You could not have heard a pin drop: The Nick Lingerfelt story
Few people, thankfully, have ever been to a place as dark as the one Nick Lingerfelt unwittingly visited on April 19, 2005.
As he opened the door to his grandfather’s house, he was blindsided by the sounds of silence. Perhaps the sudden shock kept his heart beating long enough to sustain the hammer-blow beginning of unimaginable grief. Without warning and no other options available, Nick took the first steps of a journey no man of sound mind would ever purposely go.
And only through retrospect can Nick see the power of God lifting him from those ashes to a place of restoration that became evident a few weeks ago — in the form of a heavy ball, a thin alley slick with oil, and the seemingly meaningless click of a pear-shaped white piece of wood with red stripes as it hit the surface it once towered over.
Nick couldn’t hear that pin drop nearly 20 years ago. And he’s never been a bowler. But he can tell a story about how the Lord used unexpected circumstances in a dynamic and healing way.
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Perhaps anybody who knows Nick is familiar with his tragedy. It started, typically for him, with the end of a baseball game in Erwin.
The sign of a problem came with the arrival of his sister at the ballpark.
“You know something is going on when your sister comes to the baseball game to get you,” Nick said. “She said we can’t find mom and we can’t find our uncle.”
Nick’s grandfather was a World War II veteran, and had been struggling with dementia. He had gotten lost on Labor Day the year before, ending up in Marietta, Georgia. Nick’s uncle was in his 40s and intellectually disabled.
“He had the IQ of a three-year-old,” Nick said.
Nick’s mom was a caregiver for both of the men.
Unfortunately for Nick, the details of that evening are still crystal clear.
“I remember the night like it was yesterday,” he said.
Nick and his sister went to his grandfather’s house, and there was no chance or hope to turn back once Nick opened what had been a stuck door.
In one horrifying heartbeat, Nick’s world changed.
His mother (Annette Lingerfelt), grandfather (Floyd Edwards) and uncle (Clifford Edwards) were all dead. It was ruled a murder-suicide, believed to have occurred around 7 or 8 a.m. Nick and his sister arrived at the scene 12 hours later.
It could have been the turning point for a life gone wrong … but God … had other plans.
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Imagine taking a group of high school students, blessed with sharp minds and athletic ability, and pairing them with those who had neither. Sounds like an immense challenge.
It would take a person with a different viewpoint to make it work, someone who could see things from both sides of the tracks.
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In the aftermath of Nick’s grisly discovery, even the simple act of sleeping became a challenge.
“I used to wake up at night, dreaming the three of them were in the attic, laughing at me,” Nick said. “They were playing a joke. But it wasn’t a joke. It was real. I went through trials. I gained 70 pounds and developed sleep apnea.”
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The game of bowling is simple: roll a ball and knock down stationary pins at the other end of the lane.
But teamwork is never simple. Even with capable athletes, egos and frustrations and mistakes get in the way. So when a team is mismatched in almost every way, achieving goals takes on a whole new meaning.
But what stays intact is the win-loss mindset. Only one team would leave Smyrna Bowling Center as the state champion.
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Nick wondered what he had done wrong. He asked himself, “Is this God’s way of punishing me? Is there something in my life I could have changed.”
He found solace in Scripture, reading about the terrible heartbreak people experienced in those days.
“After Goliath, David still had trials,” Nick said “Through God’s grace and mercy, I was able to get through it, day by day. It has taken years.”
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A baseball coach at heart, Nick didn’t necessarily jump at the chance to become the Special Education Athletics Coordinator at Dobyns-Bennett High School in Kingsport.
There was no historical handbook to follow. Mixing general-education kids with special-education students and having them compete in a real sense certainly would not be easy. But the principle was simple: training together and playing together could lead to friendship and understanding.
“When I approached some of the general-education kids about being on the team, they were very hesitant because they had never done anything like that,” Nick said. “I tried to find kids who were good kids and would be able to work well with our kids with disabilities.”
As he had done many times before in life, Nick sized up a supremely difficult situation — including a late-season impromptu stint as head football coach at David Crockett that gained national attention in 2017 — leaned on the Lord, rolled up his sleeves and went to work.
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Nick came to know Jesus Christ shortly before he became a teenager. He was baptized on the same day.
But worldly distractions won a few battles, and Nick found himself in trouble.
“I wasn’t a terrible kid, but I was making bad choices,” he said. “I didn’t completely submit my life to God.”
Nick’s path wasn’t on firm foundation as he grew into adulthood.
“Then in 2005, that was the lowest point in my life,” he said.
Eventually Nick got to the point where he could talk about April 19.
“That’s when the healing started,” he said.
And when a student talks about a difficult situation they’ve been through, Nick can relate and share.
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The Indians’ unified bowling team, coached by Stephen and Michelle Baker, started rolling in October. The pins didn’t stop falling until Dobyns-Bennett’s 313-270 state-championship win over Clarksville Northwest in late January.
The moment wasn’t lost on Nick, a former baseball standout at Unicoi County High School in Erwin.
“I won a state championship in 1995 and lost a state championship in 1997,” Nick said. “On a professional level, aside from the accomplishments I had as a player, this was the greatest coaching moment of my life.
“It was phenomenal to be a part of it — to see those kids, who were similar to my uncle, have an opportunity to win a state championship.”
And perhaps some of the post-competition scenes will override others from Nick’s past.
“You saw general-education kids hugging special-education kids,” Nick said. “The parents of the general-education kids reached out and said thank you for challenging my kid to step out of their comfort zone.
“And to see the parents of the special-education kids, their kids had never been able to compete in a Tennessee Secondary Schools Athletic Association sport. We had people crying, and we had parents giving me hugs at the state tournament. It was an unbelievable experience.
“You hear about coaching and parents complaining about this or that, but the parents of the kids with disabilities were overwhelmingly excited. For once their kid actually got to compete. And they won. It was like a Cinderella story.”
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From a place of weakness, battered and left at the side of life’s road, Nick now stands figuratively as a watchman in a tower — as a deacon at Johnson City’s Strong Tower Baptist Church.
“It’s funny looking back how God has a plan for all of us,” said Nick, who has two daughters, Kendall and Rory. “When 2005 happened, I had been through nothing that prepared me for it. If not for my wife, Ashleigh, I don’t know how I would have made it through. She has been my rock and my helpmate.
“I gave it to God and found peace, joy and happiness. And over the years, God helped me realize everything happens for a reason.
“God taught me over the years if you'll keep him first everything will work out. There are days I go to bed tired, but I rest well at night knowing I've emptied the bucket — and one day I'll get to hear, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.’ ”