Customer Reviews

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

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Lest we forgot the terrible tragedy that hurricane Katrina wrought, the two years of its aftermath magnifies still, the will to prevail. This is evident as thousands attempt to put their lives back together. Against all odds despite the hand of fate dealing a devastating blow to status quo, a group of courageous kids purposed not to allow angst to color the proverbial agony of defeat. Their story is typically told in author Neal Thompson's poignant book, HURRICANE SEASON. What a remarkable tale told amid the idea of overcoming the sheer force of a natural disaster. The author captures a truly extraordinary picture of boys and men doing what needs to be done with a sense of purpose that give new meaning to hope. This is the story of coach J.T. Curtis and a team that wouldn't quit when most would have simply thrown in the towel. John Curtis Christian School -- the Patriots, were a team of destiny that won you over once you read how they managed to allow rays of hope to illuminate sunshine on cloudy days eradicating the pervasive feeling of sadness...Let me tell you how they did it!

They did it with moxie, determination and an unbelievable test of faith. The book is a story that tugs at your heart and compels you to want to read it hoping for an ending that is akin to a `happily ever after' effect. Neal Thompson wrote with a clear mission to bring clarity to a group of kids that had reason to play with reckless abandon. The book is based on a majority of interviews conducted with Coach J.T., faculty members, students of John Curtis, many of the 2005 school year Patriots and their families, et al. The amazing thing about the book, the storm, and aftermath is the fact that Hurricanes Katrina and Rita gave us a chance to witness their fury on television with countless newspaper stories, and survivor accounts in magazines and online blogs...but the sheer affect it had on the people who suffered, the places they destroyed, and the things that will forever be associated with them, nothing can top this outstanding book for significant meaning in a reflective way.

The backdrop has a legendary football coach, albeit winning and charismatic looking at a rebuilding year in 2005. Despite losing his star quarterback to a rival school with a better chance at winning and the philosophy of team discipline, nothing could stop his drive for perfection - accept a lady on a mission! Katrina struck with impunity forcing players to abandon the city along with the multitude that called New Orleans home. However, John Curtis School survived with limited damage, allowing it to become one of the first schools to reopen. The book does a credible job of telling in graphic detail how Coach Curtis struggled to find games to resume the new season. His players battered and mentally beaten, were amazingly anxious to try to return to a sense of normality, and a ring of hope for their futures. All of this was based on a coaches' determination to spur his team to greater heights restoring self-esteem. I loved this book, especially the fact that it gives a good account of a proud school with an intrinsic view at Hurricane Katrina and how it affected the community-at-large. The author gave you a sense of concern for the families, how the government fumbled, and in the end, how a team scored the winning touchdown!

Sports fan or not, I have no doubt that Neal Thompson told a story worth reading, replete with facts, figures, and detail that takes nothing away from its 308 pages. This is a `feel good' story where it merits a chance for all readers to experience chaos written in a way to dispel notions of despair, yet give credence to overcoming odds for the thrill of victory. Thank you Neal Thompson for this book. I have no problems rating it 5 stars out of 5, and will encourage others to buy it where books are sold.

If you enjoyed "Friday Night Lights" you will like this book, but it is about much more than just football. You can't imagine what these kids went through during and after Katrina, but this book tells the story very well. These kids came back home with their families to rebuild and in the process showed dedication to their city and school. This is easily one of the best stories to come out of Katrina. I hope this book can reach a wider audience, like FNL, because this is easily the best football/life books to come out since FNL hit the shelves.

If you have any interest at all in high school football, Katrina, or New Orleans then you will not be disappointed.

Hurricane season is an excellent complement to Douglas Brinkley's " The Great Deluge." While Brinkley provides an excellent analytical and scholarly account of Hurricane Katrina that should set the standard for many years; Hurricane Season captures the powerful emotional dimensions. Though grounded in the story of a high school football team, it transcends normal sportswriting by speaking to the bigger panorama of life, suffering, loss, and inspiring tales of recovery and fortitude.
With so many aspirations and dreams hanging in the balance, the J.T. Curtis School and football team regroup after enduring catastrophe and devastation and become a beacon of hope and solace for many of the victims.
Replete with an abundance of anecdotes and personal accounts, Thompson weaves their stories into a gripping narrative that will find appeal among readers of all genres. This is a stirring and fast paced treatment of those perilous days that is both wrenching and redeeming.

