ILS1
09-02-2005, 05:41 PM
By Alan Trubow
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Friday, September 02, 2005
MANOR — It's too disturbing to watch the big-screen TV at his cousin's house. Too soon. Too real.
Instead, using his index fingers, Joshua Joseph twiddles a Dove soap box, the one he used to scribble a bunch of telephone numbers on when he was evacuating.
He flips the box around. There's his girlfriend's number.
Backward.
One of his classmate's digits.
Forward.
His coach's number.
This is Joseph's cell phone now. His real one is lost, somewhere back in New Orleans along with most of his clothes, his family's house and his life as he knew it.
"Is it OK to talk about this? About football? Right now?" Joseph asks, almost ashamed as a CNN reporter explains that Hurricane Katrina may have claimed anywhere from hundreds to thousands of lives.
"I can't watch this stuff," Joseph said. "Look at this. It's crazy."
Joseph is struggling with his emotions.
He's happy to be safe, out of New Orleans, away from the chaos. He's happy most of his family escaped. But he's worried about his friends he still hasn't heard from. He's worried about his teammates and classmates back at O. Perry Walker High School.
And between the sadness, the prayers, the shock and the uncertainty, Joseph is worried about football.
This season was supposed to be his ticket to a Division I school. Maybe Mississippi. Perhaps Grambling. He said both had contacted him. This was going to be his year, a breakout season at wide receiver.
It still might be.
The University Interscholastic League will allow out-of-state students who have been displaced in Texas because of the hurricane to participate in varsity athletics, as long as school districts allow them into their classrooms. Athletes would have to wait 15 calendar days before participating in any varsity sports.
Now Joseph, an 18-year-old senior listed on a Rivals.com Web site as a possible receiver in college, is trying to decide which Central Texas school will best help him put this catastrophe in his past and football back in his future.
A coach from Lake Travis called him, he said. At least he thinks it was a coach. Joseph said he is planning on attending tonight's Taylor-Lake Travis game. He's also talking to McCallum, he said. Another possibility could be Manor, the Class 3A school that is just down the road from the five-bedroom house where he and 24 of his family members now are living.
"I just want to get out on the field," he said. "This is such an important year for me. All I need is one practice and I'm ready to go. One practice. That's it."
Lake Travis Coach Jeff Dicus said he had heard of Joseph, and would welcome him into the high school. But he also said neither he nor anyone on his coaching staff had contacted the New Orleans player.
"It probably was a parent," Dicus said. "That's who is bringing him to our game."
The UIL, while maintaining that it is up to each individual school district whether to allow displaced students to enroll, is worried about the state's coaches recruiting refugee athletes.
There could be thousands, possibly tens of thousands, of displaced students seeking new homes and schools in Texas, said Kim Rogers, spokesman for the UIL.
"But if coaches are trying to contact kids in any way about playing football for them, we would look at that as recruiting," Rogers said. "If a coach goes to Burger Center to try and talk to kids about football, that would be recruiting and we would look at that as a complete violation. We are hoping coaches are trying not to take advantage of this situation."
Meanwhile, Joseph is trying to make the best of a bad situation. He didn't want to be here, after all. He wanted to be competing for a Louisiana state championship along with Kendrick Lewis, his best friend who already has committed to Mississippi.
"This was supposed to be our year. We were supposed to win our district. I think we were ranked as one of the top 10 teams in the state," Joseph said. "I did everything I was supposed to do right. I worked out in the off-season. I lifted weights.
"Oh man," Joseph paused, looking at the TV. "That was the bridge my mom used to take to work. . . . That's Tulane Stadium. It's all under water, totally under water. This is nuts."
It is.
And Joseph thinks he's a little crazy for worrying about football. But for a kid who plans to retake his ACTs to get a better score, it's about more than a game.
"For me, football was about getting into a better college. That's why this year was so important," Joseph said. "It was going to be play ball, get the grades, take the ACT. Play ball. Get the grades. ACT.
"I can't miss this year. When you miss a year, your stock goes way down. I need this year to get recruited. I just want to ball. Just play ball and go to school. I want to graduate. Going to college is priority No. 1."
Saturday was supposed to be Joseph's first game this season. Walker High was scheduled to play its main rival, a school just down the block. Joseph had wanted to begin a stellar senior campaign.
Instead, he'll begin narrowing down the places he could enroll in school.
"It wasn't supposed to be like this," he said.
"Maybe I'm selfish, thinking about playing football. I feel bad about what's going on in New Orleans. You can't help but feel bad.
"But God gave me a chance by helping us get out. And I'm going to use that chance."
