Hurricane Francine Forces Tulane Green Wave to Treat Week Like Road Trip
Living in New Orleans this time of year means keeping one eye on the weather, especially this week as Hurricane Francine hit the city on Wednesday ahead of Tulane football's road trip to Oklahoma.
Francine only topped out at a Category 2 storm, causing widespread rain and wind damage. But, for the locals that still remember Katrina and Isaac, this storm was lesser in comparison.
The Tulane Green Wave football team didn’t leave the area due to the hurricane as they prepare for their trip to Oklahoma on Saturday. In many ways they’ve treated the entire week like a road trip.
The Green Wave (1-1) worked out at the New Orleans Saints practice facility, which allowed them to get a normal Tuesday workout, according to coach Jon Sumrall.
But, they didn’t go back to their homes or their dorms. After the Tuesday workout, they stayed together as a team at a hotel and Sumrall said they would continue to remain at a hotel, which isn’t standard practice during a game week.
But, this isn’t a standard week, either.
“Our team hotel has generators and those sorts of things to keep things online for our guys hopefully,” Sumrall said. “I told them pack like you’re going on a couple-days road trip.”
That’s what it amounts to. If the Green Wave remain in their hotel through Thursday, they’ll be on a flight to Oklahoma on Friday in advance of Saturday’s game, which starts at 2:30 p.m.
Sumrall asked the players to bring what they needed for school and made sure to set aside academic time for Wednesday and Thursday, which is standard practice for college basketball teams during mid-week road trips.
But Sumrall said practice wasn’t necessarily his primary focus.
“Practice isn’t the No. 1 focus,” he said. “Health and safety is, but we’d like to get into as much of a normal practice routine as we can, so if we can we’ll try to find a location.”
Francine made landfall on Wednesday. Sumrall was able to work in shortened practice at the Saints’ indoor facility for a second straight day. On Thursday, per Nola.com, the plan was for the team to do a walkthrough at their hotel.
Sumrall was the Green Wave’s defensive coordinator when Isaac made landfall in 2012. But this situation is much different, and not just because he’s in charge. That year the Green Wave were already in Birmingham, and that’s the team’s typical safety zone in these situations. But, with the game in Oklahoma and the storm making landfall at mid-week, it presented Sumrall and his staff with different options.
“With the charter flight for the game (at Oklahoma), there were three or four different options talked through with our administration,” he said. “I told them first and foremost healthy and safety and then what makes the most sense for the well-being of our team. As we kind of evaluated things, we felt like this was probably the best decision.”
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