"Hurricane Season," is a book written by Neal Thompson. He is a veteran writer who has been a newspaper writer for 15 years and worked for many papers. He has appeared in many popular TV shows such as TNT, ESPN, FOX, and C-SPAN. He has taught at the University of North Carolina for creative non-fiction.

The book "Hurricane Season," is about a school that is destroyed by Hurricane Katrina and there was no chance of putting it together. But the football team, known to be state champs, pull together and try to rebuild the school. They want to rebuild the school because they didn't want to separate the team that they had because they were like family to one another. The football team, coach and, families come together and help each other to bring the school together so they wouldn't be separated. My favorite quote in this book is "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."

I highly recommend you read this book if you are into football, because it changes your mind set in football. Like in the book the team goes through a lot and work together to get the school back together. But it's a good team bonding kind of book to me.

Senior English Student 2011

The Patriots are a football team that plays for a Christian school John Curtis. Members of the founder's family, his five children and grandchildren make up part of the faculty members at the school. They aren't just a school; they are more like a family. They have taken football members into their homes for extended periods of time.

The Patriots have a great team due largely to their head coach J.T. Curtis, son of John Curtis. "Hurricane Season," the story, takes place in August 2005. The Patriots are preparing to play their first pre-season game, which they do, and it's a shut out in their favor. Unfortunately, hurricane Katrina is coming through the state. Katrina will drastically change John Curtis School and students' lives dramatically. Readers glimpse the struggles shared by each family during and after the storm.

J.T. is determined to get his football team back together for some normalcy. While many of the players have been relocated, J.T. realizes that getting the guys back on the field will be a big help to them mentally.

Neal Thompson has written a very good book that should be read by everyone. A true story, while reading you feel as if you're actually there in New Orleans and very much apart of the school, their family and face all of their triumphs. After finishing "Hurricane Season" I went to the website just to get information on the school and the players.

Reviewed by: Carmen
Also agree with the one reviewer who says that if you enjoy Friday Night Lights.

"Hurricane Season" is a true story about triumph through hardship for a private Christian school's football team in New Orleans overcoming the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and Rita. This book takes a personal look at the devastation that Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita caused within six weeks. It's about a High School football coach's and his players' commitment to their school and team in midst of chaos and turmoil. It's about how football can pull a community together. I particularly liked reading how the coach motivated his players and how he taught them to be men. It was heartwarming to see how much the coach loved his players and cared about their personal lives and not just how they played football.

Another aspect that really touched me was J.T.'s close relationship and admiration for his father. His father built the school and was a big part of the football team. After the father died, J.T. still thinks of him often and wishes he could still run things past him. He feels a real sense of responsibility to make his dad proud and run the school well.

The ending of the book is very moving and emotional when the team finally gets to play football after it looked like they wouldn't even have a season. As I read about the games, it felt like I was right there in the stands watching and cheering for them. This book started out slow and was pretty sad, but is definitely worth reading to get an inside look at what the people of New Orleans went through during Katrina and how a football team really jelled. It certainly made my few problems look totally insignificant in comparison.

Karen Zemek, author of My Funny Dad, Harry

I can't say enough good things about this book!! This book is remarkable!! It tells the story about how people dealt with Hurrican Katrina and the aftermath and a remarkable man, J. T. Curtis, Head football coach and principal of the John Curtis Christian School. How he and his family brought together a school and the football team is an unbelievable story. Their story will make you cry, laugh and cheer!! I really enjoyed this book A LOT!!!

Gerard Zemek
Husband of author of "My Funny Dad, Harry"

This was a gift for my husband. He loves it! It is about more than just football. It has heart.

