It was just a typical June day for Jacob Ferguson.

The Lehighton senior had to go to work and then later traveled to his grandmother’s house to cut her grass — something he often did.

But, unfortunately, the day would end up being anything but typical.

While at his grandmother’s, he received a message that no one wants to hear — his house was on fire.

The blaze ended up destroying the home, and all the families’ possessions were lost.

“Honestly, there was a bit of panic (when I heard),” said Ferguson, a senior running back and defensive lineman for the Indians. “I couldn’t believe it. By the time I was there, everything was gone. It hit pretty hard, I’m not going to lie. I thought I was having a rough day to begin with ... and then that ended up happening.

“Absolutely (it was rough to see when I got there). There were a couple of my friends over there. I was getting a bunch of texts because everyone wanted to know what happened. Devon Armbruster (another member of the football team) was there, he lives right across the street. Jesse Waksmunski plays soccer, and his dad was actually one of the people that helped the most.”

That help came in the form of a GoFundMe page that was set up to aid the family — which consists of Jacob’s mother and his two older brothers. It didn’t take long for donations to surpass the initial goal.

That wasn’t the only help that was offered. As word spread throughout the community, many were willing to offer support or anything else that was needed.

“The football coaches and the wrestling program pretty much jumped on stuff right away to get some type of fundraisers going for the family,” said Kyle Spotts, Lehighton’s athletic director and an assistant football coach. “It was nice to see the community rally behind the family immediately.

“I forget where I was. Since it was the summer, I might have been at a Little League practice or something, and saw the smoke in town. There were some text messages going around through the administration and some other people, and then one of the coaches or mutual friends said it was Jacob Ferguson’s house ... It shocked everybody. Anytime there’s a fire it’s a shock, but when it impacts a student who also had siblings go through the school, it maybe resonates a little more within the district.”

It especially resonated within the football program, a fact not lost on Ferguson because of the situation involving him being a part of the program.

Ferg — as he’s known by most of his teammates and coaches — hadn’t played football since seventh grade. Wrestling has been his primary sport.

But Tyler Cann — a football and wrestling coach — kept after him to play football, and he finally agreed to doing so during his final year of high school.

“I got a little bit of a knee injury (in seventh grade) and it took up a majority of the season,” said Ferguson. “I came back around Week 8, and I didn’t play much at all. At that point, I didn’t really like it too much anymore. I just wanted to prepare for wrestling.”

“One of our assistant coaches (Cann) has been working on him for years trying to get him to come out (for football),” said Spotts. “And then this year, after wrestling season, he made a commitment to do it ... He was to a lot of offseason stuff throughout the summer. He’s definitely been committed. As soon as he made the decision he was going to do it, he hasn’t missed much.”

Ferguson now admits that he wishes he would have played in previous seasons, and has enjoyed his return to the sport.

But possibly the biggest benefit of rejoining the program was the support he received after that fateful June day.

“I had just come back to football, and I was maybe in it for a couple weeks before (the fire) happened, and really everyone on the team rallied around me and helped me out. And the community of Lehighton, they helped so much too. I couldn’t believe it ... (The players) were there to talk to. There were a couple people on the team that actually had house fires, so I had people to talk to about that since they’ve also experienced it.

“Yeah, honestly I was surprised (at all the support) ... I didn’t realize that many people cared about me. It’s kind of surprising because there’s people I’ve never talked to before, or maybe talked to just once in my life. And they’re giving donations. I just couldn’t believe it.”

Football also offered Ferguson a bit of an escape.

Instead of riding out the rest of the summer thinking about his living situation, he was able to concentrate on something else — the sport he returned to after four seasons without it.

“The only other thing I would have been doing (if I wasn’t playing football) would be lifting,” he said. “So the football team definitely helped out. It kept my mind off of it. I had stuff to do instead of just sitting there thinking about everything that we lost. We had so many scrimmages and practices over the summer, that was the last thing I was thinking about. I just thought about getting better.”

“I think anytime you’re involved in something and you deal with a loss of something or something to that magnitude, getting back to some type of normalcy is always an easier process for you to handle stuff,” added Spotts. “If you can get back into a routine, it kind of gets your mind off things a little bit.”

Ferguson and the rest of his family are now living with his grandmother until they can move into a place of their own.

While he sometimes asks the question, ‘Why us?,’ his time with his grandmother has helped to reveal new things in his life.

“Yeah, I have (asked that question),” he said. “But actually, my grandmother is like a super church person. She really believes in that stuff. So we ended up going every Sunday, and now I trust that God knows what He’s doing. I mean I know he has a path for me, I know he does.

“Everything happens for a reason ... It’s helped me through it because I know everything He does is for a reason, even if it sucks.”

While time continues to pass, Ferguson knows that help is just around the corner — thanks to the Lehighton community and the school staff.

“It’s a good community,” said Floyd Brown, Ferguson’s wrestling coach, and the high school’s assistant principal. “When things like that happen, it’s unfortunate. But our school’s great, everybody kind of reached out checking in within minutes of the incident, multiple staff members checking in to see what they could do and how they could help. It tells you a lot about where we live.

“His whole life changed. He lost every single thing except what he was wearing and maybe their vehicles ... You wouldn’t know, though, that anything is wrong with him, or any of that happened. Because he always has the same demeanor. He’s always friendly ... His friends, peers, wrestling and football teams, have certainly helped him out to work through everything.”