If Newman quarterback Jay Tyler is healthy, the Greenies will have a chance to win the district championship. - (Michael DeMocker, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune will be taking a look at each New Orleans-area district as spring football kicks off.
2012 finish: Advanced to the playoffs as a No. 23 seed. Won in bi-district round over South Plaquemines, 36-12; won in regional round over Catholic-New Iberia, 62-35; lost in quarterfinals to Evangel, 62-26.
Key departures: QB Joey Louis, RB Eugene Brazley, WR Raheem Falkins, DT Sebastian Polk.
Spring prospectus: Early practices will be key as the Rams are replacing the core of their offense from a year ago. Addison said Kendrick Day will play a major role in replacing standout Raheem Falkins at wide receiver while on defense, returning linebacker Keanon Scott and defensive lineman Jacobey Turner will anchor that unit. Addison expects big things from a pair of young running backs that will help power the Carver offense. Tyronne Baronne will provide some shiftiness while Rodney Major will offer the power in what Addison hopes will be a dynamic backfield.
Spring prospectus: In his second season as head coach, Perry McCarty is in full rebuilding mode at the newly minted Cohen College Prep. While his squad will still be young, McCarty said he hopes for better numbers this spring as interest has continued to increase. He added that his players' attitudes were very positive in 2012, and he’s hoping with an influx of young talent that Cohen will post some wins in 2013. The important part of this spring will be teaching the fundamentals to his younger players while focusing on weekly improvement as a whole, McCarty said.
Spring game: May 3 vs. Lake Area High School, 4 p.m. at Cohen
2012 finish: Did not advance to the state playoffs.
Key departures: QB/DB Darry Delaune, TE/LB Terry Verrette, DL David Breaux.
Key returnees: RB Devin Delaune, 5-10, 185, Sr.; OL Lionel Dufrene, 5-11, 220, Sr.; OL Linest Parfait, 5-9, 190, Sr.; QB Nick Daniel, 5-9, 200, Jr.
Spring prospectus: The Gators didn’t have to go far to replace the recently retired Greg Rawle as Fisher graduate and last year’s defensive backs coach Marcum Olano takes over as head coach for 2013. Olano will face a bit of a rebuilding year in 2013, as the Gators graduated 17 seniors and only return five total. Seniors Devin Delaune (eight rushing touchdowns), Lionel Dufrene and Linest Parfait will anchor the offense and will need to provide a ton of leadership for a sophomore-heavy team. Junior Nick Daniel is the projected starter under center. Olano said this spring his team will focus on improving each day while getting that large sophomore class some experience on the field.
Spring game: May 16 vs. Haynes, 6 p.m. at Fisher High School
2012 finish: Did not advance to the state playoffs.
Key departures: QB Jared Smith, DB/RB, Jonathan Lin, RB/DB Hayden Chighizola.
Key returnees: RB Ashton Morris, 5-10, 165, Sr.
Spring prospectus: The Yellow Jackets posted their first winning season in school history, thanks to a come-from-behind 37-33 victory over Ascension Episcopal to close out the season. Now, they’re entering their first year of district play, and the Yellow Jackets will need to replace quarterback Jared Smith if they want to continue the success. Running back Ashton Morris (1,011 yards rushing, 10 touchdowns) returns, which will help, as the senior was the workhorse of Haynes' backfield.
Spring game: May 16 vs. Fisher, 6 p.m. at Fisher High School
2012 finish: Advanced to the playoffs as a No. 27 seed. Lost in bi-district round to Calvary Baptist, 49-14.
Key departures: WR Gilly Andry, LB Peter Miller, DB Ian Athmann.
Key returnees: QB Jay Tyler, 5-9, 155, Jr.; WR Justin Harrell, 6-0, 175, Sr.; RB Kirk Merritt, 5-9, 170, Jr.
Impact newcomer: RB Kendall Bussey, 5-8, 170, Jr.
Spring prospectus: With a healthy Jay Tyler at the helm of the Greenies offense, Coach Nelson Stewart has confidence his team will put up points, but it’s the return of running back Kendall Bussey that has bolstered some high hopes on Jefferson Ave. Bussey missed the entire 2012 season with an injury, but he’s healthy for the spring and could be the missing piece to a balanced offense. On defense, Newman will miss captains Peter Miller and Ian Athmann, but with a small senior class, the Greenies defense will be bigger and more familiar with each other in 2013. The key for Newman will be keeping a balanced offense to allow Tyler and company to score in bunches.
2012 finish: Advanced to the playoffs as a No. 25 seed. Won in bi-district round over Homer, 56-8; won in regional round over Episcopal, 28-22; lost in quarterfinals to Curtis, 62-10.
Spring prospectus: The Rebels only graduated five seniors from last year’s quarterfinals team, and Coach Bill Stubbs is excited to see even more growth in his second year. On offense, Deuce Wallace threw for 3,000 yards and 31 touchdowns as a freshman, and he has his two favorite targets in Herb McGee and Von Julien back. On defense, linebackers Brandon Hymel and Evan Veron will anchor a defense that is basically the same as last year, so improvement will be key. Stubbs promised that spring practices will be a little more intense in his second year as he focuses on player growth and working on the details more than anything else.
Spring game: May 17 is the Second Annual Pie Bowl, 6 p.m., at Riverside
2012 finish: Advanced in the playoffs as a No. 10 seed. Lost in bi-district round to Carver, 36-12.
Key departures: ATH Joseph Gibson; ATH Andre Barthelemy; OL Lesone Smith; QB Domonic Henry; OL/DL Michael Powell.
Key returnees: DB Coren Lightell; ATH Jace Williams; OL/DL Sean Wilson, 6-4, 265, Sr.
Impact newcomers: ATH Wade Barthelemy; ATH Tra’vone Ragas; QB Kendrick Smith.
Spring prospectus: The Hurricanes lost about 70 percent of their offense to graduation according to Coach Cedric Figaro, so the key this offseason is to get the new starters into the fold as quickly as possible. Freshman Kendrick Smith is projected to start under center while Wade Barthelemy and Tra’vone Ragas will be some of his offensive weapons. The trio has seen limited action in the past, so just how fast they catch on will be important to the Hurricane’s success. The offensive line is experienced, which should help in their learning process. On defense, Tulane commitment Sean Wilson is the anchor up front, while returning starter Coren Lightell will be the leader in the secondary. Figaro, now in his second season, said the spring will focus on the fundamentals as his goal for the players is to improve a little each day.
Spring game: May 13 vs. Thomas Jefferson, 6 p.m., at South Plaquemines
Spring prospectus: First-year coach Dwain Jenkins said the offseason participation has been strong with about 50 individuals present for weight training, which is just one sign of renewed interested in a program that went 0-19 over the past two seasons. Jenkins comes from Lutcher where his spread offense was very successful. Five years ago, the Wildcats played in the Superdome, and Jenkins hopes to start the road back there this spring. On offense, D’Kwan Sandolph and Rashaan Dennis are two special athletes who can play several positions on offense, which will help projected freshman quarterback Lowell Narcisse. In the offseason, the Wildcats hired Dutchtown defensive coordinator Chris Daigle, and Jenkins hopes Daigle will have a big impact. On the field, seniors Juwan Lumar and Jason Favorite will anchor that unit.
Spring game: May 16 vs. Miller-McCoy, 6 p.m. at St. James
Key returnees: RB Larry Bush, 6-1, 165, Sr.; WR Antoine Oates, 6-1, 150, Jr.; DE Devante Turner, 5-11, 205, Sr.
Impact newcomers: QB Derek Robinson, 6-1, 160, Jr.
Spring prospectus: The Warriors lost 13 players to graduation, so Coach Brian Glover said 2013 will be a bit of a foundation building year at Wright with 10 returning starters. On offense, running back Larry Bush and wide receiver Antoine Oates will lead the offense while junior Derek Robinson takes over under center. Robinson was the back-up last season, so Glover said the coaching staff is excited to see how he will develop with full-time reps. The Warriors will not have a spring game, as Glover said the team will use every practice to work on fundamentals to help his young team become more prepared to re-enter district play.
Spring game: None.
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Joseph Halm can be reached at prep@nola.com or 504.826.3405.
Carver running back Eugene Brazley signs with Ole Miss
February 7, 2013
Carver running back Eugene Brazley signs with Ole Miss
Eugene Brazley prepares to sign his national letter of intent with Ole Miss at Carver on Wednesday afternoon. (Photo by Andrew Lopez, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
Carver running back Eugene Brazley was a little nervous last night as he was trying to fall asleep. He stayed up a little later than he wanted because he was looking forward to signing his national letter of intent with Ole Miss.
So forgive him if he didn't wake up for 6:30 Wednesday morning when Robert Nkemdiche, the top recruit in the nation, announced that he also signing with the Rebels. Carver quarterback Joey Louis told Brazley about the Nkemdiche decision when they were in class on Wednesday morning.
Now, Brazley finds himself in one of the top recruiting classes in the country and he said he was impressed with what his new school did on National Signing Day.
"They made a big improvement today," Brazley said. "Big things are coming for us. I think we're going to be able to compete with Alabama, LSU and all the other big teams out there."
There were times during his commitment in which Brazley almost changed his decision from Ole Miss after protests at the school after President Barack Obama's re-election. However, he ultimately stayed true to the Rebels.
"This whole process has been stressful but it's also been a blessing," Brazley said. "They had a lot of people in my ear talking this and that but Ole Miss still recruited me hard and they were upfront with me."
Brazley credited his relationship with the coaches for being able to stick with Ole Miss despite other schools coming in late.
He said that Tulane, Texas, Miami, Auburn and California all showed late interest in the process but couldn't make any headway.
"A lot of colleges came in late on me," Brazley said. "But it was just so late, it was hard to build up that relationship like I had with the coaches at Ole Miss."
Brazley finished his career as a two-time All-New Orleans area selection, three-time All-District selection and a four-year starter. He rushed for 1,182 yards and 18 touchdowns in his senior season He also had 21 receptions for 308 yards and three more touchdowns. He finished the season at No. 31 on the NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune Nifty 50.
Now Brazley is headed to the SEC where he will meet up with former Carver teammate Raheem Falkins who enrolled early at Alabama. Brazley said that he couldn't wait to play Alabama and get a win so he can "throw it in Falkins' face."
Brazley and Falkins represent resurgence of sorts for Carver who is once again churning out SEC-level talent. Carver is back on its Lower 9th Ward campus but are still in trailers for school buildings. Also the Rams practice on a field that is about half the size of a regulation football field.
Brazley said it shows the perseverance of Carver students and he hopes it carries on into future classes.
"It shows that if you focus hard and put your mind to it, you can do anything," Brazley said. "It doesn't matter if you're in trailers or anything like that."
Carver Coach Byron Addison coached Brazley for two years and said that Ole Miss is getting a "diamond in the rough" in Brazley.
"They aren't just getting a good player, they're getting a good person off the field," Addison said. "In my two years here, he's done everything I've asked of him. He's been a leader on the field and in the classroom. I wish him the best.
RSD announces latest management changes; moves toward all-charter system
RSD announces latest management changes; moves toward all-charter system
New Orleans' Recovery School District will become a nearly 100 percent charter system in the 2013-2014 academic year, Superintendent Patrick Dobard announced Thursday. (Photo by Kerry Maloney, NOLA.com | Times-Picayune archive)
New Orleans' Recovery School District will become a nearly 100 percent charter system in the 2013-2014 academic year, with the district running only five or six schools directly, down from 12 this year, Superintendent Patrick Dobard announced Thursday. Among the changes: three schools will close; three will become charters; one will merge with an existing charter; and three will continue to be phased out grade-by-grade.
Slated to close at the end of next June are Abramson Elementary in eastern New Orleans, Murray Henderson Elementary in Algiers and James Weldon Johnson Elementary in Carrollton.
Three additional direct-run schools will become charters: Mary D. Coghill Elementary in Gentilly, Paul B. Habans Elementary on the West Bank and H. C. Schaumburg Elementary in eastern New Orleans.
Habans will be run by Crescent City Schools, operator of Akili Academy and Harriet Tubman, and Schaumburg will become the fifth campus in the ReNEW Schools portfolio. Coghill is being taken over by a community group led by the school's current principal, Aisha Jones.
Landry High School, as has long been controversial, will be merged with O. Perry Walker this summer and run by Walker's charter operator, the Algiers Charter Schools Association. The Friends of Landry community group protested that decision Thursday afternoon in front of the RSD's offices on Poydras St.
