The Good Sport: Soccer player, referee miraculously survive as light pole crashes onto the field

Yahoo Sports is taking a weekly look at the true spirit of sport — highlights, miracles and acts of kindness that will warm your heart and go beyond the game.

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It may seem strange to report on a story where a freak accident sent two people to the hospital as good news, but in this case, it’s a miracle that no one was killed.

Clarksville High School in Arkansas was hosting a soccer tournament on March 9 when tragedy struck in a high school game between Mena and Dardenelle. During the play, a large floodlight pole, which toppled due to high winds in the area, struck a player and one of the referees on the field.

While both were immediately sent to a nearby hospital, the two miraculously managed to avoid life-threatening injuries. The injured Mena player, Andrew Davis sustained cuts to his head and legs, while the referee suffered a fractured tibia and fibula in his leg, according to The Sun in the U.K.

“My head was swollen pretty bad. My hands got tore up. I had seven stitches in my knee,” Davis told Associated Press. “I did get lucky. It was by the grace of God that I was able to move out of the way.”

Moments after the pole fell, a Mena soccer player, Camden Broderson sprung into action to help the trapped coach, even though he had glass in his eye.

“He was facedown at the moment. He was kind of screaming but I heard he was calmed down when he got to the ambulance. I kind of pulled the bar off of him and that’s when everybody started crowding up,” Broderson told KFSM.

While an investigation has been launched to determine what exactly caused the light pole to fall, witnesses and authorities are quite certain it was due to the high winds which were reportedly at 65 km/h.

“I mean as soon as we stepped out of the truck, there was a big ol’ explosion and I thought maybe a tent had blown over,” said Danielle Meyer, who witnessed the incident. “It seemed like it [the wind] was forty or fifty miles per hour … I mean, even the goal posts where they play football were swaying back and forth.”

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