The effects of Hurricane Katrina have been reported over and over, on TV, in newspapers, magazines and blogs. With modern technology many of us got to watch it live, bearing down in all its terror, from the comfort of our safe, intact homes. It would seem that we knew all there was to know, knew the effects of the storm on people, places and things. But none of the coverage, none of the follow up reports on the storm and its aftermath can top the book Hurricane Season for sheer impact, both on knowledge and emotions.

Hurricane Season is the story of one football team in the Parish of New Orleans. The team, The Patriots, is from a private Christian school that prides itself on its diverse student population, its core Christian values and its football team. Coach JT Curtis has one of the best win records in the country. His players have gone on to play for top college teams, a few are even playing for the NFL. In 2005 he was looking at a rebuilding year. The quarterback they expected to lead the team has left to join a rival school, one that will allow him more chances to gain the valuable stats that colleges seek. Coach Curtis believes in team effort, not individual star making. His team, due to his no cut policy, numbers over 100 each year. In a school of only 650 students, that is a very large percentage of the student population. His players train all summer, work to stay in shape, to be physically and mentally prepared for the fall football season. Coach believes in practice too- not the common 2 practices a day of most schools but three a day, a relentless, high powered training plan. But after all the preparations the season is brought to a sudden halt by Katrina. For football coaches' wives everywhere, the scene where the town is evacuating and the coaches' spouses are calling, actually interrupting their usual after practice meeting to try to convince the men to come home and pack, will ring very true. For the coaches and players nothing, short of Hurricane Katrina, would interfere with football.

But Katrina does interfere, sending players fleeing to other parts of the country, taking away their homes, their parents' jobs and all stability. John Curtis School survives with limited damage, allowing it to become one of the first schools to reopen. The Curtis family, the extended family of the original school founder John Curtis, works to locate and convince as many students as possible to return to the area. Coach Curtis struggles to locate other teams willing and able to resume the football season. His players begin to return, exhausted, scared and confused but anxious to try to return to a sense of normality, a sense of hope for their futures, based on the foundation of the football team they love.

The book begins and ends with football. It will appeal to any football fan, player, coach or sports fanatic. But this book goes far beyond the field. It interweaves the story of the John Curtis School, its history and its football, with an insider's look at Katrina and its aftermath. Using the individual players of the team and the storm's effects on them and their families Thompson is able to broaden the scope of the book to include an in depth look at the handling of the storm by individuals, agencies and the government. The middle section of the book is a clearly written account of the plight of those that suffered the loss of everything, the impact on families, jobs and futures. It is a devastating chronicle of not only nature's worst but of mankind at its best and worst.

Hurricane Season is a journalistic view of one team, its players and the effects of the worst storm in American history. It is a tale of football, its impact on the youth who play America's favorite sport. It is a tale of one school and its efforts to create the best possible school that produces well rounded men and women. It is the tale of a government that is not able to handle the storm or its aftermath. But most of all, it is a tale of people- from the players who never give up, their families that survive the unthinkable and a school of parents, teachers and coaches that care.

Neal Thompson has written a book that will resonate will all readers. His ability to tell the facts, clearly and vividly, on all levels of his account is exceptional. He tells all his true tales with clarity of knowledge, facts and figures, data and details. But it is the emotion that comes through the portrayal of the various aspects that makes this book outstanding. It is nonfiction at its most effective; it pushes the reader into involvement, caring and action. It is impossible to read this book and not respond on some level- perhaps some extra understanding or support for local sports programs, a volunteer relief effort (it is still needed) or at the very least an awareness of the America around us.. It celebrates our resiliency as it mourns our failures. Thompson managed this extraordinary writing feat of non fiction with heart, soul and flesh, examining the entire body of one individual event in our modern history.

Reviewer's Personal Note:
I must say that I HATE football. I live in small rural town in New England that lives, breathes and idolizes our State Champion high school football team. I never quite understood it. This book certainly does explain it on many levels. If I loved this book as much as I did, any sports fan will really be impressed. But it should go way beyond sports fans for readers. I am rarely not able to put a book down (I would never do anything but read othewise) but this book had me glued to the end. I highly recommend it for all readers.