Three other high schools -- Walter L. Cohen, G. W. Carver and Sarah T. Reed -- are in the process of phasing out and will be closed by 2015 when they have finished graduating their existing student bodies.
The Recovery School District oversees or runs over three quarters of the city's 80-plus schools. A recent report from the Brookings Institution ranked the district first in the U.S. for choice.
The idea is "not for us to run schools indefinitely," Dobard said. The district is steadily decreasing the schools it manages and increasing "high-quality charter operators."
Four RSD elementary charters will undergo a transition this summer as well. In New Orleans East, Arise Academy is taking over the failing Pride College Prep and Benjamin Mays is closing altogether. In Central City, New Orleans College Prep is taking over the failing Crocker Arts and Technology charter.
The only remaining question for 2013 is what will happen to Intercultural Charter in eastern New Orleans, which is losing its charter due to low academic performance. Dobard said the RSD will either run that school directly or find another school to absorb the students. He expected to know by the end of the first week of January, in time for the 2013 OneApp common enrollment application to be launched Jan. 14.
View full sizeThe new Parkview School in Gentilly, home to Mary D. Coghill Elementary. Coghill is becoming a charter school in 2013.
Dobard acknowledged the difficulty of the transitions but said education quality had to come first: "We will continue to hold schools accountable."
As a whole, the direct-run RSD schools are the worst performing in the city; none earned higher than a D grade in the 2012 academic evaluations.
He also said the decisions are necessary in order to decrease the number of schools in the city. "We're working right now to right-size our system of schools," he said. "We've been extremely aggressive with our landscape."
That's necessary to maximize enrollment and fill new buildings such as Parkview, where Thursday's press conference took place, he said.
To minimize disruption, students in the direct-run schools that are being chartered or merged -- Coghill, Habans, Landry and Schaumburg -- may stay in their current buildings under new management. That is also the case for students in the three charters -- Pride, Crocker and Intercultural -- that will have new management. Mays students will receive priority in enrollment for 2013.
As for the three direct-run schools that are closing, the district has arranged a destination for each, guaranteeing Abramson students spots at Schaumburg; Johnson students at Benjamin Banneker; and Henderson students at Habans. However, parents may choose to move their children elsewhere.
"This is not easy for families and I think that should not be understated," said Erika McConduit of the Urban League of Greater New Orleans, which staffs the schools' parent centers and will have resources for families considering their options. However, she agreed that quality was paramount: "It is important that we continue as a city to move toward accountability."
Curtis and Evangel are two schools in the center of the controversy. - (Brett Duke, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
LSU Coach Les Miles stood in the back of the crowded room while principals compared the subject at hand — one regarding high school football — to segregation and Nazi persecution of Jews.
Principals voted, 206-119, to pass the controversial proposal No. 18, which will split the 2013 football postseason into separate "select" and "nonselect" brackets.
The vote, which brought the LHSAA's annual convention to a close, drew applause from much of the room, particularly public school principals who had long been frustrated with the success of private schools they felt benefitted from "an unlevel playing field."
"I'm glad the way it finished," said Winnfield Principal Jane Griffin, one of the proposal's six co-authors. "I'm sorry for the ones that got sucked into it that maybe didn't deserve to. It's kind of bittersweet, yes, but it's a beginning."
Not one that has schools such as Karr and Carver, both of whom voiced opinions against the proposal or their inclusion as charter schools, particularly excited.
"I don't think that anything that divides us is very positive," Hiser said after a long pause. "I'm very disappointed that more of our friends didn't vote with us. It's a shame that 120 schools are punished because of the perception that two schools are doing something wrong."
Sentiment became progressively more open as the week wore on that John Curtis and Evangel were the bulk of the reason behind the push for such a split.
The two private schools have claimed a combined 38 state championships during the past four decades.
"Most of (that talk) unfortunately from people who don't know who we are and don't know what we stand for, have never walked through our doors and have never watched us on the practice field," Curtis Coach and Athletic Director J.T. Curtis said. "From that perspective, it's disappointing that people would make judgments and say things, but you know what, maybe that's part of being successful, and I'm not going to apologize for being successful.
"And I'm not going to apologize for working very hard and being good at what we do, and I don't think the other schools should either."
Public school coaches, such as West Ouachita's Joey Pender, referenced differences in the definition of attendance zones providing private schools an advantage.
St. Charles Catholic Coach and Athletic Director Frank Monica said the proposal "treated the symptoms and not the disease."
Other coaches and principals on both sides of the issue felt too many questions remained unanswered.
"I think the proposal has too many holes in it, and it's not fair to those schools," said Terrebonne Principal Graham Douglas, who voted against it. "It's more of a penalty action than anything else, and it's ensnaring everybody into that.
"Of course, it's something I think that needed to be done. I would've liked the proposal maybe be studied for another year, but we'll see how it goes. The majority has spoken, and we'll go with them. I'm not overly concerned with some schools, but there are some schools, such as the (Recovery School District) schools, that do give me some concerns — some schools that are not part of that."
The proposal currently calls for the regular season to be played in the districts determined during last months reclassification and redistricting process and for the separation to occur for the postseason only.
"Select" schools would include "all non-public, charter, university lab and magnet schools" as well as "any dual-curriculum schools that include at least 25 percent of their enrollment as select admission students who do not live in the designated attendance zone."
"Select" schools from Classes 3A, 4A and 5A would compete in one Division I bracket, while those in 2A or 1A would form a Division II tournament.
The LHSAA's Executive Committee will continue to look into potential issues moving forward, including how to determine which "select" teams made each division's bracket and whether to split the "select" schools into three divisions rather than two.
Executive Director Kenny Henderson also referenced a pressing need to check with the Superdome, which typically hosts the association's state title games, as the association attempts to define a championship schedule.
"The first thing we've got to do is talk to the Superdome and see if that's even an option," he said. "Until we secure the Superdome, we can't speculate (on the format) … The question is probably going to be, 'Is there going to be a select night and then a 2A and 3A night on Thursday or Friday, and then 1A, 4A and 5A would probably play on Saturday."
Rumors of potential legislative involvement or legal action also began to circulate during the three-day convention.
"It's a sad day for the LHSAA," Jesuit Principal Mike Giambelluca said. "Thankfully it wasn't the major proposal that would've affected all sports, which would've been an atom bomb as far as the integrity of the playoff system, but I think this is certainly a chink in the armor, and in the experience of other Jesuit schools in other states that have gone this way, those have not turned out well in any respect.
"By having two separate playoff brackets, it reduces the integrity of both, it lessens the meaningfulness of both and it does nothing for our kids but just teach them that if things don't go your way, you can just create artificial means of awarding championships and that somehow that's gonna stand. Well life's not like that … It's just a sad day, and that's the best way I can sum it up. There's going to be so many unintended consequences of this that nobody can even anticipate. It wouldn't surprise me at all to see the state legislature get involved."
But more than enough individuals supported Griffin's plea that "it's time for a change."
The Winnfield principal referenced the LHSAA's brief switch in its basketball postseason from the old "Top 28" format.
A 2013-14 return to that setup in which girls' semifinals and finals will take place in one location with boys' semifinals and finals following suit the next week was among the other 20 proposals passed Friday morning.
And Franklin Parish Coach Barry Sebren quickly pointed out the several months ahead as an opportunity to preemptively work out as many kinks as possible with the new football system.
"It needed to be done, and we're headed in the right direction," he said. "It's not a perfect world, but I personally will work with anybody to get it as close to perfect as possible. The biggest thing is now the teams with the advantage are competing against one another, and the teams without the advantage are competing against one another.
"I don't get this notion that the association is split. The association isn't split. It's just the playoffs. The regular season is still the same, and they have the opportunity to play us in the regular season and in district and things like that. But for championship purposes, it's not feasible for us to play against teams that can go out across the lines and be able to grab athletes."
Sebren said he received a message during the meeting that new LHSAA member Franklin Community Christian School had approached some of his players about transferring.
"Coaches were coming to kids' houses," Sebren said. "They're a new member, so they may not know the specific recruiting rules, but they'll get a crash course next week. It was just ironic … But now maybe (select schools) will police each other because they know the system and know how to skirt around the rules."
Eugene Brazley made the small schools team at running back. - (Peter Forest, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
NOLA.com and The Times-Picayune have named the 2012 All-New Orleans Area small schools football team. The full team is listed below.
Duke Riley was named the Defensive Player of the Year, Jabiari Tyler the Offensive Player of the Year, and J.T. Curtis the Coach of the Year.
Those selections are examined in greater detail HERE.
All-New Orleans Area small schools football team
OFFENSE
Malachi Dupre, Curtis, WR, 6-3, 195, Jr. Not even a run-oriented option offense could mask the incredible combination of speed, skill, leaping ability and hands that this All-District 9-2A selection showcased this season. Caught 36 passes for 816 yards and 15 touchdowns while averaging 22.7 yards per reception. His 15 touchdowns ranked second on Class 2A state champions, a place normally reserved for running backs. Projects among top at his position nationally as a senior.
Raheem Falkins, Carver, WR, 6-4, 195, Sr. Two-time All-New Orleans performer, three-time All-District selection. Led the Class 2A state quarterfinalists in receiving with 47 receptions for 1,058 yards and 14 touchdowns while averaging 22.5 yards per catch. Height, hands and jumping ability also produced 13 two-point conversion catches. Alabama commitment.
Khalil Smith, McMain, WR, 5-8, 170, Sr. Diminutive, but dynamic, this All-District 10-3A selection emerged as a top playmaker in McMain’s run to a second consecutive district championship. Caught 51 passes for 1,071 yards with 13 touchdowns in nine regular-season games in his first year as a starter after transferring from Sojourner Truth. Led New Orleans area in receiving yards while averaging 21.0 yards a catch.
Micah Claiborne, West St. John, OL, 5-11, 265, Sr. This left guard was the team’s best pulling lineman. Jeremy Jackson and Kylum Favorite both eclipsed the 1,000-yard mark in the backfield.
Brandon Godfrey, Curtis, OL, 6-4, 280, Sr. Top blocker from the left tackle position in a split back veer offense that overwhelmed opposing defenses. Two-time All-New Orleans selection for two-time Class 2A state champions. Played center for two seasons before moving to left tackle midway through his junior year. Tulane commitment.
Anthony Taylor, Curtis, OL, 6-7, 320, Sr. Another two-time All-New Orleans selection for two-time Class 2A state champions. Returning All-State player as well. Three-year starter at right tackle. Helped Patriots rush for 3,500 yards and 63 touchdowns with averages of 250 yards a game and 9.0 per carry.
Richmond Jackson, Country Day, OL, 5-11, 240, Jr. Key two-way starter in the offensive and defensive lines for District 10-1A champions. All-District 10-1A selection and a player who never came off the field. Also led Cajuns in special teams tackles. Recorded 63 tackles, three sacks on defense.
Leon Smith, South Plaquemines, OL, 6-2, 270, Sr. All-District 9-2A selection who led an offensive line that paved the way for the team that averaged 39.2 points per game. Running backs Joseph Gibson and Andrew Barthelemy combined for 2,420 yards and 44 touchdowns.
Jabiari Tyler, Newman, QB, 5-9, 165, So. District 9-2A Offensive Player of the Year in his first full season as starter. Accounted for 3,097 yards and 45 touchdowns in 8½ games with his running and passing. Completed 224 of 307 passes (73.0 percent) for 2,549 yards and 36 touchdowns with six interceptions. Also rushed for 548 yards and nine touchdowns on 84 carries. Averaged 6.5 yards per carry. Set Newman single-game records for passing yards (470), total yards (622), touchdown passes (six), completions (40), passing attempts (60) and total touchdowns in a game (9); also now school record holder with 45 total touchdowns.
Sherman Badie, Curtis, RB, 5-10, 190, Sr. State’s top running back prospect and two-time All-State and All-New Orleans player. Totaled 1,106 yards in rushing and receiving while pacing the Class 2A state champions in rushing. Averaged 11.8 yard per carry with 69 attempts producing 814 yards and 16 touchdowns. Caught nine passes for 292 yards and two touchdowns for 32.4 yards per catch. Tulane commitment.
Eugene Brazley, Carver, RB, 5-11, 195, Sr. Two-time All-New Orleans player, three-time All-District selection and four-year starter for Carver team that advanced to the Class 2A state quarterfinals. Rushed for team-leading 1,182 yards and 18 touchdowns on 120 carries with 12 two-point conversions. Also caught 21 passes for 308 yards and three more touchdowns. Returned kickoff 97 yards for a score versus Curtis to record team-leading 22 touchdowns. Ole Miss commitment.
