Chris White

@chriswhite_lcj

Louisville City FC is chipping in to help the Campbellsville University soccer program after a fire destroyed the school's H&W Sport Shop Ronnie Hord Fieldhouse on Wednesday.

LCFC chairman John Neace has already pledged $5,000 and the team is aiming to raise at least $10,000 for the soccer program. Louisville City will also outfit Campbellsville players with jerseys and shorts to train in until theirs are replaced, according to a news release.

Those looking to help can donate via a Go Fund Me campaign here.

“We are all very grateful to Louisville City FC, and their chairman John Neace, for taking an interest in our soccer programs after yesterday’s fire," Campbellsville director of athletics Rusty Hollingsworth said. "As a small college athletics department, we work very hard for the things we have so we can give our student-athletes a great experience. To watch those things burn is a very difficult thing. Having a group like Louisville City FC join us in the effort to get practice gear and financial support is an amazing thing. It shows that the medium of sport goes far beyond competition and speaks to the goodness of the human spirit.”

The fire was discovered in a locker room storage and laundry area by men's soccer coaches who tried unsuccessfully to put out the flames. No one was hurt in the fire.

"It's a sad thing,"Hollingsworth said in a school news release. "This has been a great building for this university for a long time. We had people in the community come over to offer support and watch. At one time many of them may have lived in that building because it was married student housing when it was first built.

Campbellsville University is an NAIA program in Taylor County.