Storm-damaged gym forces E.D. White’s teams to take their show on the road

The E.D. White boys’ and girls’ basketball teams have a combined 54 road games this season.

The only problem: They play a combined total of 54 games.

The Lady Cardinals’ volleyball team can commiserate. They just finished a season on the road.

It’s been a tough time for the squads. Since Hurricane Gustav roared ashore Sept. 1, E.D. White’s gym has been closed. The storm caused severe roof damage, allowing water to pour in and destroy the team’s home court. Left with a buckled floor and moldy walls, the Cardinals’ future was uncertain.

Gustav caused more than $1.2 million in damages. The gym was deemed unusable for the entire 2008 volleyball and basketball seasons.

To compete, it looked as if the Cardinals’ only option was playing every game on their opponents’ home court.

Basketball coaches Jonathan Keife and Darrin Fontz and volleyball coach Mary Cavell scrambled to put together a 2008 season while simultaneously trying to find available gyms to play games.

Luckily, the Warren J. Harang Jr. Municipal Auditorium, just blocks from the Thibodaux high school, opened its doors to E.D. White. The city OK’d the use of the facility at no charge during district play. Alternate sites for only a select handful of games at the front of the season were needed since the majority of E.D. White’s district games fall on the back half of the schedule.

The move worked in the Cardinals’ volleyball team’s favor. The team went on to win the state championship title.

It’s been a little rougher going for E.D. White’s girls’ and boys’ basketball teams.

The auditorium has been promised to the team in December. But with Mardi Gras Feb. 24, much of January is booked for krewe balls and other Carnival-related events.

After a series of phone calls and pleas, Keife and Fontz were able to find alternate game sites locally.

“Home” for the boys’ team will include Harang Auditorium, Nicholls State University, Central Lafourche High, H.L. Bourgeois High and Thibodaux High. The girls will play “home” games at those sites as well as Morgan City High School.

Altogether, the two squads will travel a total of 86 miles just to play home games this season.

Last week’s four-day Cardinals Classic marked E.D. White’s season opener at the Harang Auditorium.

“It’s been difficult,” Keife said of the transition. “Everyone has been so hospitable to us. Just the fact that so many other schools have stepped up to help us out makes this experience all the more memorable for us.”

Fontz agreed, noting that practicing, in addition to competing, has been tougher. To get practice time in, the boys’ and girls’ teams have had to rent gyms as far away as Schriever. Shuttling equipment and players around the Tri-parishes is becoming part of the post-hurricane routine.

“The games are one thing, but what’s even harder is finding practice facilities,” Fontz explained. “It seems like it changes on a day-to-day basis. The kids have adapted well, it’s almost like they are used to it by now. It’s a headache at times but, hopefully, it’ll bring us closer together.”

Junior Charlie Bourgeois, a Cardinal center, chalks the season up as a learning experience.

“This is the first time any of us have had to deal with anything like this,” he said. “We’re fighting through it and it is just making us stronger this season.”

Bourgeois said his teammates are adapting to the traveling. “It’s become part of our usual routine,” he said. “We don’t care where we play. We practice hard and play hard no matter where we are.”

By season’s end, Keife and Fontz agree they will have learned the true character of their teams by their ability to overcome this adversity.

In the meantime, next year’s season is looking bright. Repairs to E.D. White’s gym are under way.

Athletic Director Preston Lejeune said bids for the repair work will be accepted this week. The gym should reopen shortly before the summer break, he said.

“We’ll have a new roof, a new ceiling on the inside, a new court and we’ll put fresh paint on anything and everything that can be painted,” Lejeune said.

The roof, which will be the building’s first repair, is slated to be complete within 60 days of the contract being signed.

Ironically, had Gustav spared the Cardinals’ gymnasium, the renovations were already in the works. The new facility is being constructed behind the visitors’ bleachers of the football stadium, just between the band room and the baseball field.

The original date for completion of the new facility was July 31, but with things getting done faster than anticipated, that date has since been moved up to sometime in May.

The concrete foundation has already been laid, and Lejeune predicts it could be ready before repairs to the existing gym are completed.

“We’ll use the new gym for our competitions,” he said. “The older gym is for practices and for our younger teams to use.”

With the basketball season in high gear, the Cardinals must call the other locations “home.” To E.D. White players, however, the way area sites have opened their doors feels like home.

“The public schools who have offered us use of their facilities have been outstanding,” Fontz said. “We certainly appreciate all of the help they have given us. We will certainly reciprocate in the future if it is ever needed.”