Dane Landry, Northlake Christian, Athlete, 5-11, 170, Sr. An extremely versatile and talented player, Landry was selected first team All-District 8-2A as a wide receiver and a defensive back. He finished with 35 receptions for 689 yards and eight touchdowns. He intercepted three passes on defense and returned one for a touchdown. He also was the team’s punt and kickoff returner and returned one kickoff for a touchdown.
DEFENSE
Fred Beauford, Curtis, DL, 6-1, 205, Sr. Stellar edge rusher and All-District 9-2A selection as a stand-up end in Class 2A state champions’ highly effective 50 defensive scheme. Close second to inside linebacker Duke Riley as Curtis’ top defender. Two-year starter, recorded 52 tackles with 13 tackles for losses and five sacks. Forced one forced fumble and defensed two passes.
Eric Bell, West St. John, DL, 6-3, 240, Sr. Tulane commit had six sacks, four forced fumbles, 47 tackles and 17 tackles for loss as a defensive end.
Cyle Cortez, Curtis, DL, 6-2, 260, Sr. Two-time All-District 9-2A selection and top interior lineman for a Curtis defense that recorded seven shutouts and allowed a total of 60 points, with only one opponent scoring two touchdowns. Active run stopper from defensive tackle position, recorded 86 tackles, with 19 tackles for losses, five sacks and seven QB hurries, plus one forced fumble and one fumble recovery.
Luke Jackson, St. Charles, DL, 6-3, 215, Sr. The Tulane commit led his team in sacks (13) and tackles (68) as a defensive end. He also had two blocked punts, a fumble recovery and a safety.
Duke Riley, Curtis, LB, 6-1, 205 Sr. Two-time All-New Orleans Defensive Player of the Year and two-time Class 2A All-State Defensive Most Valuable Player. Three-year starter and relentless tackler, has led Patriots in tackles in each of those seasons. Recorded 124 tackles from inside linebacker position. Riley’s numbers included 93 individual stops, 19 tackles for losses and two sacks plus one quarterback hurry, one interception, one pass defensed and two recovered fumbles. Scooped up final fumble recovery of his career and raced 80 yards for a touchdown to earn Most Outstanding Player honors for Curtis in its 35-14 state championship victory against Evangel.
Dontre Turner, West St. John, LB, 6-0, 205, Sr. Two-time All-New Orleans and Class 1A All-State selection, earned District 9-1A Defensive Player of the Year honors as a senior. Led the Rams with 107 tackles. Also had 23 tackles for losses, seven sacks, five forced fumbles, two fumble recoveries and an interception returned for a touchdown.
Eric Thomas, Curtis, LB, 5-10, 220, Sr. Yet another key prong in one of the state’s top defensive units regardless of classification. Prior to suffering a season-ending tibia fracture in a regional playoff victory at North Webster, recorded 72 tackles, with a then team-leading 18 tackles for losses, six sacks and two QB hurries. Also forced a fumble and had two passes defensed. Tulane commitment.
Richard Allen, Curtis, DB, 5-10, 185, Sr. Two-time All-New Orleans and Class 2A All-State selection, plus a top cover corner. Emerged as an extraordinary playmaker as a senior. Intercepted five passes and successfully defended 16 pass attempts while recording 34 tackles. Additionally returned five kicks for touchdowns. Tulane commitment.
Joseph Gibson, South Plaquemines, DB, 5-8, 165, Sr. When Gibson wasn’t pacing the Hurricanes’ rushing attack, he could be found on defense at either cornerback or safety leading the South Plaquemines defense. Gibson was a true every-down player including his participation on kickoffs. He finished with 45 tackles and five interceptions.
Danshawn Jenkins, De La Salle, DB, 5-11, 190, Sr. The District 10-3A Defensive Player of the Year finished with 64 tackles, four interceptions and seven pass breakups. Jenkins did all of this while making the transition to safety from linebacker, where he was an All-District selection a season ago.
Brandon Porter, Curtis, DB, 6-0, 190, Jr. Two-time All-District 9-2A selection though just a junior and another stellar Curtis defender who sometimes was overshadowed by some of his higher-profile teammates. Recorded 42 tackles as a strong safety with two tackles for losses and one sack. Intercepted one pass, had four passes defensed and recovered a fumble.
Joey Louis, Carver, Athlete, 5-11, 180, Sr. Quarterback and offensive linchpin of a Carver team that reached the Class 2A state quarterfinals. Three-time All-District selection, accounted for 3,413 yards and 40 touchdowns with his running and passing. Completed 140 of 223 passes for 2,540 yards and 30 touchdowns with just seven interceptions. Rushed 137 times for 873 yards and 10 touchdowns and four two-point conversions. Also played defensive back and returned kicks.
SPECIALISTS
Patrick Juneau, St. Charles, P, 5-11, 190, Jr. A two-year starter, averaged 39.4 yards per punt, including a season-best of 53 yards. None of his 23 punts were blocked.
Jackson Jansen, Country Day, PK, 6-0, 185, Jr. District 10-1A Defensive Player of the Year as a linebacker, who doubled as Cajuns place-kicker. Was successful on six of eight field goal attempts with a long of 43 yards; also kicked 45 of 53 PATs. Recorded 97 tackles at linebacker.
Jeremy Jackson, West St. John, Return specialist, 5-9, 165, Jr. West St. John's Mr. Versatility combined for 430 yards on kickoffs and punt returns, including two kickoff returns for touchdowns. The longest score, 84 yards, came in a second-round playoff game against WhiteCastle . He also rushed for 1,194 yards and 13 touchdowns in a season that ended in the Class 1A semifinals.
Louis finished the game with 246 yards passing and three touchdown tosses
November 25, 2012
Evangel's Javin Webb scores six TDs, ends Carver's underdog run
Nick Stillman, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune, November 24, 2012 10:15 p.m.
Jared Cornelius (1) of Evangel makes a one-handed 23-yard catch to set up a touchdown during the playoff game between Evangel and Carver at Pan American Stadium on Saturday, November 24, 2012. - (Michael DeMocker, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
Nigel Fagbeyiro (4) of Evangel breaks up a pass in the end zone intended for Carver wide receiver Raheem Falkins (12) during the playoff game betweenEvangel and Carver at Pan American Stadium on Saturday, November 24, 2012. - (Michael DeMocker, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
No. 26-ranked Carver’s underdog romp through the Class 2A playoffs finally came to an end Saturday night at Pan American stadium, where the Eagles lost to second-seeded Evangel in the quarterfinals, 62-26.
This is the second straight year Evangel has eliminated Carver from the playoffs. The Eagles will advance to play No. 3 University Lab next Friday.
Evangel’s senior running back Javin Webb was a one-man wrecking crew, running for five touchdowns and adding a 56-yard touchdown reception for good measure.
Webb racked up 196 yards of total offense and scored all but three of his team’s nine touchdowns.
Coming into the game, Carver wide receiver and Alabama commitment Raheem Falkins was tabbed as the marquee offensive player in the contest, but Webb stole the show.
“He was excellent. He was unbelievable,” a visibly disappointed Falkins said. “They all played good, really; I wish them all the luck.”
Falkins caught seven passes for two touchdowns and 106 yards, but the Rams’ high-flying passing attack never quite got off the ground against a tough Eagles defense that sacked quarterback Joey Louis four times and pressured him constantly.
To make matters worse for Louis, in the fourth quarter, a hit knocked him out of the game and left his right throwing arm in a sling.
“I’ll be going to Tulane (Medical) after this,” said Louis, who added his concern that he may have a broken right elbow. The injury was sustained when two defenders hit his arm simultaneously and from different angles while he was throwing.
Louis finished the game with 246 yards passing and three touchdown tosses, but found himself playing catch-up football almost immediately.
Evangel scored touchdowns on all of its first-quarter possessions, grabbing a commanding 27-6 lead by the end of the quarter.
Webb capped Evangel’s first drive with a five-yard touchdown run. On their next drive, he caught a short pass over the middle on their first play from scrimmage and ran 56 yards for a touchdown to give the Eagles a quick 13-0 advantage.
On the first play of Carver’s ensuing series, Louis was hit as he dropped back and fumbled. Evangel’s John Michael Boswell recovered at the nine-yard line and set up Webb for a touchdown run on the next play.
With more than half of the first quarter remaining, the Rams found themselves quickly down 20-0.
“Yeah, it did spiral,” Louis said when asked whether it felt like the game slipped away early. “We had so many things go wrong. You know, they’re big, they’re strong, but we could have played better.”
Falkins agreed. “This just… didn’t go our way right from the start,” he said.
On Carver’s ensuing drive, Falkins made a crucial first-down catch and later caught a 16-yard touchdown ball from Louis to cap the drive, but Evangel seemed to have all the answers whenever the Rams threatened to claw back into the game.
On the Eagles’ next drive, Trent Taylor made an incredible juggling catch for a 17-yard play, and Webb handled things from there, running the ball in for a 25-yard touchdown.
The play made it 27-6 in the first quarter, and when Taylor caught a seven-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Dakota Duron with just under a minute remaining in the first half to boost the Eagles’ lead to 34-6, the game already seemed out of reach for Carver.
Taylor had 99 yards receiving. Jared Cornelius led Evangel with 103 yard receiving and a touchdown catch of his own.
Duron finished with 281 yards passing and three touchdown passes.
Carver had upset South Plaquemines and Catholic New Iberia to advance to the quarterfinals against the Eagles.
Despite his injury, Louis seemed like he was in no rush to leave the field.
“I want to be remembered as someone who played with heart,” he said. “I want to be remembered as someone who loves this game. There are so many other reasons to play the game, but I’m telling you, I play this game because I love it."
Carver's Raheem Falkin, an Alabama commitment, has wreaked havoc on opposing defenses in the playoffs.
When glancing at the scoreboard Saturday night at Pan American Stadium, where No. 23-seeded Carver is host to No. 2-seeded Evangel in the Class 2A quarterfinals, don’t be surprised if the digits displayed look less like a gridiron affair and more like an NBA halftime score.
The Rams, fresh off an upset shellacking of No.7-seeded Catholic New Iberia 62-37 in last week’s regionals, are ready for the perennial powerhouse Eagles: a team, much like their own, that gets downright offensive.
“Oh, there’s a lot more we could do,” senior quarterback Joey Louis said. “There were a lot of opportunities we left out there on the field (against New Iberia); A lot of drives we just didn’t score — there’s just so much more we could have done.”
That’s a scary proposition for a team that scored a season-high 68 points in an instant-classic shootout loss to Newman 72-68 earlier this season. The Rams have posted 36 points or more in eight games this season and 50 points or more four times.
The Eagles travel to New Orleans on a seven-game winning streak and are averaging 45 points per game.
Evangel senior quarterback Dakota Duron leads 2A in passing with 3,358 yards. He also has thrown for 36 touchdowns and has a 70-percent completion percentage. His two main receivers, senior Trent Taylor (14 touchdowns) and junior Jared Cornelius (17 touchdowns), each enter with more than 1,200 receiving yards.
The Carver offense is no slouch.
Senior Raheem Falkins, an Alabama commitment, has 40 receptions for 952 yards and 12 touchdowns. His receiving cohort, junior Nigel Veal, has nearly 500 receiving yards and 11 touchdowns, with three kickoff returns for scores.
Then there’s the dynamic, quick-cutting senior tailback Eugene Brazley who has 22 touchdowns and 1,482 yards from scrimmage. Brazley, who is holding to his commitment to Ole Miss despite a recent controversy over an alleged racially insensitive Obama campus protest, says the Rebels offense is a perfect transition for his skill set.
“I’m still firmly committed to Ole Miss; I talked to the coaches about the situation, and they said there’s just a whole misunderstanding about it,” he said. “I categorize my running style as that of a home run hitter. I just take one cut then go. ... This offense really helps me going into Ole Miss because they kind of do the same thing we do here.”
For Louis, who has more than 3,000 yards combined rushing and passing and 37 touchdowns against six interceptions, the success of the Rams’ offense comes from the players’ collective growth together as teammates.
“All my guys know coverages, from the receivers to the running backs to my great offensive line, we know the defense,” he said. “We know right at the snap of the ball to get our preset reads because we’ve been practicing the majority of the time together since we were freshmen, so we know the coverages.”
Carver’s defense deserves credit, too. Just ask defensive tackle Sebastian Polk, who said this game is “payback” for the 61-0 thumping Evangel put on Carver in the bidistrict round last season.
“We had 62 points last week,” he said. “But the defense had like six interceptions, a couple sacks and some fumbles, so it was those defensive turnovers that put us in good positions to score.”
