anything can heal, but hearing that gave a little bit of peace.”
This story was originally published February 17, 2020 at 5:58 PM.
