By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
Empty. As I drove towards Peebles High School last Friday night, that was the word that kept running though my mind. I knew what to expect when I got there, the usual sights and sounds of a basketball preview, but I also knew that there would be a tremendous amount of sadness in the air.
I don’t recall exactly when I first met Dayne “Woop Woop” Puckett, but I’m sure that when I did it was in a gym somewhere and I’m also sure that I had no clue about his extraordinary life. This mild-mannered gentleman who seemed to always be running around performing some sort of helpful task, such as always returning the ball racks to their proper places after warm ups. How could I have ever known that this friendly fellow tried to bust into Graceland with Jerry Lee Lewis? Or brought Dolly Parton to Sinking Spring for one of his mother’s chicken dinners? How about not letting Janis Joplin in the door to see Jerry Lee? Or selling fake Alabama t-shirts until the real guys showed up? On the road with Merle Haggard, Charley Pride, Loretta Lynn and Reba McIntire? Sneaking into George Jones’s funeral? Decades with the Van-Dells? Selling Avon? I would have never guessed. And on top of that, a singer? “The Bachelor Singing Salesman” from Sinking Spring? Who’d have thunk it? And that “Woop Woop” song? Performed on Hee-Haw? And the Bob Braun Show? (With a pair of Peebles Indians on his shirt by the way, go watch the video.)
Any of you who really knew “Woop” have been regaled with those stories and many more and they could certainly fill many pages of this newspaper. “Woop” departed this world last week for a better place, but I’m sure the world down here is not a better place without him. Rarely has there been a man who stuffed so much life into 82 years of life. One thing is for certain, I can count on one hand the number of people I have met in life who I have never heard a bad thing said about- “Woop Woop” ranks right up at the top.
Many people in the Peebles and Sinking Spring area clam “Woop” as a close friend, but I wanted to spend some time with the one man who I think may have known “woop” best- Peebles boys head basketball coach Josh Arey. Josh was kind enough, during a tough time for him, to allow me a few minutes of his time on Friday night to talk about “the greatest man he ever knew”.
“Obviously he is someone who has been part of our community for years and I remember seeing him when I was in junior high, which was probably the first time I understood who he was.” said Arey. “It’s just amazing the life he led, it’s really unbelievable. I really started to get to know him around 2015 when we started going and scouting games together. He started riding with me and we just kind of hit it off. Ever since then, there aren’t too many places I’ve went that he wasn’t with me.”
“Woop had been around the Peebles basketball program a little back in the 80’s, kept the book for Tom Newman, coached with Richard Kiser at Eastern, and in the early 2000’s he helped Ryan Davis here at Peebles. I asked him before the 2016 season if he would like to come on board and help us and everyone just adored him and he was a lot of fun, He was always on the go.”
“I don’t think it’s possible to meet a finer person,” Arey continued. “He was just a really good man and I can’t think of anyone else you would want around your children. His lasting legacy here will be the example he set, a good Christian man. I think his work with our program gave him something to look forward to that he could be involved with and he just really latched on to it and became like my much, much older brother. It’s tough.”
It’s felt empty for us this entire preseason to be honest. It wasn’t unexpected but it wasn’t expected which makes it a little more difficult. He was just a great, great person and a great, great friend. I’m going to miss him and he made me a better man today.”
“One of the things I always enjoyed during my rides with him was his storytelling,” Arey reminisced. “I think I’ve heard every story and the ones I liked many times over. The George Jones funeral story is unbelievable how he pulled that off. He knew how to talk and many people don’t realize that life that he led.”
“We’re going to make him an honorary member of our Peebles Hall of Fame. He performed a song called ‘God’s Hall of Fame’ and that’s the Hall of Fame he’s in now.”
According to Arey, “Woop” was a 1959 graduate of Sinking Spring High School and he was proud of the fact that he was part of the “first five” on the school’s basketball team. “I think he just always loved the game,” added Coach Arey. “He was proud that he was part of what we had done here.”
“He really was like an older brother to me,” said an emotional Arey. “He called me early every day and every Sunday at church he had a special chair he sat in. He had quite a memorabilia collection and we’d just look through stuff for hours.”
“I’ve never heard anyone say a bad word about him.”
We’re all going to miss Woop Woop in different ways, but you have to believe that somewhere this week Jesus is wearing a Merle Haggard t-shirt. And Woop Woop sold it to him.