Last week, Evangel defeated Rosepine 41-14. The winner of this game will face the winner of University Lab and Calvary Baptist in next week’s semifinals.
Evangel Coach Phil Peas, whose team last hoisted the 2A championship trophy in 2010, views this year’s Rams as a world apart from the 2011 version.
“Carver is so explosive on offense,” he said. “We’ve been telling our guys we have to focus on this year’s team and not last year’s. I think the biggest difference from last year is how they are playing upfront, so they pose a lot of problems for us.”
Carver carves up New Iberia 62-35
November 16, 2012
Carver carves up New Iberia 62-35
Hank Brady, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune, November 16, 2012 11:28 p.m.
Carver's Travis Curtis strikes a pose as the Rums muscle their way over Catholic-New Iberia 62-35 at Pan American Stadium on Friday night. - (Hank Brady, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
In a game that began as an offensive showdown No. 23 seed Carver, ignited by a 28-0 third-quarter run, put down seventh-seeded Catholic-New Iberia 62-35 in the regional round of the Class 2A playoffs Friday night at Pan American Stadium.
Carver will face its toughest challenge of the season Friday in perennial Class 2A championship contender Evangel Christian at Pan American Stadium.
Catholic-New Iberia started fast, converting two fourth downs on an opening drive that went 80 yards in 15 plays. Quarterback Joe Lissard found wide receiver Gabriel Fuselier for a 15 yard touchdown catch in the back of the end zone to go on top 7-0.
On the ensuing kickoff the Panthers got another great opportunity as Carver failed to field the kick, which landed untouched at the 28-yard line. The Panthers recovered and two plays later Jared Bullock scored on a perfectly placed 13-yard touchdown pass from Lissard to increase the lead to 14-0.
Midway through the first quarter Carver, which won its first post-Hurricane Katrina playoff game last week against South Plaquemines, woke up as quarterback Joey Louis led his team on a six-play, 65-yard touchdown drive and found Kendrick Day on a 20-yard strike.The conversion failed, but the Rams closed to 14-6.
After the Panthers scored yet again to go up 21-8, the Rams went on a two-play, 64-yard drive that culminated in Louis' scamper for an 8-yard touchdown.
Carver added two more scores in a furious second quarter when running back Eugene Brazley, an Ole Miss commitment, scored on a 7-yard touchdown run to lift the Rams to a 28-21 lead at the half.
“We just believed and had faith in God,” Brazley said. “We always practice hard, and Coach always tells us we should practice how we play. So that’s what we did.”
Carver came out strong in the second half and on its first possession went on a five-play, 51-yard drive that culminated with a 20-yard touchdown pass from Louis to Raheem Falkins.
On the Panthers' next possession they drove it all the way to the Rams’ 1-yd line, but Carver defensive back Calvin Johnson came up with an interception in the end zone. Two plays later with the score 35-21, Louis ran a quarterback keeper and fumbled but incredibly the ball caromed into the hands of wide receiver Nigel Veal, who took the gift 75 yards for a momentum-crushing touchdown.
“We’re just so excited,” Louis said. “Everybody predicted us to lose, and we came out and showed everyone that’s it not just about one (player), it’s about the whole team.”
Joseph Ceasar
November 14, 2012
Joseph Ceasar died on November 6, 2012. He was a graduate of G. W. Carver High School class of 1970. He was a member of the Rams football team from 1967 to 1969. He is pictured above (#53) playing in the last regular season football game of the Louisiana Interscholastic Athletic and Literary Organization. The LIALO was the Black high school football league in Louisiana and this was the last regular season game played in the history of the league on November 15, 1969; 43 years ago. Joseph Ceasar had a career night in this rivalry game against the Clark Bulldogs. Joseph played both linebacker and cornerback positions for the Rams in this game and he along with the Rams defense held Wilbert Smith, an all american RB to one score. He blocked a punt which help setup the Rams first touchdown in the game. He went on to intercept a pass returning it deep into Clark's territory to setup another Rams touchdown. Joseph was one of the captains of the team along with Peter Smith and Reginald Harris under head coach Mckee. The LIALO no longer existed after this football season because of intergration of sports in Louisiana.
Carver avenges regular-season loss to South Plaquemines with decisive victory
November 11, 2012
Carver avenges regular-season loss to South Plaquemines with decisive victory
Lyons Yellin, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune, November 09, 2012 11:50 p.m.
Carver quarterback Joey Louis was disappointed in his team’s "selfish and uninspired" effort in a loss against South Plaquemines two weeks ago and was thrilled to have the opportunity to avenge a defeat that he called “the worst of his career.”
Louis stayed up until the early hours of Friday morning, calling many of his teammates to make sure they were prepared for the Rams' playoff opener.
And while Louis declined to disclose most of the details of the conversations, he did reveal that he and wide receiver Raheem Falkins discussed how they were going to exploit the Hurricanes' defense.
The chat clearly paid off.
Falkins, an Alabama commitment, had four receptions for 200 yards and two touchdowns all within the first 14 minutes to lead the Rams to a convincing 36-12 bi-district victory Friday at South Plaquemines.
“Last game we seen that they had a weakness in the pass defense and we’re a good passing team, so we was ready to put the ball in the air,” Falkins said. “The other players weren’t selfish and understood what we had to do and we did it.”
In the regular-season matchup, the Rams offense struggled through the first three quarters, scoring only 12 points en route to losing 36-34. Their goal Friday was to score on the first drive.
“The first time we played them we didn’t score on the first drive so we knew what we had to do,” Falkins said. “We corrected our mistakes and we came out and was ready to go.”
The Hurricanes were close to thwarting the Rams' plan. But twice on third-and-long, Falkins bailed his team out. First with an 8-yard grab, and then, on the subsequent third down, he made a 54-yard catch over the middle that ended at the 1-yard line.
Two plays later, running back Eugene Brazley pushed the pile into the end zone and after Falkins converted a two-point conversion, the Rams led 8-0.
“It was big,” Louis said about Falkins’ third-down receptions. “I kept my head downfield and when they pushed me out of the pocket, I found Raheem. That’s my guy, that’s my big guy.”
After Carver’s opening drive, the teams traded possesions for the remainder of the quarter. But as soon as the second began, Carver blew the game open, scoring 16 points in 1:13.
After all-purpose athlete Joseph Gibson led South Plaquemines on a nine-play, 45-yard drive, only to be stopped on the 1-yard line, Louis hit Falkins on a post route that went for 79 yards to the end zone. Brazley added the two-point conversion to extend the Rams’ lead to 16-0.
“We needed a stop, and we got a great push that the offense then capitalized on,” linebacker Keanon Scott said.
A subsequent snap over the quarterback’s head went through the back of the end zone for a safety and increased Carver's lead to 18-0.
After the ensuing free kick, Carver took over on the Hurricane’s 37 and immediately went to Falkins in the back corner of the end zone for his second touchdown.
Trailing 24-0, the Hurricanes continued to fight. Gibson, who finished with 29 carries for 189 yards and a touchdown, tried to single-handedly bring his team back.
South Plaquemines was most effective with Gibson guiding the “Wildcat” offense, which scored its final points as the first half expired with the score 24-12.
“I just wish I could have done more,” Gibson said, tearfully coming to grips with the end of his high school career. “I wanted this one. I know I could have done more.”
The Rams put the game out of reach with a 96-yard punt return by Romalas Walker in the third quarter and a 71-yard run by Brazley in the fourth.
“There are a lot of great teams in New Orleans, but I feel like my guys are the best,” Louis said. “We came together when we needed to and we look forward to playing whoever we have to. We gonna enjoy this for six hours and then get back at it. “
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Lyons Yellin can be reached at Lyellin@nola.com or 504.826.3405 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 504.826.3405end_of_the_skype_highlighting. Follow him at twitter.com/LyonsYellin.
Carver running back Eugene Brazley wavering on commitment to Ole Miss after racially-charged Obama p
November 10, 2012
Carver running back Eugene Brazley wavering on commitment to Ole Miss after racially-charged Obama protest
Lyons Yellin, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune, November 10, 2012 1:20 p.m.
A once solid commitment to the University of Mississippi, Carver running back Eugene Brazley, who on Feb. 25 pledged to play for the Rebels next season, is now having serious doubts.
Shortly after Carver’s 36-12 victory over South Plaquemines Friday in the bi-district round of the state playoffs, Brazley expressed concern with the predilection for racism in Oxford, Miss., and said he is now “looking around” and could decommit.
“Some of my people told me they had a riot because of (President Barack) Obama, and some of the players might be decommitting,” Brazley said. “I hadn’t really had a chance to look into it, but I’m gonna get in to it, though.
“I’m definitely looking at Arizona State right now and want to go check them out.”
Just after midnight, Wednesday, Nov. 7, University of Mississippi students gathered on campus near the Student Union to protest the re-election of Obama. The impromptu gathering, which reportedly began with 30-40 students and quickly grew to over 400, included appalling displays of racial intolerance and bigotry, with students yelling epithets and burning Obama-Biden campaign signs.
Campus police who arrived on the scene immediately instructed the students to disperse and return to their residence halls. Officers made two arrests for disorderly conduct (public intoxication and failure to comply with police orders).
Initial reports on Twitter labeled the protest a ”riot” and photos of the burning campaign sign quickly spread through Facebook, Instagram and other social media outlets.
University of Mississippi Chancellor Dan Jones said that social media was largely responsible for the protest’s escalation and refuted the characterization that it was a riot.
“Unfortunately, early news reports quoted social media comments that were inaccurate,” he said. “Too, some photographs published in social media portrayed events that police did not observe on campus. Nevertheless, the reports of uncivil language and shouted racial epithets appear to be accurate and are universally condemned by the university, student leaders and the vast majority of students who are more representative of our university creed.”
Jones attempted to re-assure parents and students that “one of America’s safest campuses is safe again this morning, though all of us are ashamed of the few students who have negatively affected the reputations of each of us and of our university.”
Brazley said he is keeping his options open, but would prefer to play closer to home in a conference that helps him achieve his ultimate goal of an NFL career.
“I would love to play in the SEC because I feel like that is right next to the NFL,” he said. “They have the best players and the toughest conference, so that’s definitely where I’d rather be.”
Brazley has rushed for over 1,000 yards this season, and is on NOLA.com and The Times-Picayune’s Top 200 prospect list. In addition to Mississippi, he holds offers from Tennessee, Memphis and Southern Mississippi
Carver running back Eugene Brazley re-affirms commitment to Ole Miss despite anti-Obama demonstration
Lyons Yellin, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune, November 13, 2012 7:05 p.m.
When Carver running back Eugene Brazley initially heard reports about the appalling displays of racial intolerance and bigotry that occurred during the impromptu protest of President Barack Obama’s re-election, just after midnight on Nov. 7 on the University of Mississippi’s campus in Oxford, Miss., he expressed concern and began to reconsider attending next year.
However, after conversations with coach Hugh Freeze and assistant Grant Heard, Brazley has re-affirmed his commitment to play for the Rebels.
“I’m 100 percent committed,” Brazley said. “I looked in to it and it wasn’t no riot and none of the players are decommitting. Racism isn’t just in Mississippi — it’s all over the world. There were just a few people in my ear about the whole situation. I said I was gonna look into it, and I did. ”
Brazley first became aware the demonstration prior to last Friday’s bi-district playoff win at South Plaquemines and said he was shocked and disappointed by the reports of anti-Obama riots that included students burning a campaign sign and shouting racial epithets.
Upon returning to New Orleans, Brazley began to investigate the reports and sought the council of family and friends.
“My mom told me to look in to it and then we talked about it (Monday) night,” Brazley said. “She said she’s good with the whole situation now.”
In the days since the incident, social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have been widely blamed for escalation of the protest, which began with 30-40 students and grew to over 400, as well as its initial characterization as a riot. Both Freeze, and the university’s chancellor, Dan Jones, have been critical of media outlets for promulgating the social media reports.
“In the thirty or so kids that gathered to do whatever they were going to call that, which by the way happened at a lot of places across the nation and not just at Ole Miss,” Freeze said. “I’m very disappointed in our local media that took upon themselves to run with it and make it into something it wasn’t. We are our own worst enemy when we do those kind of things. It’s not, in my opinion, proper journalism and that’s frustrating.”
Brazley is glad to have resolved the protest issue and has since turned his attention to Carver’s regional playoff matchup with Catholic-New Iberia on Friday.
