Old Cardinal
09-01-2005, 08:33 PM
By Dave Rogers - The News staff writer Posted: 08/31/05 - 11:04:40 pm CDT
West Orange-Stark coach Dan Hooks says it's the right thing to do.
The University Interscholastic League announced Wednesday that it will allow high school students whose families are displaced by Hurricane Katrina to compete at the schools where they temporarily enroll.
Hooks says five football players whose families had to evacuate the New Orleans area have contacted him about joining his team.
"A friend of mine came walking up and told me he had relatives from New Orleans who were staying with people in Orange," Hooks said Wednesday evening, speaking of one incident involving two displaced players.
"He said, 'Can they come out?'
"It's just sickening what happened. We want to do whatever we can to help."
Texas officials expect thousands of storm refugees will likely enter the Texas school system following widespread damage caused by the hurricane. New Orleans officials say it could be a matter of months before it is safe for those who evacuated to return home.
According to a press release on the UIL website, athletes whose entire families move to Texas will follow the same procedure of in-state transfers. Students wanting to play sub-varsity sports can participate almost immediately, while varsity players must sit out for 15 days after completing paperwork and getting approval from the district executive committee.
The process is more involved for students who enroll with guardians remaining in Louisiana. They must also apply for a waiver from the UIL, which has traditionally been a safeguard against recruiting or players seeking a move for strictly athletic purposes.
The UIL has announced it will not require the usual $100 waiver fee because of the hardships families have already endured.
"It makes sense if you're going to play a guy on the varsity, it probably would require a lot more paperwork," Hooks said.
"But even varsity guys, if they go to a school in New Orleans and the school's got eight feet of water in it, you're not going to get any school records. I think they'll be pretty liberal. They should be."
A survey of a dozen Golden Triangle schools Wednesday night turned up no other coaches who had been approached about Louisiana players joining their team. Most of the coaches weren't even aware of the UIL's announcement.
"I haven't heard from any of my coaches yet," said Rodney Saveat, the Beaumont ISD athletic director. "They're probably concentrating on their game Friday night. After this weekend, you're probably going to get a lot of stuff.
"People are going to realize they can't go back," Saveat said of the evacuees. "Now, everybody's stunned. After a couple of more days, they'll get on with their lives."
Dean Colbert, the Port Arthur AD and Memorial High football coach, said, "I don't know how many great players are in New Orleans, but we'll see. Who knows?"
While Colbert hadn't heard of any players wanting to join his team, that didn't mean the Titans weren't affected by the hurricane.
"Matthews Christian had some family members who had to evacuate," lineman Tray Puckett said of a teammate. "We went to visit them. It's horrible."
Ozen's new head coach, Port Arthur native John Clayton, is anxious for family members.
"My wife has people down there," he said. "Some went to Tennessee but got caught there, some came to Texas, some to Shreveport. We're kind of waiting, praying for them.
"We told them if they need a place to stay, they're welcome. One time, they evacuated down there and we had 11 people come stay with us."
Clayton knows his hurricane history.
"With Hurricane Audrey, Port Arthur was flooded and there were snakes everywhere," he recalled the 1957 storm. "We had to go over to the Jefferson County Courthouse in Beaumont. We stayed over there, on the second floor, for a week and a half.
"When I was at Southern University (in Baton Rouge), a hurricane tore out a section of our stadium."
Monday's 140-mph storm tore up buildings, cities and families. Compared to that, a high school football season seems rather puny.
But Katrina ensured a fall that won't soon be forgotten in the Bayou State.
While National Football League officials looked for a new venue for New Orleans Saints games and LSU canceled its scheduled opener against North Texas, Tommy Henry, the longtime director of the Louisiana High School Athletics Association, said up to 120 of the state's approximately 500 football-playing schools may be affected by Katrina.
"Sports isn't a high priority for us right now," Henry said. "We have to stop the bleeding first. High school athletics will have to fall in line as a priority."
One-week weather postponements have been common in Louisiana, Henry said, but he said the impact of the damage to New Orleans and southeastern Louisiana could easily continue for up to three months.
"And that's football season," he said.
In northern Louisiana, relatively untouched by the storm, the opening of the high school football season this weekend will go on, according to the Shreveport Times. But not without some adjustments.
One Shreveport-area team was supposed to play a game in the Morgan City area. Although the town was spared from major damage, there have been no school classes and no football practice this week because of evacuation. The two teams moved Friday's game to Saturday, to give the students an extra day to practice.
Alexandria and Bastrop were scheduled to play games against schools from New Orleans. Bastrop coaches hadn't heard from anyone connected with their scheduled opponent.
"Obviously the schools in New Orleans aren't going to play, so obviously the state champions will come out of the rest of the state," said Shreveport Times sports editor Scott Ferrell. "John Curtis in 2A would have been the odds-on favorite to win the state championship, and they won't be playing. In 5A, you have a lot of New Orleans powers there."
The first statewide Top Ten prep poll that would have included a number of New Orleans teams never made it to print. It was to be sent out by The Associated Press in New Orleans, but the people still there have other priorities now.
Ferrell says five of the state's top 15 football recruits play for New Orleans schools and he expects that some of them will end up competing in northern Louisiana.
"They can enroll this week and start playing."
Recruiting guru Bobby Burton of Rivals.com said as many as 150 players with Division I potential lived in areas that suffered extensive hurricane damage.
He said transferring could diminish an athlete's playing time and exposure.
Still, missing an entire season could extinguish scholarship hopes all together.
"It's significant," Burton told The Associated Press in Dallas. "A lot of players are going to be affected by this."
According to a report Wednesday, as many as 40 students displaced by Katrina have already enrolled at WO-S.
