On nights before Oak Hill Academy football games in West Point, defensive back Thomas Lee Bales could often be found dancing in the locker room.
And he was terrible at it, said his friend Nate Lamkin.
“Bless his heart,” he said.
But everyone would encourage him to dance anyway, Lamkin said, because Bales loved to do it and he was the sort of person everyone liked within 10 minutes of meeting him.
“He’s not going to be forgotten around here, I know that,” Lamkin said.
The 16-year-old from Aberdeen died in a swimming accident in Smith Lake in Alabama Saturday during an overnight church retreat. He and his fellow youth group members from First United Methodist Church in Aberdeen had spent the day riding four-wheelers and kayaking. Late that afternoon, the teenagers were jumping off the dock into the lake.
On his last jump, Bales leapt from his friend Ash Cullum’s shoulders.
“I was the last person he touched,” Cullum said later.
Bales came up for air and began to swim back, according to his aunt Jennifer Rollison. Then he slipped under the water.
“He just never came up,” Cullum said.
Coach: Bales ‘made the people around him better’
Today would have been Bales’ first day of his junior year of high school, according to his football coach, Chris Craven, who had known Bales since Bales played pee wee football at Oak Hill Academy. Craven and Oak Hill headmaster Cathy Davis both described the school as a tight-knit family-like community and said Bales was well-known throughout the school.
“He was one of those people that was always so friendly,” Davis said.
“We are really going to miss him,” she added. “He was loved by many people. He made an impact in his very short life.”
One of those impacts was on the football field where Bales played defensive back and wing back, Craven said.
“He was one of those players that showed no fear,” he said.
And he always put his teammates first, Craven added.
“I want people to know that he made the people around him better,” he said.
Friends and family describe Bales as a teenager who smiled and laughed, who played baseball and basketball in addition to football, who loved golf and the outdoors and, according to Cullum, “anything with girls involved.” His group of friends, including Cullum and Lamkin, called him “Jommy” which was derived from the nickname his father gave him, “Tommy.”
“He was all around just an amazing guy,” Cullum said.
In honor of Bales, Davis posted pictures of the teen to Oak Hill’s Facebook page and posted a letter informing parents of Bales’ death.
“Please pray for Thomas Lee’s precious family,” she wrote. “… I know that you will join me in extending our heartfelt sympathy to Thomas Lee’s family.”
Davis and Craven both said that while administrators will still hold the first day of school today, a team of counselors and ministers will be on campus for students to talk to about their grief if they wish.
Rollison, who spoke for Bales’ parents, asked the community to pray for her family and for Bales’ friends.
“Everybody knew (Bales),” she said. “He was just a good boy.”
The family has not yet finalized arrangements for Bales’ funeral.
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