Customer Reviews

The Hurricanes: One High School Team's Homecoming After Katrina

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I'll start out by saying that this is a good story. This book focuses on football, and the story of a team and teams coming together to rebuild their lives. It's a "rags-to-riches" tale that will surely one-day make a good movie, but it ignores the real tragedy that I was thinking about the entire time. What it doesn't focus on is the real tragedy of why rural Louisiana is dirt poor and uneducated. A year after Katrina, officials are proud to announce that the new sod is on the field, yet there is no school cafeteria. The scoreboard works, but there are not enough books to go around at school. More examples abound like this abound, but it is clear to me why communities like this will continue to decline as they focus more on their fleeting football success than on graduating educated kids from their high schools. A few of these kids will end up in college, and maybe one every few years will play pro ball, but 200 others will be poorly served by their lack of a decent education.

THE HURRICANES: ONE HIGH SCHOOL TEAM'S HOMECOMING AFTER KATRINA is a heartwarming narration of achieving a dream after adversity.
Once again, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED provided an excerpt of this book in a 2008 issue. Numerous times SI has piqued my interest with selected sections from a book, and later on after reading it, I am glad I purchased or checked it out.
This is a story of a high school football team's achievement on the field of play after nearly the whole team faced tremendous adversity following the destruction of Hurricane Katrina in the bayou country. Jere Longman reviews so many areas surronding the team, community, coaches, parents, etc.,in that he presents a wonderful epic and narrative story. Not only does the community choose to advance from the destruction, but two high schools merge to represent the devasted area in sports. It is important for Mr. Longman to intertwine the recovery of emotional, physical and cultural areas in building the success of communities and a football team. It is interesting to read how the success of the region is ramrodded by the football team. Very pleasurable narration is provided to tell the story of the area's rebuilding. Presentation of the characters and culture of the region is done very well. At times the author bogs down the work with specifics of government beauracray and statutes. However, when he centers on football, it should be relished by the reader.
As a football official and former coach for over thirty years, I was shocked by the use of profane language by Coach Crutchfield whether on the field of play, in a locker roomor or simply trying to motivate his team. In the state of Kansas where I work sports, this type of abuse and use of vulgarities to his team, would have no use in this state. In a way, Mr. Longman presents Coach Crutchfield as a, "Mentor or hero", to the team, school, and community. I had little if any respect for Crutchfield's treatment of individuals. A total lack of "class" by a coach.
In conclusion, I was surprised how good this book was to read. Though I would recommend more interesting narrative books on football, i.e. TWELVE MIGHTY MITES OR THE SWEET SEASON, this still is a good work.

A well written, vibrant story about life after Katrina in a unique community. The story, based in a rural community surrounded by the Mississippi river and the Gulf of Mexico, accurately describes real personalities who make the community special in many ways.

If you are a fan of athletics, community life and the struggles of rebuilding life, then you will enjoy this book. One of the best books I have read in a long time.

Jere Longman has written an excellent book chronicling one parish's reaction to Hurricane Katrina, focusing on the high school football team but weaving in incredibly useful information about the people and history of Plaquemines Parish and all of Southeast Louisiana. It's a story of the importance of football in the fabric of a community in southern Louisiana.

Having played high school football in Louisiana myself "back in the day", I recognized so much in the story of coach Cyril Crutchfield and the Plaquemines Parish residents. The loud, profane and physical football coach. The sheriff's deputies who were former players themselves and still long to ride the bus with the team to away games. The players whose entire lives revolve around the sport. The anachronism of the wealth of resources and the grinding poverty of that part of the world. It really hit home.

The book is well-written and balanced - as an example, Longman strives to present the Belle Chasse side of the Plaquemines Parish feud, rather than simply showing the South Plaquemines/Port Sulphur side. And by tracking Randall Mackey, Jamal Recasner and the Bastrop Rams, he shows the intertwining of relationships in that part of the world.

As this review is written, Coach Crutchfield, Ridge Turner, Lyle Fitte and the rest of the Hurricanes are on their way to another state championship. One Times-Picayune reporter recently noted that they only way the Hurricanes don't win state is if they give up the sport of football between now and December. I recommend you read this book, and follow the Hurricanes through the rest of their season.