The grind of an off season and early morning workouts can send a lot of coaches to bed early. For Georgia assistant strength and conditioning coach Gus Felder, a simple decision to stay up late last night turned out to pay monumental dividends.
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Felder decided to stay up late and watch some TV and read last night instead of retiring to bed early, as he normally does this time of year.
Around 11pm he thought he smelled something strange and ended up finding a relatively small fire underneath the dryer in the home that he rents with his wife and five children. Felder immediately evacuated his family, he then called the fire department after trying to put the small blaze out with a fire extinguisher that didn't work.
The fire department was able to contain the fire, but the room shared by three of his kids sustained some major smoke, water, and heat damage and the children lost their clothes and toys as a result.
Thankfully, everyone got out safe and nobody was hurt, and Felder attributes that to a plan that he and his family had in place in case of emergencies like this.
“We’ve always had a little plan for emergencies and that worked out great,” Felder told the AJC . “My kids did great, my wife did a great job. So we made it, thank God.”
A local church has put together a GoFundMe site to help the family to relocate. Go here to donate.
This story is important / relevant for a few reasons; 1) We all have the opportunity to help a fellow coach in this great profession during a time of great need. 2) Make sure you have an emergency plan in place for your family, and 3) hug your family a little tighter tonight.