"I really don't know how many of them are going to play football," Hooks says. "It will probably be next week before we know."
West Orange-Stark coach Dan Hooks says it's the right thing to do.
The University Interscholastic League announced Wednesday that it will allow high school students whose families are displaced by Hurricane Katrina to compete at the schools where they temporarily enroll.
Hooks says five football players whose families had to evacuate the New Orleans area have contacted him about joining his team.
"A friend of mine came walking up and told me he had relatives from New Orleans who were staying with people in Orange," Hooks said Wednesday evening, speaking of one incident involving two displaced players.
"He said, 'Can they come out?'
"It's just sickening what happened. We want to do whatever we can to help."
Texas officials expect thousands of storm refugees will likely enter the Texas school system following widespread damage caused by the hurricane. New Orleans officials say it could be a matter of months before it is safe for those who evacuated to return home.
According to a press release on the UIL website, athletes whose entire families move to Texas will follow the same procedure of in-state transfers. Students wanting to play sub-varsity sports can participate almost immediately, while varsity players must sit out for 15 days after completing paperwork and getting approval from the district executive committee.
The process is more involved for students who enroll with guardians remaining in Louisiana. They must also apply for a waiver from the UIL, which has traditionally been a safeguard against recruiting or players seeking a move for strictly athletic purposes.
The UIL has announced it will not require the usual $100 waiver fee because of the hardships families have already endured.
"It makes sense if you're going to play a guy on the varsity, it probably would require a lot more paperwork," Hooks said.
"But even varsity guys, if they go to a school in New Orleans and the school's got eight feet of water in it, you're not going to get any school records. I think they'll be pretty liberal. They should be."
A survey of a dozen Golden Triangle schools Wednesday night turned up no other coaches who had been approached about Louisiana players joining their team. Most of the coaches weren't even aware of the UIL's announcement.
"I haven't heard from any of my coaches yet," said Rodney Saveat, the Beaumont ISD athletic director. "They're probably concentrating on their game Friday night. After this weekend, you're probably going to get a lot of stuff.
"People are going to realize they can't go back," Saveat said of the evacuees. "Now, everybody's stunned. After a couple of more days, they'll get on with their lives."
Dean Colbert, the Port Arthur AD and Memorial High football coach, said, "I don't know how many great players are in New Orleans, but we'll see. Who knows?"
While Colbert hadn't heard of any players wanting to join his team, that didn't mean the Titans weren't affected by the hurricane.
"Matthews Christian had some family members who had to evacuate," lineman Tray Puckett said of a teammate. "We went to visit them. It's horrible."
Ozen's new head coach, Port Arthur native John Clayton, is anxious for family members.
"My wife has people down there," he said. "Some went to Tennessee but got caught there, some came to Texas, some to Shreveport. We're kind of waiting, praying for them.
"We told them if they need a place to stay, they're welcome. One time, they evacuated down there and we had 11 people come stay with us."
Clayton knows his hurricane history.
"With Hurricane Audrey, Port Arthur was flooded and there were snakes everywhere," he recalled the 1957 storm. "We had to go over to the Jefferson County Courthouse in Beaumont. We stayed over there, on the second floor, for a week and a half.
"When I was at Southern University (in Baton Rouge), a hurricane tore out a section of our stadium."
Monday's 140-mph storm tore up buildings, cities and families. Compared to that, a high school football season seems rather puny.
But Katrina ensured a fall that won't soon be forgotten in the Bayou State.
While National Football League officials looked for a new venue for New Orleans Saints games and LSU canceled its scheduled opener against North Texas, Tommy Henry, the longtime director of the Louisiana High School Athletics Association, said up to 120 of the state's approximately 500 football-playing schools may be affected by Katrina.
"Sports isn't a high priority for us right now," Henry said. "We have to stop the bleeding first. High school athletics will have to fall in line as a priority."
One-week weather postponements have been common in Louisiana, Henry said, but he said the impact of the damage to New Orleans and southeastern Louisiana could easily continue for up to three months.
"And that's football season," he said.
In northern Louisiana, relatively untouched by the storm, the opening of the high school football season this weekend will go on, according to the Shreveport Times. But not without some adjustments.
One Shreveport-area team was supposed to play a game in the Morgan City area. Although the town was spared from major damage, there have been no school classes and no football practice this week because of evacuation. The two teams moved Friday's game to Saturday, to give the students an extra day to practice.
Alexandria and Bastrop were scheduled to play games against schools from New Orleans. Bastrop coaches hadn't heard from anyone connected with their scheduled opponent.
"Obviously the schools in New Orleans aren't going to play, so obviously the state champions will come out of the rest of the state," said Shreveport Times sports editor Scott Ferrell. "John Curtis in 2A would have been the odds-on favorite to win the state championship, and they won't be playing. In 5A, you have a lot of New Orleans powers there."
The first statewide Top Ten prep poll that would have included a number of New Orleans teams never made it to print. It was to be sent out by The Associated Press in New Orleans, but the people still there have other priorities now.
Ferrell says five of the state's top 15 football recruits play for New Orleans schools and he expects that some of them will end up competing in northern Louisiana.
"They can enroll this week and start playing."
Recruiting guru Bobby Burton of Rivals.com said as many as 150 players with Division I potential lived in areas that suffered extensive hurricane damage.
He said transferring could diminish an athlete's playing time and exposure.
Still, missing an entire season could extinguish scholarship hopes all together.
"It's significant," Burton told The Associated Press in Dallas. "A lot of players are going to be affected by this."
According to a report Wednesday, as many as 40 students displaced by Katrina have already enrolled at WO-S.
"I really don't know how many of them are going to play football," Hooks says. "It will probably be next week before we know."