“It felt kind of bad because I never thought of Ole Miss like that,” he said. “Every time I’ve ever been up there I’ve never had a situation that made me feel like that. I’ve haven’t had any problems or any conflicts so I just wanted to check into it and make sure it is OK because that’s where I’m gonna be in college for four years, so I gotta make sure it’s OK.
“I was kinda shocked by it, but now I feel like it was a whole misunderstanding. We got it cleared up and everything is fine now.”
Brazley is appreciative of the support from Ole Miss fans since his commitment in February and said he plans to return on Nov. 24 for the Mississippi State game.
“I like it up there,” he said. “It’s a nice campus and the fans are really into the football team….and the fans said they was ready for me to get up there.”
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Lyons Yellin can be reached at Lyellin@nola.com or 504.826.3405 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 504.826.3405end_of_the_skype_highlighting. Follow him at twitter.com/LyonsYellin
Carver's playoff rematch with South Plaquemines evokes LSU-Alabama comparisons
Lyons Yellin, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune, November 08, 2012 6:41 p.m.
The Oct. 26 Carver at South Plaquemines game wasn’t billed the “Game of the Century,” as was the Nov. 5, 2011 LSU at Alabama game that ended with the Crimson Tide losing a heartbreaker, 9-6, in overtime. Carver, nevertheless, had the same type of unpalatable taste in its mouths after its stinging 36-34 loss — one that remains to this day.
“That South Plaquemines game haunts me,” four-year starting quarterback Joey Louis said. “It was by far the worst loss of my career.”
Like Alabama, Carver never dreamed it would get a redemptive opportunity.
But just 14 days later, on the same field, against the same District 9-2A opponent, the Rams have a chance to hit the reset button on their season. Carver will have 48 minutes to redeem itself, find peace of mind and most importantly, advance to the second round of the state playoffs.
“It’s just like that (second) LSU-Alabama game from last year,” Carver wide receiver and Crimson Tide commitment Raheem Falkins said about Friday’s rematch.
“The football gods givin’ us another chance to play those guys,” said Louis, who was 15-of-26 for 232 yards, four touchdowns, one interception, and 95 yards rushing in the loss. “I feel like I left some things out on the field. I feel like it’s gonna be a different game this time and I’m just focused on going up there and playing those guys."
“It’s a perfect way to start the playoffs and show everybody what football is all about and that we ain’t no joke.”
Louis, the unquestioned leader on a talent-rich team, has squarely placed the blame for the earlier loss on his shoulders. He took full responsibility for the team’s lackluster offense showing that he said was the product of selfish and uninspired play.
“We had a team meeting and we came together and woke up,” he said. “I’m not blaming anyone else. I’m the quarterback and it all starts with me. But I feel like if I would have made some throws and hit the wide open targets, it would have been a totally different game.”
Against South Plaquemines, the Rams offense, which typically presents matchup nightmares for opposing defenses, was stagnant during the first three quarters, scoring just 12 points. And despite a furious 22-point fourth quarter comeback, in which the offense finally came to life, the Rams were outgained 357 yards to 343.
Carver believes the loss was its own doing and that the mistakes have been corrected in the interim, thus giving the Rams a metal edge that will ensure a victory.
The Hurricanes, however, have a prospective that is diametrically opposed.
“They are going to be thinking just like Alabama did (against LSU before the BCS National Championship game),” South Plaquemines running back/defensive back Andre Barthelemy said. “They think they can beat us, but we know we can beat them. We already proved it.”
There is no doubt that Carver will come out fast and try to make a statement early, Barthelemy said.
“We just need to do what we did last time and jump on them early,” he said. “We want to get out to an early lead so they won’t be able to come back.”
Carver linebacker Keanon Scott said the defense is better prepared to stop the Hurricanes potent “Wildcat” rushing attack.
“The only reason they jumped out fast is because the linebackers weren’t reading our keys right,” he said. “Also, the linemen weren’t getting the proper push we needed.”
The Rams defense plans to force the Hurricanes out of their comfort zone by stacking the box with an extra defender and forcing them to throw. In the last meeting the Hurricanes attempted only two passes, both of which fell incomplete.
John Curtis employed the same defensive stategy last week in a 50-0 thrashing of the Hurricanes.
“We’re ready,” Louis said. “They are a great team and we are a great team and the good thing is that the best team is gonna come out on top Friday.”
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Lyons Yellin can be reached at Lyellin@nola.com or 504.826.3405 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 504.826.3405end_of_the_skype_highlighting. Follow him at twitter.com/LyonsYellin
South Plaquemines holds off late charge from Carver in 36-34 victory
October 26, 2012 – 10:28 PM
South Plaquemines holds off late charge from Carver in 36-34 victory
Andrew Lopez, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune, October 26, 2012 10:50 p.m.
There were two different team huddles after the game in South Plaquemines on Friday night.
One team was exhausted, yet jubilant. The other squad walked off the field trying to figure out how to fix things with one week remaining in the regular season.
South Plaquemines topped Carver 36-34 despite a late rally by the Rams that included 22 fourth-quarter points. Hurricanes running back Andrew Barthelemy recovered an onside kick with eight seconds remaining to seal the victory and keep South Plaquemines undefeated in District 9-2A.
Barthelemy, who was drained from playing offense and defense the entire game, saw the onside kick coming his way and fell on the ball to finish off what he called perhaps “the biggest game of his life” as the Hurricanes (7-1, 4-0) will host John Curtis next week in a de facto district championship game.
“I didn’t know what was going on, but I just knew I had to cover up that ball,” Barthelemy said. “We’re going to go in the weight room, hit the weights hard and come out and practice hard for next week.”
Barthelemy and Joseph Gibson combined for 301 yards and five touchdowns to lead the South Plaquemines rushing attack. Barthelemy finished with 11 carries for 174 yards and three touchdowns, while Gibson had 21 rushes for 127 yards and two touchdowns. The biggest run of the night for each player may have been the last ones they had.
After Carver (5-3, 2-2) cut the lead to 28-26, South Plaquemines faced a third-and-6 from its 49-yard line. Gibson found a hole on the left side and rushed 39 yards. Two plays later, Barthelemy ran in from 7 yards out to push the Hurricanes' lead to eight points. Gibson’s run on the two-point conversion increased the lead to 36-26.
“My team calls on me to make big plays, and I just tried to go out there and do what I do best and get in the end zone,” Gibson said.
Rams quarterback Joey Louis connected with Raheem Falkins on a 26-yard touchdown pass to bring Carver within two. On the two-point conversion, Louis scrambled and dove for the pylon but the official ruled that he was down before the ball crossed the plane of the goal line.
Louis finished 15-of-26 for 232 yards and four touchdowns and rushed for 95 yards.
“The offense started off slow and that all starts with me,” Louis said. “I came out flat. I have to do better. My team is going to go as far as I go. If I wouldn’t have came out so flat we would have been all right. I take this loss though; this loss is on me.”
The senior quarterback said that the team has some issues it needs to fix but knows that the Rams can bounce back.
"We have to clean up the mistakes and get rid of the errors and we’re going to be all right,” Louis said. “We have to work hard and listen to the coaches. If we stop being selfish, then we can go a far way.”
Louis completed a 41-yard pass to Falkins with nine seconds remaining then ran in the two-point conversion, but Barthelemy’s recovery of the onside kick ended any chance of a miracle comeback.
Falkins finished with five receptions for 102 yards and three touchdowns. Nigel Veal led the team with seven catches and finished with 78 yards and had an 11-yard touchdown catch early in the fourth quarter. Rams running back Eugene Brazley struggled to get going on the ground, finishing with 11 carries for 30 yards.
For South Plaquemines, Barthelemy and Gibson were able to carry the offense on a night when quarterback Dominic Henry wasn’t able to get going. Henry finished with 13 carries for 42 yards. Hurricanes Coach Cedric Figaro said one of the benefits of having three good ball carriers is that a team can sometimes afford for one of them to have an off night.
“When one guy isn’t functioning, usually those other two will come through for us,” Figaro said. “Barthelemy had a great game tonight, and Joe did too.”
Now, the attention shifts to Curtis next week. While Figaro had plenty of praise for the Patriots, he said his team will be up to the challenge.
“Just to be mentioned with those guys for a district championship is an honor,” Figaro said. They are a major program, and it’s a privilege to play them for the championship at our place.”
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Andrew Lopez can be reached at alopez@nola.com or 504.220.4086. Follow him at twitter.com/alopez_nola.
Joey Louis leads Carver to 46-43 homecoming win over Riverside
October 21, 2012
Joey Louis leads Carver to 46-43 homecoming win over Riverside Brendan Twist, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune, October 20, 2012 11:11 p.m.
Quarterback Joey Louis threw three touchdowns passes and ran for two more scores to lead Carver to a wild 46-43 win over Riverside on Saturday night. The senior wowed Carver’s homecoming crowd with 298 passing yards and 67 rushing yards in a back-and-forth game that featured nine lead changes.
“It was a good win, a physical win,” Louis said. “We did well on offense moving the ball. It was a battle. My coaches told me to keep my head in the game, and that’s exactly what I did – stayed focused. My team will go as far as I go, so as long as I’m in the game, they’re in the game.”
Riverside quarterback Deuce Wallace was the game’s other star, throwing for 326 yards and three touchdowns to go along with two goalline rushing scores.
Following a safety that drew them within three points, Riverside started at Carver’s 43-yard-line with 2:01 to play in the fourth quarter. But on a fourth-and-seven play, Wallace threw a ball to receiver Von Julian that was caught out of bounds, and the celebration began at Carver.
“It’s a big win,” said Carver Coach Byron Addison. “For homecoming, people come from out of town. These are Carver traditions. It’s unbelievable for the fans and the kids.”
On their first series of the game, Carver managed to overcome four penalties for 30 yards. Eugene Brazley capped the six-minute drive with a 7-yard touchdown run.
Then on their third offensive play of the game, Riverside fumbled a handoff that was recovered by Carver defensive back Jerome Smith. Moments later, Louis hit Nigel Veal with a 23-yard touchdown pass to give the Rams a 12-0 with 4:47 to play in the first quarter.
That was the biggest lead that either team would enjoy. Riverside answered less than two minutes later when Wallace hit Jonquial Sanders in stride for a 51-yard touchdown pass down the middle of the field.
On the next series, Brazley fumbled and Riverside’s Brandon Ralser recovered. On the ensuing play, the first of the second quarter, Sanders bounced a run outside to the left sideline for a 32-yard touchdown. Riverside led 14-12; they’d been scoreless just four minutes earlier.
Then the shootout began in earnest. Louis’s primary targets were Alabama commitment Raheem Falkins, who caught seven balls for 143 yards and two scores, and Veal, who added five catches for 98 yards and a touchdown.
On the ground, Carver’s Brazley, an Ole Miss commitment, ran 19 times for 127 yards, a 6.68 yards-per-carry average. He scored on runs of 7 and 47 yards.
“It was a great game,” Brazley said. “They hit hard. But we played harder and got the win. We didn’t give up, we finished, and that’s what I liked.”
Brazley admitted there’s added pressure when it feels like the offense has to score every time it takes the field.
“It’s crazy. Your head aches,” he said. “You feel like every time you touch it… I can’t explain it. It’s just crazy.”
For Riverside, standouts included Julian (nine catches for 112 yard and a touchdown) and Sanders (44 yards rushing, 76 yards receiving).
Late in the third quarter, Riverside’s JaJuan Bell fumbled at the end of a 20-yard carry in Carver territory. On the next play, Louis hit Carlius Joseph for a 52-yard pass. On the following play, Riverside’s Trent Fey caused a sack fumble and recovered the ball. That exchange exemplified the seesaw nature of the game.
Ultimately, Louis’s performance made the difference in a dogfight that could’ve gone either way.
“Joey’s performance tonight, I have to commend him,” Addison said. “I asked him to do a lot of things: run the ball, cover their top wide receiver. That’s a lot to ask of a kid and expect him to perform at a high level.
“He’s the leader,” he continued. “At practice, in the weight room, he’s the leader on and off the field. He doesn’t just turn it on for game night.”
Marshall Faulk presented "Hometown Hall of Famers" plaque at Carver High School
October 17, 2012
Marshall Faulk presented "Hometown Hall of Famers" plaque at Carver High School
10/17/12 5:36PM
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Flag Post Katherine Terrell, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune Marshall Faulk put on his gold jacket, stepped up to the podium and found himself staring at a sea of faces much like himself 20 years ago. The former running back received the jacket in 2011 as a symbol of him receiving football's highest honor, induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.
On Wednesday, miles from Canton and a year removed from his enshrinement, Faulk braved the Louisiana heat for one more recognition.
