Gators escape storm-ravaged community on the gridiron

The South Terrebonne Gators promptly boarded a bus at 1:30 p.m. last Friday headed to their first football game of the season.

It was a two-plus hour bus ride to Lafayette to play the Comeaux Spartans.

Unlike the trips these players and coaches had to make the previous three weeks, this one brought anxious excitement and anticipation to their faces.

“It’s a blessing. I’m excited. All the players are excited,” said senior defensive back Justin Smith, who evacuated with his family to Vicksburg before Hurricane Gustav hit Terrebonne Parish. “It’s going to be a hell of a night.”

Friday’s trip was not the result of a parishwide mandatory evacuation, nor was it prompted by a 2 a.m. wake up call from sheriff’s deputies and the National Guard to flee the quickly rising water overlapping nearby levees because of Hurricane Ike.

This was about getting back on the field and playing football.

It was a three-hour distraction from thoughts of flooded homes, wind-damaged roofs, waterlogged roads and finding alternative sleeping arrangements.

“I’d say about one-fourth of our team had some flood damage in their homes,” said Gators coach Richard Curlin. “We had six guys absent this week out of the 72 or so we have on the team. Most of those are guys who have not returned to school because of water in their homes.”

Smith estimated that over half the team had some flood damage, including his east Houma Senator Circle apartment, which had three inches of water inside.

“There was just enough to mess everything up,” Smith said. “I went to the back to my uncle’s (Lenwood Smith, a member of the Gators 1991 state championship team) house, and he had three feet of water in his house. If you went further back in the circle, they had five, six feet.”

Teammates and Pointe-Aux-Chenes neighbors B.J. Dardar and Abram Billiot evacuated with their families to Tennessee before Hurricane Gustav hit.

Despite the close proximity of their homes, the storm damage was quite different.

“For Gustav, about half our roof came off. That was the first time our house even shook for a hurricane,” said Billiot, a junior center for the Gators. “Then for Hurricane Ike, we had two feet of water come into our house.”

Billiot’s family hesitated about leaving when the National Guard and sheriff’s deputies told them the water was rising and a mandatory evacuation was in effect.

“Within 20 minutes of them telling us to go, the water was coming over the road. We went back Sunday (Sept. 14) and there was still two feet of water on the porch. We had our house raised up after Rita because we got some one foot of water.”

Dardar’s home suffered damage, but was spared any flooding.

“We had a bunch of shingles missing and downed trees,” Dardar, a senior running back, said of the property damage after Gustav. “My house is up about five feet, so I was fortunate my house didn’t flood.”

Unfortunately, his grandparants, Linda and Russell Lyons, and aunt Cheryl Edens, who have homes on the same property, cannot say the same. Both got about two feet of floodwater inside their homes. A barn in the rear of the lot also suffered roof damage and flooding.

“That whole side of the (barn) roof flew over my house and hit my dad’s shed” said Sherry Dardar, B.J.’s mother.

Of the players interviewed, only B.J. Dardar is back in his home.

And even at that, his weekend was about helping get his relatives’ homes back in order – removing debris and salvaging what could be saved.

Smith and Billiot have not been back to their respective houses and may not return home this school year.

“My mom (Linda) said the walls are starting to rot and there’s ants crawling everywhere. I lost a lot of my clothes and shoes,” Smith said. “I’m just starting over with my daddy (Clarence Williams) in Village East.”

“We going to try and sell the home,” said Billiot, who is living his brother in Houma. “I don’t know who’ll want to buy it, but we’re going to try and sell it.”

When schools reopened last week, it also brought football practice, where camaraderie between players and coaches is maturated.

Everyone was glad to be back in helmets and shoulder pads, taking their aggression out on each other under the glare of the hot south Louisiana sun.

“I told the guys at that first practice on Tuesday, these two, 2 1/2 hours that we’re out here is their time to get their mind off the hurricanes and the flooding,” Curlin said.

“This is the biggest family I got right here, Smith said. “They’re my brothers, my friends. Especially number 30, Demetrius Boyd. My biggest help is right there.”

“It feels good to get out here again because we had two games cancelled,” Dardar said. “We can just relax here and not have to worry about anything down there.”

Curlin was not worried about the emotional make up of his team for Friday’s opening game. He was more concerned about their conditioning.

“Even before the storms, the weather was kicking our butts,” he said. “We had only three dry days for practice in August.”

However, the Gators did not look rusty early in the game. Josh LeBouef found Mike Barba for a 25-yard touchdown in the first quater to go up 7-0.

Comeaux tied the game in the second quarter on a 4-yard touchdown run by quarterback Garrett Kreamer.

On the first play of the third quarter, Dardar had his best run of the game – a 35-yard gallop that set up a Gators’ touchdown by Jamal Stewart to go up 14-7.

Dardar would finish with 58 yards on nine carries. Before the game, he was awarded the COX 4 Player of the Week trophy, given by the local cable station to recognize a scholar-athlete.

“I don’t know who nominated me or why I got it, but I’m honored to accept it,” Dardar said.

The Spartans tied the game again on the next series on a two-yard TD run by Michael Strentz.

With six seconds left in the game, Comeaux’s Jerad Hayes blasted a 37-yard field goal for the 17-14 victory over the Gators.

It was not a storybook ending for the first game after enduring the ravages of Gustav and Ike. Although they would have like to have won, that was not the point of getting back into action.

The goal was to get a measure of their regular lives back. In that they succeeded mightily.

“I’m so proud of the way this team came out and competed. Winning wouldn’t have made me any prouder of my kids” Curlin said.

The Gators begin district play Friday again at South Lafourche. With one game under their belt and no more storms on the horizon, the Gators believe they have a good shot at the district title.

Ultimately, games do not repair homes or plug levee breeches. But they help everyone think about something more palatable. Each of the next seven weeks of the schedule will help in a small part in the recovery process.

“I’m glad we’re back and I know the kids are happy to be back,” Curlin said. “Their ready to get back to some normalcy.”

Gators coach Richard Curlin addresses his team last Thursday, their final practice before the first game of the 2008 season. * Photo by KEYON K. JEFF