Displaced New Orleans Athlete (www.statesman.com/sports/content/sports/stories/highschool/09/2joseph.html)
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Friday, September 02, 2005
MANOR — It's too disturbing to watch the big-screen TV at his cousin's house. Too soon. Too real.
Instead, using his index fingers, Joshua Joseph twiddles a Dove soap box, the one he used to scribble a bunch of telephone numbers on when he was evacuating.
He flips the box around. There's his girlfriend's number.
Backward.
One of his classmate's digits.
Forward.
His coach's number.
This is Joseph's cell phone now. His real one is lost, somewhere back in New Orleans along with most of his clothes, his family's house and his life as he knew it.
"Is it OK to talk about this? About football? Right now?" Joseph asks, almost ashamed as a CNN reporter explains that Hurricane Katrina may have claimed anywhere from hundreds to thousands of lives.
"I can't watch this stuff," Joseph said. "Look at this. It's crazy."
Joseph is struggling with his emotions.
He's happy to be safe, out of New Orleans, away from the chaos. He's happy most of his family escaped. But he's worried about his friends he still hasn't heard from. He's worried about his teammates and classmates back at O. Perry Walker High School.
And between the sadness, the prayers, the shock and the uncertainty, Joseph is worried about football.
This season was supposed to be his ticket to a Division I school. Maybe Mississippi. Perhaps Grambling. He said both had contacted him. This was going to be his year, a breakout season at wide receiver.
It still might be.
The University Interscholastic League will allow out-of-state students who have been displaced in Texas because of the hurricane to participate in varsity athletics, as long as school districts allow them into their classrooms. Athletes would have to wait 15 calendar days before participating in any varsity sports.
Now Joseph, an 18-year-old senior listed on a Rivals.com Web site as a possible receiver in college, is trying to decide which Central Texas school will best help him put this catastrophe in his past and football back in his future.
A coach from Lake Travis called him, he said. At least he thinks it was a coach. Joseph said he is planning on attending tonight's Taylor-Lake Travis game. He's also talking to McCallum, he said. Another possibility could be Manor, the Class 3A school that is just down the road from the five-bedroom house where he and 24 of his family members now are living.
"I just want to get out on the field," he said. "This is such an important year for me. All I need is one practice and I'm ready to go. One practice. That's it."
Lake Travis Coach Jeff Dicus said he had heard of Joseph, and would welcome him into the high school. But he also said neither he nor anyone on his coaching staff had contacted the New Orleans player.
"It probably was a parent," Dicus said. "That's who is bringing him to our game."
The UIL, while maintaining that it is up to each individual school district whether to allow displaced students to enroll, is worried about the state's coaches recruiting refugee athletes.
There could be thousands, possibly tens of thousands, of displaced students seeking new homes and schools in Texas, said Kim Rogers, spokesman for the UIL.
"But if coaches are trying to contact kids in any way about playing football for them, we would look at that as recruiting," Rogers said. "If a coach goes to Burger Center to try and talk to kids about football, that would be recruiting and we would look at that as a complete violation. We are hoping coaches are trying not to take advantage of this situation."
Meanwhile, Joseph is trying to make the best of a bad situation. He didn't want to be here, after all. He wanted to be competing for a Louisiana state championship along with Kendrick Lewis, his best friend who already has committed to Mississippi.
"This was supposed to be our year. We were supposed to win our district. I think we were ranked as one of the top 10 teams in the state," Joseph said. "I did everything I was supposed to do right. I worked out in the off-season. I lifted weights.
"Oh man," Joseph paused, looking at the TV. "That was the bridge my mom used to take to work. . . . That's Tulane Stadium. It's all under water, totally under water. This is nuts."
It is.
And Joseph thinks he's a little crazy for worrying about football. But for a kid who plans to retake his ACTs to get a better score, it's about more than a game.
"For me, football was about getting into a better college. That's why this year was so important," Joseph said. "It was going to be play ball, get the grades, take the ACT. Play ball. Get the grades. ACT.
"I can't miss this year. When you miss a year, your stock goes way down. I need this year to get recruited. I just want to ball. Just play ball and go to school. I want to graduate. Going to college is priority No. 1."
Saturday was supposed to be Joseph's first game this season. Walker High was scheduled to play its main rival, a school just down the block. Joseph had wanted to begin a stellar senior campaign.
Instead, he'll begin narrowing down the places he could enroll in school.
"It wasn't supposed to be like this," he said.
"Maybe I'm selfish, thinking about playing football. I feel bad about what's going on in New Orleans. You can't help but feel bad.
"But God gave me a chance by helping us get out. And I'm going to use that chance."
Displaced New Orleans Athlete (www.statesman.com/sports/content/sports/stories/highschool/09/2joseph.html)