A golf tournament and dinner honoring the late Master Sergeant Corey Hood, who had a member of the U.S. Army Golden Knights parachute team until his death two years ago, will take place this August, practically within sight of the high school where Hood wrestled and played football.
The second annual Hoody Memorial Golf Tournament and Dinner -- incorporating Corey Hood's nickname -- will take place Saturday, August 5, 2017 at Beckett Ridge Country Club in West Chester, Ohio in north-suburban Cincinnati, only a couple miles from Lakota West High School where Hood was a student-athlete.
Hood, who served in the U.S. Army for 14 years, was killed in a parachute accident during an air show in Chicago in August 2015. He had just turned 32.
The all-day event will raise funds for college scholarships for graduating seniors at Lakota East and Lakota West high schools.
The day begins at 11 a.m. with golf registration, with a shotgun start at 1 p.m. At 12:45 p.m., there will be a special ceremony celebrating MSG Corey Hood, including a performance that is open to those not participating in the golf event.
Immediately following the golf tournament at approximately 6 p.m., there will be a dinner and party at the Beckett Ridge Clubhouse. During dinner, winners of the golf event will be announced. There will also be a raffle, split-the-pot drawing, and silent auction.
The day honoring MSG Corey Hood ends with a fireworks display put on by nationally-renowned Rozzi Family Fireworks, beginning at 9 p.m. There will also be a live band featuring dueling pianos to play audience requests. The dinner and post-dinner entertainment are kid-friendly events, so families are encouraged to participate.
"This event is unlike any other golf outing or fundraising dinner," said Nick Enger, long-time friend of Corey Hood and one of the organizers of the event. "For those of you lucky enough to know Corey, you know he loved a good party and loved surprises. Last year was a good warm up. This year will be off the charts."
"Last year, we had bagpipers and flag bearers at the beginning of the golf tournament," said Enger. "Then skydivers carrying a large American flag came in, landing within 50 yards of the participants."
"Members of the Golden Knights honored Corey by playing golf and coming to the dinner."
Remembering Corey Hood
Carrie Mills, Corey Hood's mother, is a native of the West Chester area about 25 miles north of downtown Cincinnati, who now lives in Virginia. She is a graduate of the original Lakota High School which was replaced about 20 years ago by two new schools, Lakota East and Lakota West, Corey's alma mater.
Corey Hood"He always wanted to be in the Army. I was all for him going. My dad, who was a Marine, encouraged Corey to go into the Army."
"He wanted to be a spy, to go after bad guys."
"Corey was a sports fanatic," Mills continued. "He was small. He had to prove he could do something."
"He played some football at (Lakota) West. But wrestling is where he found himself. Wrestling is an individual sport. That worked for him.
"Wrestling helped him work off stress from at home."
Carrie Mills then shared how her husband at the time took out his frustrations on Corey.
"I came from a broken home myself. I told my kids that school is a safe haven."
"Corey looked forward to school to be a part of things."
"Wrestling is why he went to school ... He loved Scott Fetzer (Lakota West wrestling coach)."
"Wrestling helps you deal with challenges."
"Corey knew how to surround himself with great people," according to his mom. "When the accident happened, 60 of his friends from Lakota came up to Chicago. There's a strong bond that exists to this day."
One of those friends is Nick Enger, who still lives and works in the West Chester area.
"We met in seventh grade. I was one of his best friends. Then again, Corey had lots of best friends. He was the connection between various groups."
"He had an amazing ability to bring together individuals from different groups. He made people feel as if they were all friends."
Nearly 60 of those friends found their way to Chicago two years ago when Corey Hood was involved in a deadly skydiving accident at the Chicago Air & Water Show in August 2015.
Jumping for the Army Golden Knights, Hood was injured on Saturday morning, August 15 when he collided with a Navy Leap Frog parachute team member while performing a stunt known as a "bomb burst" at the annual two-day event. While the Navy skydiver was able to land on a Lake Michigan beach with a broken leg, Hood apparently clipped the top of a building on Chicago's Gold Coast neighborhood of high-rise apartment buildings along the lake, then fell, according to eyewitness accounts. Hood died Sunday afternoon from his injuries at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago.
Corey Hood crafted an impressive career in his fourteen years in the Army, serving as a team leader, squad leader, platoon sergeant and Airborne Instructor.
According to his mother, when Hood went through Airborne training then Jump School, it was somewhat ironic, as "Corey was afraid of heights but loved skydiving."
Hood had been jumping since 2010, logging more than 200 free fall jumps and 75 military static line jumps. Before he became a parachutist, Hood served multiple tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. He had been awarded two Bronze Stars, two Meritorious Service Medals, five Army Commendation Medals, five Army Achievement Medals, Master Parachutist Badge, Pathfinder Badge, Air Assault Badge and the Combat Action Badge.
Lakota West wrestling coach Scott Fetzer recalled a story that Hood told during a visit to his high school alma mater in 2006 about being trapped in a foxhole for two days during crossfire in Afghanistan. "Corey told our team what kept him going in that foxhole is if I can make it through wrestling practice, I can survive this," Fetzer told Cincinnati ABC affiliate WCPO-TV at the time of Hood's death. "Now I'll tell you this: after he told our kids that story, it was probably the greatest practice my team has ever had."
"He took that mental toughness and he lived it."
Fetzer went on to describe Hood as "a national hero" with "a lot of grit and a lot of determination."
In a November 2014 profile of Hood for a Lakota West publication, coach Fetzer said, "Wrestling helps build mental and physical toughness and Corey has always displayed these characteristics. I'm so proud and honored to say, 'Corey Hood ... once a Lakota West Wrestling Hammer, always a Lakota West Wrestling Hammer!'"
Honoring a hero with the Hoody Memorial
After Corey Hood's death, a number of his friends wanted to honor his memory in a lasting way. That was the birth of the Hoody Memorial Golf Tournament and Dinner last summer.
"We put out word in June. We quickly maxed out in terms of number of golf participants with 144 golfers, and 150 guests for the dinner."
"We raised over $40,000 at that first event," Enger told InterMat. "We gave a $7,500 scholarship to Jenson Quinn [brother of Mason Quinn, one of the wrestlers featured in InterMat's feature on three athletes who have found their place in wrestling]."
"We did all this in eight weeks."
Here's how the organization's official website describes the scholarship: "The Hoody Memorial Scholarship will be awarded to a Lakota student who possesses the same positive qualities that Hood exhibited throughout his life -- a strong will, a desire to succeed, and 'a little bit of grit.'"
This year's event promises to be bigger and better. The golf event will be open to a greater number of participants than last year's; the dinner will offer more guests the opportunity to join in ... all with the idea of not only honoring an American hero and former wrestler, Corey Hood, but also to help students at his high school alma mater as well as the community he called home.
To learn more about the 2017 Hoody Memorial Golf Tournament and Dinner, please visit the Hoody Memorial website. It has information about the event, along with the ability to register online to participate in the golf event, or dinner, or both. In addition, there's information on sponsorship opportunities and donating items for the fundraising auction. What's more, there's an application for next year's student scholarship.
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