On Sept. 20, an incident occurred on the McIntosh High School campus involving the soccer practice field and a young deer. A deer was reported entangled in one of the nets on the soccer practice field. School Resource Officer Thomas Conover and Parking Attendant Stan Ledford worked together to release the deer safely, with minimal damage to the deer and the soccer net.

Once Conover and Ledford got to the scene, it was a challenge to address the situation.

“During lunch duty I was called down to the office; a parent, I guess, witnessed a deer struggling down on the soccer field. It appeared to be stuck in the net, so the office called me down there and Mr. Stan, so we went down to check it out,” Conover said.

“He was completely wrapped up and stuck inside the net. So I tried quietly to approach the deer but he got nervous seeing me and kind of flayed around a little bit but I was able to get him in a position where I could help him,” Conover said.

Due to the extent of the entanglement, the net did suffer some damage in order to save the deer.

“There [were] a couple pieces that were stuck pretty good so I used my pocket knife and cut the net free from him and he was able to get up, and take off running through the gate and back out into the woods,” Conover said.

There is a gate separating the practice field from the woods, but MHS staff will still have to look out for any other potential wildlife mishaps.

“The deer can jump the gate; there’s nothing we can really do to keep them out, so we kind of have to keep an eye down there to make sure they don’t continue to get stuck,” Conover said.