Daniel Sparkman, a journalism student at the University of Alabama and a full-time anchor/reporter at WVUA-TV, was part of the weather team that provided on-air updates at the height of the storm. In the days and weeks that followed, the team traveled to communities devastated by the twister to report stories of survival and of community members helping neighbors in need. One of those follow-up stories involved heavyweight boxer Deontay Wilder, a hometown hero who graduated from Tuscaloosa’s Central High school and went on to become the only American boxer to win a medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics.