Hey there, folks. It is Sunday, November thirtieth, and their coach went from being a missing man to a wanted fugitive. But this undefeated high school football team just keeps on winning. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. Robes. We don't make a habit of following the class to high school Virginia playoffs, but we had our screen up yesterday, refreshing and refreshing keeping an eye on a high school football game yesterday for the wildest of reasons and tragic reasons.
Even yes Union High School versus Ridgefield High School correct Ridgeview High School, and this was the semi finals there
in Virginia. And of note, of course Union High School has been not just in the national news, but in the international news because it's high school football coach since twenty eleven, went missing just two days before one of their big It was a qualifying final, and they initially said he wasn't wanted, They didn't have any warrant for his arrest, They just wanted to talk to him about a complaint. But sure enough, a few days later, it turns out he is now wanted on ten counts, five
of them for child pornography charges. The other five for using a computer to solicit a minor. These are serious, significant charges, and we're now hearing confirmation about where this coach, Travis Turner, was last seen and what he was seen with.
Yeah, I mean, well, folks, the story was I mean it was of concern initially there was a missing high school football coach. And look a lot of the headlines said coach of the undefeated high school team. That was a part of intrigue and getting people to click. Quite frankly, this high school team is doing well. They played the first playoff game. He was still missing, but not a fugitive at that point, and they won. That's hard enough. Your coach is missing, you don't know what's going on.
But this game they played yesterday, folks, had to be played with the understanding that the past several days that the coach, the guy they trusted, the guy that parents sent their kids to, who has been, no doubt, a leader and maybe even a father figure to these kids. Those kids went out on a field yesterday, folks, played a football game and won. Those kids went out there and did that. I we grew up in high school and where high school football was King right in the South.
This brings a community nothing on a small community. Rallies people more than your high school football team, and if they're doing well, they are heroes en roods. I read through how the community reacted and how they came together and how they cheered those kids on at that game last night, and it's just it was the yesterday afternoon. But we kept our eye on it the whole time. You and me watching a Class two A playoff game, we were.
Yeah, we were imagining what it was like for those young men because this is, like you pointed out, this was I'm sure this man, Travis Turner, was like a father figure to them. Now you have rumors that he was into child porn, that he was soliciting a minor. Can you imagine the rumors, the finger pointing, and certainly the questions that authorities would have for members of that team. Because we should point out there have been no specifics.
We don't know if he is being accused of engaging in any sort of illegal or improper activity with any one of his students or any one of his football players. But certainly the spotlight has to turn to the kids who knew him best, who were with him day in and day out, and certainly they have been questioned by police, by their parents, by their friends, did you know, did you see any signs? Did you have any untoward experiences with him? So all of that is circling around in
your head. And you know you played professional high school ioley professional but high level high school sports where your mental game is just as important as your physical one. So to be completely taken out of the game in that way, because think about that is the worst of the worst in terms of accusations and questions, and just that throws you beyond anything you can imagine.
The accusations we're talking about are these types of things are horrific. When you talk about the rumor type thing, though, imagine what everybody's asking a question, every kid in every class, every time the teachers go to the lounge, everything, And this is now a criminal it's going to be a legal it's going to possibly be a lawsuit involved. So this community is just shaking. What brings them all together? Right now? Our high school football team is undefeated and
they're playing tonight. That's the only thing, right So I am this story and we're hopes every single tragedy we've ever seen. There's beauty you find in it. You've been on scenes school shootings and you find the most beautiful thing that reminds you about us all and humanity, and this is beautiful. I didn't tell you we could have watched the game, but we had to sign up for a subscription online.
And I knew you weren't going to do that.
It would have been an annual subscription to watch one game, right, that's the only reason. But now they're playing again next week and we might have to get this.
Well, my dogs are playing next weekend too, so that might be a tough. But this is one of those stories. We love football and we know how important it is to a community like this. This is, and we've talked about this a little bit, but this is in the Tri city area of Virginia. It's right there on the corner where you've got. It's a rural community, Appalachia, Virginia, a town of two thousand, and this coach was a hometown hero. He had been a high.
School football star.
His father had been a high school football coach and a high school and college football star. So these and specifically this coach was godlike. I'm sure to the not just the boys on the field, but all the people who are the parents and the friends and the supporters
of this high school football team. So to have this spotlight not on necessarily their undefeated season, but unfortunately on what their coach is now accused of and the fact that he's still missing, The fact that they don't know where he is, the fact that there is an active manhunt going on in that community has to be just adding to the already it's already a tense situation when you're trying to win a game and you want to and you're trying to get to the finals, but now
you've got a man hunt for your coach going on right around you.
