Hurricane Season: A Coach, His Team, and Their Triumph in the Time of Katrina » (Unabridged)

Neal Thompson is a veteran journalist who has worked for the "Baltimore Sun", "Philadelphia Inquirer", and "St. Petersburg Times", and whose magazine stories have appeared in "Outside", "Esquire", "Backpacker", "Mens Health", and "The Washington Post Magazine". He is the author of two critically acclaimed books, "Light This Candle: The Life and Times of Alan Shepard, America's First Spaceman" and "Driving with the Devil: Southern Moonshine, Detroit Wheels and the Birth of NASCAR". Thompson and his family live in the mountains outside Asheville, North Carolina. Visit his website atwww.nealthompson.com

There's always a point in the season when you're faced with a challenge and you see what you're capable of. And you grow up. ---J. T. Curtis, head coach, John Curtis Christian School Patriots

On Saturday, August 27, 2005, the John Curtis Patriots met for a grueling practice in the late summer New Orleans sun, the air a visible fog of humidity. They had pulled off a 19–0 shutout in their preseason game the night before, but it was a game full of dumb mistakes. Head coach J. T. Curtis was determined to drill those mistakes out of them before their highly anticipated next game, which sportswriters had dubbed "the Battle of the Bayou" against a big team coming in all the way from Utah. As fate played out, that afternoon was the last time the Patriots would see one another for weeks; some teammates they'd never see again. Hurricane Katrina was about to tear their lives apart.

The Patriots are a most unlikely football dynasty. Theirs is a small, nondescript, family-run school,...

Kirkus Reviews

Even a Category 5 hurricane can't stop a revered coach and his championship high-school football team. Popular historian Thompson (Driving with the Devil, 2006, etc.) begins in the locker room of New Orleans' John Curtis Christian School on August 26, 2005. It was the night of the "jamboree" scrimmage that opened the season, and members of the Patriots were hoping to win another state championship for their school. Nationally recognized coach J.T. Curtis, also the school's headmaster and son of its founder, knew that his hardworking, enthusiastic squad couldn't compare to last year's lineup. Many key players had graduated to college ball, and he needed to mentally and physically condition a young, unproven team with efficient, college-level practices consisting of "equal parts Broadway musical and football drills." The 2005-6 Patriots included an anxious new starting quarterback, a Harvard hopeful, a spiritual heavyweight and a star linebacker whose religion forbade him to play on Friday nights. John Curtis School favored community building and happiness over flashy exteriors, and Coach Curtis reflected those values in his broadminded teaching style and paternal approach to his players' personal lives. Hurricane Katrina confronted him and his team with the ultimate challenge. Returning to the drowned city, J.T. found the school in miraculously good shape and set out to reunite his squad and get them on the field again. Some players were tempted to join teams in other school districts, and Hurricane Rita tested them once again, but the devoted coach kept on plugging. Thompson deftly profiles a generous selection of players and families torn apart by the disaster and considers thecontagious obsession for football shared by participants and fans alike. In a somewhat meandering fashion, he delivers a fully realized interpretative portrait of a coach and a sports organization willing to sacrifice all in the name of football. Longwinded though affecting tribute to resilience and solidarity.

Prologue     1
Patriots' Game     3
Friday Night Jamboree     31
The Maestro     55
The Birds Are Gone     69
Storm Surge     89
A Liquid Funk     105
War Zone     123
Crepe Myrtle     135
For the Love of the Game     151
Reentry     167
I'm Not Gonna Cancel the Game!     183
Gunning for Johnnie     201
Big Green Indians     221
Homecoming     239
State     261
Epilogue     281
Acknowledgments     287
Notes     289
Further Reading     295
Index     297