The New Orleans native received a plaque in a ceremony at Carver High School put on by the Pro Football Hall of Fame and Allstate Insurance. The ceremony was part of the "Hometown Hall of Famers" program, which honors the roots of Hall of Fame players.
Pro Football Hall of Famer Marshall Faulk unveils a plaque dedicated in his honor at his old high school, Carver, on Wednesday.
Matthew Hinton, NOLA.com / The Times-Picayune Faulk played several sports at Carver before accepting a football scholarship to San Diego State. He was selected by the Indianapolis Colts with the No. 2 pick of the 1994 NFL draft, and played for them for five seasons, before spending seven years with the St. Louis Rams.
Faulk went to two Super Bowls with the Rams and finished his career as a seven-time Pro Bowler and three-time All Pro selection.
Faulk spoke briefly to a group of students assembled at the school, many of them football players wearing green and orange Carver jerseys.
Faulk said it was ironic he went into the Hall of Fame for his accomplishments as a Ram, because Carver's mascot is also a ram.
"My career started off as a Ram," he said to applause from the crowd.
Faulk spoke about his beginnings at Carver, attributing much of his success to his family and football coach Wayne Reese, who taught him the value of teamwork, he said.
Faulk said he thinks he could have made all-state as a running back, but Reese had him play multiple positions, including quarterback, wide receiver and cornerback.
Faulk also spoke about how fortunate he felt to be in his position, considering the road he took to get there. He mentioned a phrase his late father used to tell him often.
Marshall Faulk donates a Hall of Fame Plaque to Carver High School
NFL Hall of Famer Marshall Faulk donates a Hall of Fame Plaque to Carver High School in New Orleans
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"It hasn't always been the best road traveled," he said. "I hit some speed bumps along the way. But my philosophy is that if you travel without speed bumps, you'll hit a dead end."
Faulk advised the students to never stop believing in their dreams.
"You can't let your environment dictate who you are," he said. "No one can predict your future. You can create your own future."
Faulk said while he spoke to the students, his mind flashed back to how he felt at that age.
"(I was) wondering how special this is for them, because I know when we had assemblies like this, it was maybe a police officer or some fireman," he said. "Now they have a person like myself who grew up in their environment who has accomplished some great feats that they can identify with."
Faulk's longtime friend and agent Rocky Arceneaux, who introduced him at his Hall of Fame ceremony, presented him with his plaque.
Arceaneaux spoke about Faulk's love for New Orleans and his high school, recalling a story that occurred in the early years of their relationship. After Faulk signed an endorsement deal with Nike that was one of the most lucrative at the time, he called Arceaneaux to tell him he wanted one more thing.
"He said he wasn't happy," Arceneaux said. "He wanted to help his high school."
Several weeks later, Nike trailers pulled up to Carver to deliver new shoes and uniforms to the football team.
"He will always be a New Orleanian," Arceneaux said.
Carver turns in a dominating performance, rips Clark 58-0
October 12, 2012
Carver turns in a dominating performance, rips Clark 58-0
Lyons Yellin, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune, October 12, 2012 5:55 p.m.
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Carver celebrating its lopsided victory over Clark. - (Lyons Yellin, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)Carver, a team loaded with talent, demonstrated its superiority in every facet of the game vs. Clark in a District 10-3A game Friday afternoon at Pan American Stadium.
Complete, well-rounded performances in which a team’s offense, defense and special teams are firing on all cylinders are rare at any level. But it’s exactly the type of performance Carver turned in on its way to a 58-0 shellacking of Clark.
“It was good to come out and get this win after losing two in a row (to Newman and John Curtis),” Carver Coach Byron Addison said. “The kids have been working hard. We were just trying to get those losses out of our mouth. The kids responded well and we’re just trying to get better every day.”
The Rams' first points came just 16 seconds into the game. After declining an illegal procedure penalty that forced the Bulldogs to re-kick from the 35, Nigel Veal took the opening kickoff back 80 yards, weaving his way through the coverage team and up the right sideline to the end zone.
“My coaches working on that kickoff return all week.” Addison said. “We knew it was going to be there because we get out and scout. We saw something in the film and had that return on.
"We saw we could probably return one and we did.”
The Bulldogs (1-6, 1-3) tried not to let the opening kickoff return unnerve them but were clearly flustered, and their disappointment was evident until the game ended.
After going just three yards in seven plays on its first offensive possession, Clark was forced to punt. Four plays later, Carver (4-2, 2-2) was in the end zone for the second time in quarter. Joey Louis connected with Veal for a 15-yard touchdown.
“Offensively , I kind of know what we are going to do,” Addison said. “I’m just trying to do the small things right and score as many ways as we can because sometimes the offense isn’t clicking like it was today. We won’t always have a punt return and a kickoff return (for touchdowns).”
The Rams' offense was explosive, scoring all of its points in the first three quarters, on its way to 249 total yards.
Eugene Brazley, an Ole Miss commitment, led the rushing attack for the Rams, scoring on runs of 3, 1 and 28 yards. He finished with 13 attempts for 148 yards, averaging 11.4 yards per carry.
The Rams' usually effective passing attack was quiet, and receiver Raheem Falkins, an Alabama commitment, was used mostly on two-point conversions. When the Rams threw his way, the Bulldogs were unable to defend the 6-foot-5 receiver, who caught two conversions by using his large frame to go up over the smaller defenders.
“When you have a kid like Raheem Falkins -- he was quiet today -- you got to like the kid’s attitude, he is all about the team,” Addison said. “He felt like we could run the ball, and never came to the sideline and said that he wanted the ball. He knows there are going to be games where we call his number. Today he just really showed what a team player he is.”
Carver’s defense held Clark to just 58 yards. The Bulldogs didn’t cross midfield until 8:50 left in the game, at which point Addison had removed his starters.
“Those guys just feel like they have a chip on their shoulders,” he said. “They always hear me talk about the offense. They say, ‘Hey, we have to come out and show coach that we can play too.’ They are young, but they are getting there.”
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Lyons Yellin can be reached at Lyellin@nola.com or 504.826.3405. Follow him at twitter.com/LyonsYellin
Recovery School District faces anger over firings at Cohen, L.B. Landry high schools
October 9, 2012
Recovery School District faces anger over firings at Cohen, L.B. Landry high schools
By Andrew Vanacore, Staff writer The Times-Picayune
on October 09, 2012 at 6:40 PM, updated October 09, 2012
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Summer CampsRSD UpdatesN.O. Charter SchoolsEducation ForumHigh School Sports'Choosing a School'Education HomeundefinedA series of firings at two schools run by the state's Recovery School District has prompted a flurry of anger from parents and students concerned about how the mid-semester changes affect the future of their schools.
In the past two weeks, Superintendent Patrick Dobard fired the principal at Walter Cohen High School and went ahead with a small number of budget-related layoffs in other district-run schools that put the head football coach at L.B. Landry High School out of the job.
In an interview last week, Dobard said word of the principal's firing at Cohen had leaked out among students and may have given the impression that the school would be closed altogether, which is not the case. He held a pair of meetings with students and parents at the Uptown school to address their concerns on Monday.
Dobard said the district's "achievement team" had been monitoring classes at Cohen since bringing in principal Gavin Lewis this year, and "just didn't like what was going on: kids not engaged in classes, not focused, no clear instruction as to what they were supposed to be doing."
Derek LaMothe
Cohen is in the middle of a gradual takeover by a charter school called New Orleans College Prep, a Central-City elementary and middle school expanding one grade at a time into Cohen's building under an agreement with Cohen's alumni association. College Prep runs up to 10th grade, while the Recovery District still runs the 11th and 12th grade with about 110 students on its rolls.
Now, the district has signed a management agreement that will put Future is Now Schools, another of the city's charter groups, in charge of the upper grades as they phase out. Dobard said the move made sense because Future is Now, which took over all grades at John McDonogh High School this year, has a program in place for getting upper-classmen caught up on credits.
Future is Now President Gideon Stein said John McDonogh's dean of students, Chad Broussard, a New Orleans native who recently moved here from Houston, will lead the upper grades at Cohen. The group will likely keep a handful of Cohen's teachers, let others go, and hire more depending on enrollment, he said.
Meanwhile, students on Tuesday protested the firing of L.B. Landry's football coach, Derek "Skip" LaMothe, and two other staff members. Kenneth Grooms, a member of the school's alumni association, which has been lobbying against a controversial decision to merge Landry and O.P. Walker, another Algiers high school, said perhaps 200 students walked out of classes to show their support.
Grooms said alumni have scheduled another protest at the Recovery District's new downtown headquarters on Poydras Street for tomorrow afternoon, hoping to get the layoffs reversed.
"We're hoping Patrick Dobard will do the right thing," he said.
Students protest ouster of principal, staff and teachers
October 8, 2012
Students protest ouster of principal, staff and teachers
by Allen Powell II
New Orleans bureau
October 07, 2012
3 Comments New Orleans — Angry at the second administrative shake-up at their school in two years, Walter L. Cohen Senior High School students stormed out of class on Friday and told Recovery School District Superintendent Patrick Dobard they won’t return until their principal and teachers do as well.
Juniors and seniors at the school were protesting Dobard’s decision to fire Principal Gavin Lewis, much of his staff and four of the 12 teachers assigned to those grade levels. Cohen’s 11th- and 12th-grade classes are operated by the RSD, but students in sixth through 10th grades attend a separate school within the same building called Cohen College Prep. That school is run by New Orleans College Prep, a charter school group.
Dobard plans to turn over management of Cohen’s juniors and seniors to Future Is Now Schools, a national charter school organization partially backed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The changeover is supposed to happen Oct. 15.
Dobard said after his staff conducted site visits at the school recently, they recommended to him that a change in leadership occur. Dobard acknowledged that the change was abrupt but said officials needed to make certain students were being prepared properly.
“I could not just sit by and say we’re going to let the status quo go,” Dobard said.
He came out to the school on Friday to talk to students, but received a testy response from them and the few parents in attendance.
Dobard has scheduled meetings for next week to discuss the change with parents and students. He said he hopes they will trust him and return to learning.
“We appeal to their sense of trusting us as educators,” Dobard said.
But students at the school Friday expressed little trust in Dobard or his policies. Several of them questioned how he could hire an entirely new staff for this school year and then fire them six weeks later. Students said they had built relationships with teachers and staff members, and now that process has to start all over again.
“The point we’re trying to make is that this is going to set us back,” senior Terrell Major said.
Major said it was already obvious that the older students weren’t a priority, but this recent decision just drives that point home. The students learned of the firings during a school assembly and were initially given the impression that they would be moved to different schools as part of the change, Major said.
Although Dobard has said that won’t happen, students said they believe the shake-up is proof that only charter school students matter. Major said it seems like they’ve already been cast aside by the system.
“A lot needs to change, and it’s more than just my school. The superintendent needs to change,” said Major, adding that he believes the RSD kept a few teachers just to placate students. “What they don’t know is that we’re going down for all of them.”
Meagan Mckinnon, another senior, said Cohen has a graduation rate in the high 90s, and students truly love their school. She couldn’t understand what sort of problems Dobard found that required such a drastic action. Now she’s worried about whether the shake-up will affect her ability to get the credits she needs to graduate.
“It’s really making us mad,” Mckinnon said.
Dana Peterson, the RSD’s Deputy Superintendent for External Affairs, said that the new administration will be focused on helping students get the credits and education they need. Peterson said the site visits found a disturbing culture at the school, although he would not provide specifics on those problems. Peterson said there is no precedent for such an abrupt change, but the superintendent felt it was necessary or the problems would “linger.”
“He walked away not satisfied with what was going on there,” Peterson said. “Our goal is to get kids college and career ready.”
The Future Is Now organization recently took over the troubled John McDonogh High School on Esplanade after that school had been plagued by violence and poor performances for decades. The group is most famous for school takeovers and turnarounds in Los Angeles. Future Is Now schools concentrate on smaller class sizes, improved technology and longer school days to help students learn, according to the group’s website.
Newman beats Carver, 72-68, in a wild District 9-2A football free-for-all
September 28, 2012
Newman beats Carver, 72-68, in a wild District 9-2A football free-for-all
Mike Strom, The Times-Picayune, September 29, 2012 2:05 a.m.
The following is not, repeat, is not a misprint.
Newman 72, Carver 68 was about as wild as a football free-for-all can get.
When the fireworks subsided there were 1,265 yards of offense, 57 first downs and 20 touchdowns scored, with Jabiari Tyler passing to a sliding Russell Gardner from 9 yards away for the game-winning touchdown with three minutes, 33 seconds remaining to account for the 72-68 District 9-2A victory Friday night at Pan-American Stadium.