This has been going on now here. We are the I mean, he's been gone and missing for ten days, its family said. The last known contact with him was on November the twentieth. Now, if look, we know the season it is right now, we're heading into this cold season, and this just happened to be this past week, certainly
around the holidays, pretty brutal weather. You cannot you cannot survive out in where he walked out into in this area without food, without shelter, and he walked out, they say, just wearing a sweatsuit.
I believe that, yes, it was a gray sweatpants and a gray hoodie and that was what he had on him. It was a little bit warmer when he actually went missing on November twentieth, and the weather has certainly taken a nose dive since then.
So his family said, when he went missing, of course we talked about this. There were no warrants or anything for his arrest at the time. But they say this is from the attorney that when Travis did not return home that evening of the twentieth, his wife notify local law enforcement that she couldn't do a missing person's report ropes for twenty four hours. Lea, I've heard this before, then quote the following day, she followed a missing person
report with the Virginia State Police. The family has cooperated fully with law enforcement in their ongoing efforts to locate family members and friends have also conducted search efforts in the surrounding woods. These efforts have been limited by weather conditions and with respect for the official operations underway. They did say at the top it was one of the first lines ropes from this attorney is that he left his residence to walk into the woods with a fire arm,
is what the attorney is saying. I think when we first saw this story, it started hearing about it. That was the first thing. We didn't know anything about charges. But while there's concern they have, they sound like they're concerned for his safety, and we had no idea that they were searching for him because of any investigation of any account.
For the first few days, his wife did put a few things out on social media that she since deleted, but they all were basically saying, we want you to come home, Travis. We love you, we support you, we don't believe these allegations. Please come home. All we want is your safe return. And certainly that has been the sentiment from the beginning. And just I looked through her social media, this was a woman who was all about
football with her children, with her husband. This was a football family and it's just heartbreaking to imagine what Thanksgiving was like for them again with all the rumors, all the speculation, but most importantly, they don't know where their husband and father is right now. And to say he was seen left with leaving with a firearm, not properly clothed, walking into the woods in a heavily mountainous area. So if you're not familiar with the area Appalacha, Virginia, you
are right there, the Appalachian Mountains. It is gorgeous, beautiful scenery, but it is rugged, it is vast. And speaking to that, they have been searching for him for ten days, with drones, with canine units, with search and rescue teams. And you just heard TJ. Yes, friends and family going out and trying to find him, and so far to no avail.
So what is next exactly for this community, for this school, for those kids. Stay here. We'll tell you why. The next this upcoming week is going to be another difficult one for them, with the potential for another great and resilient victory. Stay here, all right, folks, Well continue on this Sunday with the concern, yes, initially for a missing coach, the concern now for his kids and the community he's left behind in the wake of some pretty devastating accusations.
Now he is facing He is a ten time I guess wanted felon. He has ten felony charges against him right now and they are trying to track him down. But first and foremost, I mean, no matter what. He's innocent to a proven guilty, he's allowed to and we should presume that. But the concern right now has to be about his safety. And they're trying to get this man back somewhere safe and alive. Can deal with the rest,
but that has to be the priority. Brogue is not looking good given the conditions given, I mean the conclusion anybody or where you would sum up where his head might be if he's walking into the woods in the winter with a firearm and is just wearing.
A hoodie, correct and has not been seen since. And this is somebody who is incredibly familiar to everyone in that town and the surrounding communities. Obviously, I'm sure if you've been following the story, you know what he looks like. He's six foot three, a big guy, well over two hundred pounds. So this is somebody who doesn't just disappear
without being noticed. And so that's the concern that how would he have been not only sheltering himself, keeping himself out of the elements, but feeding himself all of those things. He hasn't been spotted or sighted anywhere picking up food or water, So that is the main concern. But at the same time, authorities, I'm sure are also conducting their investigation into what happened and the scope of what may have happened. And yes, he is innocent until proven guilty.
But as these things go, typically there isn't just one victim. So I'm sure if that is the case, whoever brought this initial complaint police are doing that due diligence as well behind the scenes, continuing that investigation. This has to just be so incredibly disruptive and scary and all of these things to this family.
What was okay? The charges, none of them are actually that have to do with an actual sexual assault. Now I'm not saying this is okay, but you have it in front of you, I know, solicitation using a computer to solicit a minor, yes, and then what was.
The other It was five yes, five counts of using a computer to solicit a minor and five counts of possession of child pornography.
