Thibodeaux, Sharks fight back from Ike

[KFDM COOP]

Thibodeaux, Sharks fight back from Ike

By Larry Bodin

The Port Arthur News

SABINE PASS – Rarely has a football game matching a couple of Class A schools (Colmesneil and Sabine Pass) meant so much.

As everyone in Southeast Texas fully understands, 2008 is not just any year.

In the year of “Ike,†lives have been changed forever!

Things will never be the same again for anyone who took the brunt of this storm’s massive fury.

On September 13, the tiny coastal community of Sabine Pass looked into the eye of the storm and felt Ike’s rage like few others could comprehend. After 100 mph winds and a storm surge of 14 feet or more, little was left standing in its wake.

Homes were completely washed away, while others were leveled. Almost everything standing prior to the storm was either destroyed or left in shambles.

Battered store fronts, flattened FEMA trailers still in use from Rita three years ago, and homes and buildings that remain still paint a terrible picture of Ike’s wrath.

Now, fast forward and look what a difference a month makes.

Finally a ray of sunshine in the form of a group of hardened Sabine Pass football players who will attempt to put tragedy aside for some three hours and bring hope to their once beleaguered community by playing a game.

It will be their first contest since the storm struck in mid September.

So here we are, just a little more than a month after one of the worst storms to ever hit Sabine Pass, and head coach Jason Thibodeaux and his 0-2 football team will take the field at 7:30 p.m. in Colmesneil with their collective heads held high.

It truly represents much, much more than just a “game.â€

It’s a clear sign the city has started down the path on the long road on the way to recovery.

Many thought the season would be scrapped. But Thibodeaux felt he owed it to his seniors, players who had lost their entire freshmen season due to Rita, to find a way to finish out the year.

There was so much to do and so little time to do it that many felt playing in 2008 was strictly a pipe dream.

But not to Thibodeaux and his assistants -- Troy Gregg, Trey Harvey, Andy Bates and Devin Deslatte.

And for Thibodeaux, the 40-year-old head coach and athletic director in his third-year at the helm, Saturday’s return to the football field will culminate a month-long battle to overcome mind-boggling odds.

In addition to the devastation of losing every uniform and piece of equipment in the entire boys and girls athletic department, the Sharks gym also will probably have to be destroyed. The Sabine Pass auditorium has already been condemned due to massive damage from the storm.

So, considering what has transpired, just getting back on the field is nothing short of a miracle.

“Two days (Thursday) before the storm hit, I moved my family to Breaux Bridge,†said Thibodeaux, a 1986 graduate of Port Neches-Groves. “Like most of the storms that come our way, I thought we’d be back in a day or two. But on Tuesday after the storm hit, I called Tom Butler (Sabine Pass Maintenance Director) and he told me it was 100 times worse than Rita. I knew we were in trouble.

“When I got back to the school on Wednesday after the storm, I got a first-hand look at our facilities and I really couldn’t believe my eyes,†Thibodeaux said. “Our locker room was gone, we had no storage rooms, our baseball and football fields were a wreck, and the bus barn (25 feet high) where we had stored most of our equipment up high was almost ripped apart.

Inside Thibodeaux’s office, there were watermarks at nine feet. Since his office is five feet above sea level, at least 14 feet of water must have been flowing through the streets of Sabine Pass.

Making things even more difficult for Thibodeaux and his wife Ericka was that their home on Martin St. in Bridge City had also been completely destroyed with water rising as high as six feet throughout. Things got even worse after they found out their insurance did not cover any of their losses.

They were without a home, so Jason, his wife Ericka (a math teacher at Bridge City high school) and their children --Joseph (4), Erin (2), and Aden (1) -- were at the mercy of friends and family.

“Our Catholic faith held us together when everything was coming down around us,†said Thibodeaux.

After returning to the area, they moved around, staying with one brother, then another brother, while moving also to live with parents and in-laws..

“Our family has been so incredibly kind to us, I knew we were going to be OK,†the SP coach noted.

Within a week after returning to BC, Thibodeaux and his brothers and friends of his brothers had their house gutted and ready for repairs to begin.

Then people’s love really started to surface.

First it was his niece, Rachel Kamar, who gave up her recently purchased first home in Nederland to her uncle and his family to live in until their own home is completed. She moved with her brother.

[Beachbum]

[move]Good luck Sharks!!![/move]

[jackhammer]

Go Sharks and go Coach Thib!

[pirate supporter]

as a 1986 Sabine Pass graduated I will be keeping all of the Sharks in my thoughts and prayers. Go out there and show them how much you want this. Sabine Pass will never stop and the players deserve to be on that field.

[pngfan1]

Good luck to Jason Thibodeaux and the Sharks! Ya'll are in our thoughts and prayers.