The Greenies also successfully executed three second-half onsides kick attempts that all resulted in touchdowns.
"It was a once in a lifetime,'' Newman Coach Nelson Stewart said. "I don't even know what to say.''
"It was high intensity out there,'' Carver Coach Byron Addison said. "The kids on both sides played hard. They played their hearts out and that's what you ask for as a coach. I think people got a pretty good show.''
Tyler accounted for nine of Newman’s 11 touchdowns with his passing and running, throwing for 430 yards and six touchdowns in addition to rushing for another 92 yards and three scores. The six touchdown passes equaled the Newman single-game record total Tyler set two weeks ago in a 42-20 victory against Miller-McCoy.
This victory was much more significant as Newman (3-1, 2-0) entered ranked No. 8 in the Class 2A state poll and No. 8 among Metro area small schools. Carver (3-1, 0-1) entered ranked No. 9 in Class 2A and No. 3 in the Metro.
Despite scoring the game’s final three touchdowns, the Greenies came precariously close to tasting defeat on Carver’s final possession. But a 65-yard touchdown run by quarterback Joey Louis was negated by a holding penalty. A subsequent unsportsmanlike penalty against a Rams player on the same play for protesting the penalty virtually squashed previously-undefeated Carver’s chance of victory.
Faced with a first-and-33 situation from its own 12-yard line, Carver’s next two plays produced gains of four yards via a rush and 15 on a pass completion prior to Louis being sacked by linebacker Elliot Sperling and finally throwing incomplete on a desperation heave deep down the middle of the field on fourth down.
The incompletion coming at Carver’s 26-yard line gave the ball back to the Greenies who ran off the final 1:27 on three Tyler kneel downs that cost the 5-foot-9, 155-pound sophomore a 100-yard rushing effort.
Carver coaches questioned three officiating calls, the holding penalty that negated Louis' potential game-winning touchdown run and two onsides kickoff attempts.
The Rams said the final onsides kick by Adam DeGenova recovered by a sliding Peter Miller at the Carver 49 yard line was touched before travelling the required 10 yards while the first onsides kick was touched out of bounds by a Newman player and knocked back into the field of play.
Miller's recovery set up the game-winning touchdown. The first successful onsides kick set up the Newman touchdown that gave the Greenies a 53-52 lead with 25 seconds remaining in the third quarter.
"Newman won, they were the better team (Friday) night,'' Addison said. "But I'll say that the officiating could have been better. I have a lot of respect for Newman. They're a good team and a well-coached team. But I felt like the officiating could have been better.''
Carver led 60-53 at the end of three periods and expanded its lead to 15 at 68-53 when Nigel Veal intercepted a Tyler pass and returned the ball 70 yards for a touchdown that was followed by the final of four Eugene Brazley two-point runs.
Newman answered on the ensuing kickoff when wide receiver Justin Harrell wiggled free for an 80-yard return for a touchdown. Tyler then passed to Gardner for the two-point conversion to trim Carver’s lead to 68-59.
The Greenies proceeded to recover two consecutive onsides kicks to gain possession. The first turnover recovered at the Newman 49 produced a two-play drive in which Tyler completed a 64-yard pass to wide receiver Gilly Andry and then ran 5 yards for the score that DeGenova followed with one of his six successful PAT kicks to narrow Newman’s disadvantage to 68-66.
The next and final onsides kick again was recovered by the sliding Miller at the Carver 49, one yard beyond the required 10 yards of travel. Tyler then directed a 10-play drive to the game-winning touchdown pass to Gardner. Tyler’s contributions included a 6-yard run to convert fourth-and-2 at Carver’s 15-yard line with 4:50 remaining.
"Our special teams did a good job of addressing the windows that (Special Teams Coach Bradley Farris) saw in (Carver's kickoff return team) during the game,'' Stewart said. "Adam had great ball placement on all three kicks and put us in position to have the ball recovered in each situation.''
Tyler completed 30 of 39 passes, was intercepted once, but had touchdown passes covering 18, 18, 30, 15, 15 and 9 yards to Harrell, Andry, Reggie Alex and Gardner.
Andry finished with 9 receptions good for 169 yards and touchdowns of 18 and 30. Gardner totaled seven receptions for 88 yards and the game-winning score. Harrell had seven catches 92 yards and touchdowns of 18 and 15 yards while Alex totaled three receptions good for 33 yards with a 15-yard touchdown.
Alex and Harrell also recovered the first two onsides kicks.
Tyler’s rushing touchdowns covered 4, 5 and 5 yards and the Greenies got a fourth via running back Kirk Merritt’s 1-yard run. Tyler had rushed 18 times for 104 yards prior to the three kneel downs to end the game.
"We felt like if we could click and use our conditioning that we could score a lot of points,'' Stewart said. "We felt like we could run the football. We knew we were going to have (defensive) pressure and we did. Jabiari did a good job of stepping up and handling the pressure. He really showed poise in battling through adversity. He showed a lot of maturity for a young man.''
Brazley, an Ole Miss commitment, and Louis led Carver's offensive production. Brazley rushed for 196 yards and three touchdowns on 14 carries and caught three passes for another 58 yards while Louis added another 138 yards on the ground and three more touchdowns on 12 attempts.
Louis also completed nine of 15 passes for 191 yards and two touchdowns covering 28 and 48 yards to Carlius Joseph and Raheem Falkins. Falkins finished with three receptions for 68 yards and a touchdown while Joseph had three catches for 65 yards and a score.
Brazley’s touchdown runs covered 1, 5 and 77 yards. Louis had touchdown runs of 1, 1 and 60 yards, with the middle touchdown and Brazley’s two-point run producing Carver’s first lead at 38-33 with 10:19 remaining in the third quarter.
Newman, which led 14-8 at the end of the first quarter and 33-30 at intermission, scored the game’s final three touchdowns in recording 38 first downs and totaling 626 yards. The Greenies rushed for 196 yards in addition to Tyler’s 430 passing.
Carver, which out-scored scored Newman, 30-20 in the third quarter, totaled 539 yards and 19 first downs by rushing for 348 to go with Louis’ 191 passing. The Rams also were successful on seven two-point conversions, with Brazley totaling four rushing, Falkins two via receptions and Louis one by rush.
Carver was penalized 11 times for 78 yards and Newman six times for 76 yards.
"The team showed good character,'' Addison said. "Even when there was a penalty, they showed good character. They never gave up. They fought hard. They fought to the end.''
"We told the kids that this is a game that you can tell your kids and grandkids about,'' Stewart said. "It was as exciting of a game as has ever been played at Newman.
"It was a once in a lifetime game with two explosive offenses. Obviously, both defenses were having difficulty stopping the other's offense. I challenged our kids at halftime to keep fighting no matter what (Carver) scored. We just wanted to go 90 miles per hour till the end.''
Carver was attempting to avenge a 29-20 loss from last season that ended with both teams advancing to the state playoffs. Newman’s 2011 victory allowed the Greenies (5-5, 4-2) to tie Riverside for second place in 9-2A while Carver (6-4, 3-3) finished fourth in the league.
Carver returns to Pan-American next Saturday when the Rams play host to nationally-ranked Curtis at 7 p.m. Newman plays host to South Plaquemines at 7 p.m. on Friday.
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Mike Strom can be reached at mstrom@nola.com or 504.826.3405. Follow him at http://twitter.com/MikeStromTP.
Showing Games 1-9 of 9
Team schedule08/31 at 7 p.m. Football Time
Carver, G.W. @ 7 p.m.
Walker, O.P.
Box Score
09/15 at 7 p.m. Football Time
Carver, G.W. @ 7 p.m.
McDonogh, John
Box Score
09/22 at 7 p.m. Football Time
Carver, G.W. @ 7 p.m.
Wright, Sophie B.
Box Score
09/28 at 7 p.m. Football Time
Newman, Isidore @ 7 p.m.
Carver, G.W.
Box Score
10/05 at 7 p.m. Football Time
Curtis, John @ 7 p.m.
Carver, G.W.
Box Score
10/12 at 3;30 p.m. Football Time
Carver, G.W. @ 3;30 p.m.
Clark, J.S.
Box Score
10/19 at 7 p.m. Football Time
Riverside Academy @ 7 p.m.
Carver, G.W.
Box Score
10/26 at 7 p.m. Football Time
Carver, G.W. @ 7 p.m.
South Plaquemines
Box Score
11/02 at 3;30 p.m. Football Time
Cohen, W.L. @ 3;30 p.m.
Carver, G.W.
Box Score
Algiers charter school executive wrapping up three-year tenure
May 16, 2012
Algiers charter school executive wrapping up three-year tenure
Published: Tuesday, May 15, 2012, 10:01 PM Updated: Tuesday, May 15, 2012, 10:01 PM
By Mark Waller, The Times-Picayune NOLA.com
The chief executive officer of the Algiers Charter Schools Association, Andrea Thomas-Reynolds, will leave her post when her contract expires in June. An announcement from the group said she first alerted its board in February that she would not seek a renewal after concluding that most of her goals in leading the organization are complete.
Susan Poag, The Times-Picayune archiveAndrea Thomas-Reynolds, chief executive office of the Algiers Charter Schools Association, speaking at a school rally in 2010.
Since February, Thomas-Reynolds and members of the board of trustees have been working on a transition plan, although officials provided no details about who will helm the eight-school cluster in 2012-13.
"The board has a transition plan that we will reveal next week," said Cassandra Bookman, president of the association board of trustees.
The announcement touted test score growth during the Thomas-Reynolds administration, her efforts to arrange new facilities or major renovations for the schools and her creation of a symposium that introduces Algiers educators to academic movements across the country and internationally.
"Based upon these accomplishments, my original assignment at ACSA is largely complete," Thomas-Reynolds said in the statement. "As an organization, the ACSA should be proud of the impact it has had on public education. It has been a pleasure to work for the ACSA Board of Trustees and to have played a role in the nationally-recognized school reform efforts taking place in New Orleans."
Bookman said Thomas-Reynolds also has improved relations between the organization, other education agencies and community groups.
"It's been a very rewarding relationship," Bookman said. "We've seen student test scores improve."
The board chose Thomas-Reynolds, whose credentials include a doctorate in educational leadership from the University of Pennsylvania, to lead the charter cluster in 2009 at an annual salary of about $185,000, following a controversy the previous year over the board's ejection of the association's founding chief, Brian Riedlinger. The association originated in late 2005 as part of efforts to reopen schools after Hurricane Katrina.
Thomas-Reynolds is an Avondale native who graduated from L.W. Higgins High in Marrero and worked with charter schools in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Georgia and elsewhere in Louisiana before arriving in Algiers.
The Algiers charter network, with its eight schools and about 5,000 students, has endured controversies in the last several months, with an uproar over a move to take schools out of the state teacher retirement system and a bumpy round of negotiations with the Orleans Parish School Board over the association's status as manager of Alice Harte Charter School and Edna Karr High through 2012-13. The group's statement does not mention those issues.
Mark Waller can be reached at mwaller@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3783. Follow him on Twitter at MarkWallerTP or Facebook at Mark Waller Times-Picayune.
Orleans Parish School Board approves property tax increase
May 16, 2012
Orleans Parish School Board approves property tax increase
Published: Tuesday, May 15, 2012, 10:20 PM Updated: Tuesday, May 15, 2012, 10:38 PM
By Andrew Vanacore, The Times-Picayune NOLA.com
The Orleans Parish School Board voted Tuesday evening to raise its property tax rate for 2013, install district Chief Financial Officer Stan Smith as interim superintendent and elevate the head of the district's charter office to the level of deputy superintendent. The voting came during a long, contentious meeting, extending months of acrimony on the board over a host of issues.
The vote on appointing Smith, who has served alongside Superintendent Darryl Kilbert as the district's finance chief since shortly after Hurricane Katrina, brought on a particularly vehement exchange, with board members Cynthia Cade and Ira Thomas furious at Board President Thomas Robichaux for mentioning Smith publicly as his choice to fill the vacancy before the rest of the board had a chance to discuss it. Kilbert has said he plans to step down at the end of June after more than three decades in New Orleans public schools.
Steven Forster, Times-PicayuneOrleans Parish School Board interim Superintendent Stan Smith
Cade presented her own slate of 10 nominees to fill Kilbert's slot temporarily, asking the board to give all of them a full vetting before making a final decision.
Thomas accused Robichaux of circumventing board policy to appoint Smith and at one point threatened to contact the state attorney general to investigate the matter.