Okay, Now now we got an issue. Did it come from somewhere else? This is something that he created, right, So now it's possibility, yes, if there is child pornography, that child is a victim, whoever that is. But it's still a matter of what was his involvement?
Correct?
So are there victims of his in that town? Is what everybody in that town is asked.
Yes, and certainly those the kids who knew him best and the students he had direct access to, will certainly be questioned by authorities and by their parents. I mean, look, if you that was your child, you would say, tell me everything. Did Coach Tall ever talk to you, you know, in an uncomfortable manner? Did he ever touch you in an uncomfortable All of these kids are being asked these questions, no doubt, at least by their parents and almost certainly
by authorities as well. It was interesting the local affiliate, they're one of the local local affiliates, got to talk to some of the football players after their big victory, and I loved what the senior running back did you see this? Said? He said, we talked in the huddle and we said, listen, boys, we're going to have to handle adversity here. We stick together as brothers here, and
we should come out with the victory. So you know, you we've talked about this, but when you've got something this awful happening to this community, it's happening to all of them. At the same time and in a certain way, you can understand how that would bring this team even closer together. It would make them have something worth fighting for, perhaps even larger than themselves. And they're fighting for their community.
They're fighting for the name of their high school. They're fighting to reclaim what they've accomplished and not let it be tainted or soured by this other awful news that now has put their town and their football program in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.
For some reason, it makes the victory more beautiful. I'm sorry. I would not have known about the Union High School Bears undefeated season had this not happened. Obviously, we don't want this to happen, but there's something about now they take the opportunity to reclaim a reputation or also show who they really are. We're not just this one thing or this is and I think athletics college certainly, but even creeps down into high school. We talk about nil
it's just big time. Athletics is just big time, and now high school kids have access to trainers and all kinds of equipment and technology. There's just other level. There's no way we in high school, any of us had that type of training, so it gets to be big time and these are big time dudes now in an undefeated season in the playoffs. But I had to stop myself and remember, these are children. I had to stop
and think about that. Yeah, these are fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen year old, but these are children dealing with this. And I had to put a sign for a second that these are tough football player. Let's get out here and do these are kids. These are children. They are impacted in a way that only children can be impacted. So with that, it became even more impressive to me that they were able to do what they did.
Yeah, because there is a sense of Look again, Travis Turner has not been convicted of any crime, but just the accusations alone, I can speak from some bit of experience that you I imagine there's some feeling of betrayal
and some feeling of distrust of everyone and anything. And when you're that young, you don't have the perspective that these things happen, and it maybe isn't personal, But when it's happening to you, and this coach and this man you looked up to, this man you went onto a field for and fought for and wanted him to be proud of you. Now to be told, he may be all these other things. He may be a monster that is so disruptive to what you believe, especially when you're
that young, it shakes you to your course. So I am so impressed with these young men to be able to put that aside and to let that unite them and actually drive them to be something beyond this scandal. I think it is absolutely beautiful and inspirational.
And commend at this point. Jason Edward is his name? Somebody we would never know. There was no reason for you to know the name of the defensive coordinator to the high school football team in Virginia. That's the guy who has stepped up in the interim basis and has been the head coach the past two games. Again, they played the first one just with a missing coach. They played the second one with a fugitive coach. And that's the one they had to play yesterday yesterday afternoon, and
they won that thing twenty one to fourteen. They do get a chance to play again Ropes this week. At the end of the week, they're playing Glen Varr High School. These two teams now are the only two undefeated teams left in the state playoffs. So they win this one and they're going to the state championship. Yes, we're rooting for them. We're rooting for them in the game, but man, we are rooting for them all week for what this possibly has done, and we know it has done to
that community. But it was fun to get into and to be interested and to be rooting for a high school football team yesterday for the right reasons, but the only reason we are aware of them for all the wrong reasons. Ro but it gives me. Look, my Razorbacks sucks. So I got the the Union Bears the Bear through four this weekend. So please know, folks in Virginia, there are folks outside of your state that are rooting for you, and not just on the football field.
Yeah, and we hope you get answers, and we hope that Travis Turner is found safe so that he can answer to these charges and his family can get some answers and they aren't left with just questions, hopelessness, right to never know, to never know the truth, to never know what happened, to never hear from your loved one again. I was imagining that like the shock. He's got three children, he's got a wife who loves him, and it's it's
to not know would be the worst. So we certainly hope that for that family, for that community, that they do get some answers and that Travis Turner is found alive. But yes, we will be watching the Bears come December sixth, that we will following the story. Thank you all for listening to us on this Sunday morning. I'm Amy Roboch alongside TJ. Holmes and we'll talk to you soon.
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