The Durant High School basketball teams had their first games Jan. 7 since the tragic loss of Lady Lions coach Will Robinson and his daughter Clara in a Christmas Eve crash in Sherman, Texas.
According to the Sherman Police Department, Robinson and his wife Kristen, along with their four children, were traveling to McKinney Christmas Eve morning in heavy rain when their vehicle departed Highway 75 near Taylor Street and became trapped in a drainage ditch.
The vehicle traveled down the creek where the mother and three children were rescued by the Sherman Fire Department. While attempting to save his eight-year-old daughter Clara, Robinson was swept away in the rapidly moving water and died before being located by rescue teams a mile and a half downstream.
Many from the communi-
Durant Lady Lions basketball players wore shirts during warm up in memory of their coach Will Robinson and his daughter Clara.
ty attended the games wearing blue in memory of coach Robinson and pink for Clara, who had not been found at press time this week.
In a Jan. 10 update, the Sherman Police Department said in a social media post that they had postponed search efforts for that day because of the winter weather.
“We care immensely about everyone’s safety and want to make sure our search efforts keep safety at the top of our priority list,” the department said.
Police said that they were scaling back the number of updates on the search and would not be making daily posts.
“Daily searches will continue, with the assistance of Sherman Fire-Rescue and the City of Sherman Emergency Management,” the department said. “If anything noteworthy is found during our search efforts, we will share that information with the public, once the family has been notified first.
“We serve such a wonderful community. Everyone has rallied together to love and support both the Robinson family and all the first responders who have been involved in this search. Your encouragement and engagement these past two and half weeks is appreciated and has served as a motivator for all of us. Please continue to keep the Robinson family in your thoughts and prayers. Above everything else, they come first.”
In a Tuesday update, police said that other than the postponement from Jan. 10, search teams have continued the search every day.
“A new team, Texas Equusearch, has joined our search,” police said. “We are incredibly appreciative of them and their willingness to help us find Clara. We all have the same goal.”
In a Monday meeting of the Durant Board of Education, Superintendent Mark Moring thanked the community for its support during the tragedy.
“I just want to say how unbelievably supportive our community is when it comes to the needs of people in our community,” Moring said. “The obvious one is the Robinson family and how our community has absolutely fallen over themselves to try to help and support that family, and it so refreshing to see the support from people that don’t know them.
“It’s just so uplifting in the face of tragedy what good can come out of this. So, I would just like to publicly tell how I appreciate that and let’s just always keep them in our thoughts and prayers.”
See game story on sports page 9.
