ESPN Independents and Others Blog

Posted by ESPN.com's Graham Watson

Bob Toledo didn't appreciate the devastation Hurricane Katrina caused to New Orleans until he became the head coach at Tulane and saw a first-hand account of the destruction.

Prior to that, he'd just watched reports on television from his home in Los Angeles. He was so far removed that he couldn't fathom what it must be like to go through one.

Until last Friday.

With the threat of Hurricane Gustav on New Orleans' doorstep, Toledo and the other Tulane coaches were forced to pack up their teams and ship them out to safe havens around the country. The volleyball team continued a West Coast trip to California, the women's golf and tennis teams traveled to Jackson State University in Jackson, Miss., and the football team sought refuge in Birmingham, Ala.

Tulane opened the season with a bye and moved 77 players -- it left injured players, walk-ons and suspended players at home -- to Birmingham last Saturday, where they were graciously taken in by the local Marriott and Samford University while they prepare for this weekend's game against Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

"This is not something you do every day," Toledo said. "It's been kinda distracting. It's hard to maintain focus, but I think our kids are doing the best they can."

All of the players Tulane brought with it to Birmingham were able to talk to their families at least once after Hurricane Gustav hit during the weekend, but several players who are from the New Orleans or Baton Rouge area didn't know the status of their homes. According to Troy Kropog, a fifth-year senior, all of the families of those players evacuated before the hurricane hit.

All of the coaches and staff members brought their families with them to Birmingham.

"I haven't heard of anyone yet say they couldn't get in contact with people," Kropog said. "I think this time nobody took any chances and stayed around. Everybody left so it wasn't too difficult to get a hold of people like it was last time when no one had cell phones and the land lines were down."

Kropog said his family went to Baton Rouge, which is about 80 miles north of his family home in Metairie. He said there's no power in Baton Rouge, which is making contact difficult, but last he heard his home was still standing.

Toledo, being a novice evacuee, turned to his 24 seniors, who had been through Katrina, for guidance. He listened to their gripes about the last evacuation, and tried to put a positive spin on this one to keep his team's mind off the devastation at home.

He told his players to liken the week-long trip to Birmingham to a bowl game, which was a bit of a stretch considering none on the Tulane players had ever been to a bowl.

"We called it the Gustav Bowl," Kropog said.

Every night the team has had an activity. Tonight will be offense vs. defense bowling where the losing side has to run sprints during Wednesday's practice. The team will visit the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame on Wednesday and go to a movie Thursday night.

They've shared practice time with Samford, used the weight room during the late evening hours, and Samford's dining hall provides both lunch and dinner when needed. The Marriott has allowed Tulane to set up meeting rooms and places for the team to watch film of Alabama.

It's a far cry from the situation Tulane was in three years ago when it spent hours in buses trying to evacuate to Jackson, Miss. When they got there in the wee hours of the morning, they had to sleep on rubber mats on the gymnasium floor and food was sparse. The team bounced around to Dallas and Ruston, La. It played in 11 different stadiums in 11 weeks.

"They told me personally, they said, 'Coach, if we had to go back and do what we had to do again we don't know if we could have played the games,'" Toledo said. "This situation is so much better than the last one those seniors realize that this gives us a chance at least to compete. They feel good about what we're trying to do. At least we're giving them an opportunity to try and compete and that's all they want. They want a chance to be on a level playing field come game time and I think at least we've given them that opportunity."

Birmingham also has been a welcomed change. Toledo said the city has opened its doors to the team and offered assistance from free pizza to hosting Sunday brunch and a Sunday service at a local church. Places such as the bowling alley and the museum also have tried to help the team with its field trips.

"The people of Birmingham have been nothing but great to us," Kropog said. "The hotel staff has been very friendly. Everywhere we go, people tell us good luck and they're asking us how we've been doing and things like that. The people at Samford are just fantastic. Pretty much the people here have really felt for us and they've gone out of their way to help us out."

Toledo said his team's spirits improved when it heard it would be able to return to New Orleans for school on Monday. Three hurricanes are heading toward the U.S. -- Hanna, Ike and Josephine -- but New Orleans is not expected to be in the path of Hanna or Ike at this time. Toledo said the school already has started strategizing for Hurricane Josephine, which is currently off the western coast of Africa.

Toledo acknowledges the 24 seniors have been a shoulder for both the coaches and the younger players to lean on. Toledo has relied on them to keep the team together and focused as it prepares for a tough game against Alabama.

"The big thing is that this time we had a better plan," Kropog said. "Everything got changed on us real quick this week and it kind of turned things upside down. They picked us up and moved us out here on pretty short notice. But you can't really focus on the things you can't control and I think everybody's been really good with that because a hurricane is something you can't control. So we're trying to have fun and keep our minds off of home. We're just looking forward to next week."