WINFIELD, W.Va. — A month ago, Winfield High School junior Ty Laughery was focusing on transitioning from football season to basketball season. Now, a different challenge is before him.

Ty Laughery

Laughery, who also reps the General green on the football and baseball fields, was recently diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

“It happened very rapidly, as far as onset of noticing what was going on to diagnosis. It’s something you don’t prepare for,” said Laughery’s basketball coach Travis Tarr.

Laughery is a leader on the court, though Tarr says he won’t be in your face.

“Ty is a quiet guy,” Tarr said. “He’s not the guy you see pounding his chest. He’s not the guy you see screaming. A lot of times you have to ask him to talk, but he’s a leader through his efforts. He’s a strong kid. He’s always one of the hardest working kids and the one people want to gravitate towards in the locker room.”

Tarr says all of Winfield took the news hard, especially his teammates, but the town has rallied around him.

“Our team is all from Winfield. Every player on our roster. You have a kid who’s played with these guys since the second or third grade, so it’s like missing a part of them,” he said. “To see the community come in and wrap their arms around the family and around Ty especially, it’s been special.”

The love and support for Loughry goes well beyond the town of Winfield. As of Thursday evening, nearly $40,000 has been donated to a GoFundMe for the Laughery family to help with medical bills and other expenses.

“Basketball programs all across the state have come together,” Tarr said. “The beauty of West Virginia and the size of our state is everybody is pretty well-connected, so you get this outpouring of love. The first thing you see from everyone is, ‘What can we do to help?”

According to Tarr, the nearby Hurricane community has been Laughery’s biggest supporter outside his own town. He says his friend and Hurricane head coach Dana Womack was among the many within the Redskin community that wanted to help.

“Dana calls me and says, ‘I don’t know what we need to do, but let’s do something,” Tarr recounted. “He and I just started talking kind of back and forth on what we needed to do. “First and foremost, we need to unite and lead this community.”

“Sports is a front porch to a lot of attention within our communities, and we knew that the Hurricane-Winfield is that. It’s one of the best rivalries in the state of West Virginia, it’s always a packed game, and it happened to be our next game,” he continued.

At Monday’s game, both Tarr and Womack spoke to a capacity crowd before the ball was tipped, with each coach wearing a shirt saying ‘Ty Strong’ on the front, and ‘Laughery’ on the back.

Also before the game, players and coaches from each team gathered together in a circle for prayer.

Tarr says that was a special moment.

“Me and Dana are arm locked and all I can hear is me and him sniffling. It was touching. It was a powerful moment,” Tarr said. “Walking off the court, somebody asked me what that meant to you, and the only thing in my head was that you can’t fake the emotion that’s going on and the power of prayer and the power of this community.”

Winfield took down their rival by a score of 72-66.

Laughery began chemotherapy at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Thursday.