On the morning of May 22, Yancy McKnight was having a simple conversation with his father. McNight’s father had recently been released from a hospital following surgery and was headed home.

Little did the McKnight family know that within the next 24 hours, home would become a very different place.

Yancy McKinght, head strength and conditioning coach at Iowa State, was born and raised in Joplin, Mo. Many of McKnight’s family and friends reside in the tornado-ravaged Missouri town, and are now left to pick up the pieces.

McKnight took to coaching, thanks in large part to his childhood experience in Joplin.

“I always thought I would get into coaching after playing in high school and college,” McKnight said. “My original aspirations were to coach high schoool football, and I thought ‘Why not my hometown? Why not Joplin?'”

After playing collegiate football — first at Southwest Missouri State, then at Missouri Southern, in Joplin — McKnight found himself working in the strength and conditioning realm.

He trained athletes at Oklahoma State, Louisiana Tech and Rice before joining Paul Rhoads’s staff at Iowa State.

As McKnight moved across the Midwest, he still maintained connections with his beloved hometown. These steadfast connections made May 22 all the more challenging for him. McKnight said the tornado decimated phone lines and limited cell phone reception.

“You’re trying to find these people and there’s no contact. It was a very stressful two or three days trying to reach everyone. We are very lucky as a family to have everyone alive.”

While McKnight’s family survived, it did not escape the storm unscathed. His father-in-law completely lost his house, but is already begining to rebuild it. Quick turnarounds like these have been made by many members of the community, as they take the few possessions they have left and work to revive Joplin. 

Before the tornado, Joplin was a bustling college community that McKnight compared to Ames. A town of roughly 50,000 residents, Joplin is the business center of southwest Missouri.

“On the weekends, I compare it to Duff Aveune on a Sunday evening,” McKnight said.

McKnight thinks the tornado’s path is one of its most astounding aspects.

“What people don’t understand about the path of that storm is that it couldn’t have hit a more densely-populated area in that town,” McKnight said. “It basically went through the medical section and every thick residential area and then the business section. It couldn’t have been more destructive, in my opinion.”

Despite having found their loved ones, the McKnights were still filled with worry and dismay. He may have been hours away from his kin, but the ISU coach found a new family on campus.

The team mentality of the football program showed through for the Joplin victims. Without any pleading on his part, the donations from coaches and student-athletes began to overwhelm McKnight.

“Our players and coaches have brought in money and supplies and it’s turned into qutie a thing. It’s been unreal,” McKnight said.

When the town of Parkersburg was ravaged by tornadoes in 2008, collegiate athletes from around Iowa were some of the first to help with the cleanup. McKnight and his fellow coaches discussed asking players to help in Joplin in a similar way.

“We talked about it but we thought it may be just too overwhelming of a situation. We thought donating the items we collected would be the best thing we could do for the Joplin community,” McKnight said. “If it was closer, no doubt our kids would find a way to make it happen.”

McKnight said the residents of Joplin are desperate for the basic necessities we take for granted. Shampoos, diapers, lotion and other toiletries are in highest demand in the storm-shaken community.

Memorial Day weekend gave McKnight and his family a chance to help their ravaged community. With a trailer full of supplies and financial donations, the family traveled to Missouri to assist in the rebuilding efforts.

McKnight may have the strength of one powerful individual, but Joplin has the strength of one powerful community. The blue-collar town built on the backs of coal miners will undoubtedly display the work ethic that gave the community so much pride before.

“Any community that has had to deal with this stuff is unthinkable. It’s obviously very devastating but I know from growing up there that that place will bounce back. And they will build it back and build it better. It’s going to be a long process but the people there can handle it,” McKnight said.