"We're all elected members of this board," Thomas said, accusing Robichaux, as he has over the past few months, of consulting only with the three other board members who tend to vote in his favor: Lourdes Moran, Woody Koppel and Seth Bloom. "I'm to be respected, Ms. Cade is to be respected and our constituents are to be respected."
Board member Brett Bonin, who has typically sided with Thomas and Cade, this time voted with the majority, giving Smith a fifth nod on the seven-member panel.
"This is an interim position," Bonin pointed out. "We need stability in this district."
The board also went ahead with an increase in property tax rates for 2013, a step that Smith told the board will bring in an extra $5.1 million for the city's public schools, or somewhere between $120 and $130 per student. That's slightly more than the district estimated at its last board meeting because the latest figure is based on expected property values for next year rather than 2012 values.
The tax increase will provide more funding not only for the schools that the board still oversees, but also those under the Recovery School District, the state agency that took over most campuses following Katrina. While the Recovery District still governs most of the city's public schools, the local school board continues to collect taxes and sell bonds for the entire city school system.
During a public hearing on the issue before the regular board meeting Tuesday, most members of the public spoke in favor of the increase, including representatives from civic groups such as Citizens for 1 Greater New Orleans, and the head of the Louisiana Association of Public Charter Schools, Caroline Roemer Shirley.
"We feel this is an investment in both our students and our community," said Janet Bean, a founding Citizens member who also serves on the board of a charter school management group called the Choice Foundation.
But a number of dissenters objected to handing over any more tax dollars to schools in the Recovery District, mainly because they don't report to the local elected board, but to a state board that typically meets in Baton Rouge and has only two members with constituents in Orleans Parish.
"I want our schools back under our control," said Deirdre Lewis. "I won't give you a dime more of my money."
Finally, the board voted to appoint Kathleen Padian, the district's executive director of charter schools, as deputy superintendent. The move means Padian and any future deputy superintendent for charter schools will be appointed directly by the board, a nod to the newly outsized role that independent charter schools play in New Orleans and the board's desire to lure charters governed by the Recovery District back under its supervision. According to state policy, Recovery District schools that perform well enough over a certain period make their own choice on whether to return to local control.
Andrew Vanacore can be reached at avanacore@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3304.
Darryl Kilbert resigns as superintendent of Orleans Parish schools
April 17, 2012
Darryl Kilbert resigns as superintendent of Orleans Parish schools
Published: Tuesday, April 17, 2012, 10:40 PM Updated: Tuesday, April 17, 2012, 10:46 PM
By Andrew Vanacore, The Times-Picayune NOLA.com
Darryl Kilbert, who for the past six years has led the small group of public schools in New Orleans left standing after most were swept into state hands after Hurricane Katrina, resigned Tuesday evening. He cited health concerns that he said have hampered his ability to fulfill his duties as superintendent.
Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune archiveOrleans Parish Superintendent Darryl Kilbert
The move comes as the Orleans Parish School Board, which Kilbert reports to, considers changes in district policy that would sharply curtail his authority. But he said the decision was based entirely on his health and that he felt no pressure from the board to step aside. Kilbert, a three-decade veteran of the city's public school system, spent several weeks earlier this year on sick leave, though he declined to elaborate on the details of his condition.
"I have committed to our School Board that I would devote my full abilities and efforts to leading the district," Kilbert said during a regular meeting of the Orleans Parish School Board at McDonogh 35 High School, pausing more than once for long stretches to gather his emotions. "And to be able to fully recover, I am not able to meet those commitments in a way that I feel necessary or that you deserve."
Kilbert, 55, plans to end his tenure as superintendent on June 30, leaving the School Board to hunt for a replacement in the run-up to what could prove to be a decisive round of School Board elections this fall.
In education circles around the city, attention has refocused on the board in the past few months. For years, the state-run Recovery School District has held the spotlight as one of the torchbearers for a national education reform movement centered on giving parents choice and promoting charter schools that have more leeway than traditional schools to operate independently. But the local school board, as highlighted by a series of recent decisions on property tax rates and bond issues, still makes important financial decisions for all public schools in New Orleans, and for the first time schools in the Recovery District are beginning to hit the necessary academic benchmarks that will allow them to transfer back under local control, should they choose.
The delicate position the School Board finds itself in will make the search for a qualified superintendent all the more critical but also potentially challenging.
To be sure, board members will be looking for a candidate whose resume jibes with the charter school ethos that they have also embraced -- 11 of the district's 17 schools are charters -- but finding a candidate willing to step into such an uncertain role could prove daunting. Even after several schools qualified to revert back to local control last year, none decided to do so and the details of how such a transition would play out haven't been settled.
In the years since Kilbert took over, the small set of schools remaining under the School Board -- those whose test scores already put them over the state average -- have continued to improve and the district's financial position has gone from near-bankruptcy to earning a top-notch credit rating.
Kilbert began as a classroom teacher in 1979. Over the years he moved up the ranks and earned a reputation during the 1990s as a principal who would take extraordinary measures. At Myrtle Banks Elementary School in Central City, he would summon parents to court if they didn't improve their child's attendance or punctuality. When he took over at Alcee Fortier High School in 1996, he put 300 pupils on notice that they could face expulsion because of bad grades or behavior.
On the first day of classes he gave Fortier seniors a warning that may well have served as a motto for Kilbert's tenure as superintendent: "People are watching us and sitting there waiting for us to mess up. The best way to show people you can do well is to do the right thing."
Kilbert also eventually served as principal of Washington Carver Senior High and Thurgood Marshall Magnet School before moving to the district's central office as an area superintendent.
In the past few weeks, though, he faced the prospect of a different sort of role. Board President Thomas Robichaux, along with his allies on the board, is proposing to add two deputy superintendents, with one overseeing the district's charter schools and another handling district finances and operations. Both positions would be hired by and report directly to the board rather than Kilbert, who would be left mainly in charge of curriculum at the district's handful of traditional schools.
Still, Kilbert brushed off questions about the timing of his departure, insisting that his health had forced the decision and invoking a saying that he's used often since becoming superintendent.
"Our, we and us," Kilbert said. "If they keep that in mind, then there's no obstacle the OPSB will encounter that it won't overcome."
Andrew Vanacore can be reached at avanacore@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3304.
Carver High School alumni demand a say in the future of their New Orleans school
April 22, 2012 – 06:28 AM
Carver High School alumni demand a say in the future of their New Orleans school
Published: Sunday, April 22, 2012, 6:05 AM Updated: Sunday, April 22, 2012, 9:21 AM
By Andrew Vanacore, The Times-Picayune NOLA.com
Two dozen or so alumni and other community members gathered early Thursday morning in front of George Washington Carver High School, girding for a confrontation. Incensed that the state-run Recovery School District would hire a new principal for the school without their input, protesters began arriving before 6 a.m., determined not to let the new guy into the building.
Betty Washington, an alumna of George Washington Carver High School, and others protest outside the school last week because of the Recovery School District's decision to bring in a new principal.
They wore orange T-shirts reading "Hands off Carver" and held signs that said, "We demand respect." They chatted among themselves in disbelieving tones about the latest affront from school district officials and mulled their strategy for blocking the doors. Talking into her cell phone, one of them warned, "Keep your phone close, I may be arrested today."
Except the confrontation never came.
Teachers trickled past the protesters into the building. School buses arrived. Protesters greeted students as they slid off their buses and into the temporary trailers that serve as their classrooms. The dean of students pulled young men aside one by one to make them tuck in their shirts before they stepped on campus. Few seemed flustered by the spectacle. Some were obviously familiar with the demonstrators, exchanging handshakes and hugs.
Eddie Compass, the former New Orleans police chief who now serves as the Recovery District's security coordinator, kept a watchful eye, but the new principal in question never showed. Reached briefly by phone, Recovery District Superintendent Patrick Dobard said he wasn't scheduled to be there Thursday and hasn't officially taken over as the school's new leader yet.
Thursday's protest proved less of a showdown and more of a reminder of how dicey relations have been -- and remain -- between the district and some of the more vocal alumni groups associated with the city's high schools. Things seem to move quickly from temporary detente to full-blow acrimony in the space of just a few hours.
It's not just that they were caught off-guard by the decision to bring in a new school leader, the Carver alumni are also opposed to the district's overarching plan for the school next year, which includes bringing in one of the city's proven charter operators to start a new program on the site. Collegiate Academies, which runs Sci Academy in eastern New Orleans, will be starting with the ninth grade and growing one grade per year as the existing Carver phases out. The new principal that the district is introducing for the upper grades is one of Sci Academy's founding teachers and still works as an administrator there.
"The community has said that they don't want Collegiate Academies," said Betty Washington, an alumna from Carver's class of 1966 who has helped organize resistance to the school district's plans. "The community wants Carver to remain as it's been."
District officials argue that must not be allowed to happen, given the school's performance on standardized exams, and that not everyone is qualified to run a school. District spokeswoman Kizzy Payton pointed to Carver's school performance score -- a combination of test results, graduation rates and other factors -- during the past decade or so. The numbers have improved, from about a 14 in 2001 to just under 45 last year. But that's well below what the state considers "failing." This year, that's anything below a 75 on a scale that goes to about 200.
Sci Academy has a score of 96. Nearly all of its first class of graduating seniors has been accepted to a four-year college or university.
"We've met numerous times with Betty Washington and her group, but the discussions have mainly focused on the chartering process," Dobard said. "And we assured them that we were going to address the concerns we had in the school. The graduation rate is only 55 percent. We have to dramatically change things."
Still, alumni are insisting they be given a chance to oversee the school themselves and be consulted about major decisions. The protest was set off after Carver's staff was called into a meeting Wednesday for an introduction to the school's new principal, Isaac Pollack. Washington happened to be in the building at the time, and an email went out summoning community members to arrive at 6 a.m. The group that showed up was relatively small, but vehement.
"These are bully tactics," said Eric Jones, who's been working with a group of alumni and other community members at L.B. Landry High School to get a charter from the state so they can govern the campus themselves. Carver alumni have been after the same goal. Both have been turned down several years in a row.
Just the day before, Jones had been singing the praises of a task force the district put together aimed at finding ways to make the charter application process more transparent and fair. He thanked Dobard in particular and put his name to a statement reading, "I believe significant strides were made to make the process more authentic and transparent in how charters are awarded in the city of New Orleans and the state."
The next day he was standing alongside Carver alumni in a fury. "I was saying in every way I could, let's listen to them, let's give them a chance," Jones said. "You know how that makes me look now? Stupid. I've got stupid written all over me."
Critics of New Orleans school charter approval process have voice on task force
February 24, 2012
Critics of New Orleans school charter approval process have voice on task force
Published: Thursday, February 23, 2012, 11:00 PM
By Andrew Vanacore, The Times-Picayune NOLA.com
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Seeking to defuse critics, the state agency that governs most public schools in New Orleans has convened a group of more than two dozen individuals from various education-related groups across the city to look at ways of improving the state's process for approving new charter schools. Since taking over schools after Hurricane Katrina, the state's Recovery School District has been gradually turning them over to autonomous charter organizations, nonprofits that get public funding but are overseen by private boards and are subject to fewer strictures.
Times-Picayune Staff RUSTY COSTANZA / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE Lona Edwards Hankins, director of capital improvements for the Recovery School District, walks though the second floor commons at L.B. Landry High School in Algiers on Thursday, July 22, 2010. The walls of the commons are covered with inspirational quotes.
L.B. Landry High School counting down to opening day gallery (7 photos)
Along the way, the state has drawn fire for how it goes about approving new charter operators to start or take over schools, especially from grass-roots community and alumni organizations that feel they've been shut out in favor of more established groups.
With so many local groups getting turned down, some critics have worried aloud that the people running New Orleans schools won't reflect the city's African-American majority or culture.
The new task force is meeting with officials from both the Recovery District and the Baton Rouge-based office of parental options at the state Department of Education. It includes some of the state's most vocal critics on the application process, including representatives of groups that have tried unsuccessfully to write charters for George Washington Carver, L.B. Landry and Sarah T. Reed high schools.
There also are officials from schools that have successfully cleared the state's bar, including Collegiate Academies, the group that runs Sci Academy, and Friends of King, which oversees the Dr. King Charter School.
Norman Whitley, president of New Orleans East Charter Academies, said the task force's first meeting on Feb. 16 left him hopeful -- if not entirely convinced -- that state officials will take the input seriously. His group has applied for a charter to manage Reed three years in a row and been turned down every time. They argue that national groups that have opened charters in other states have an unfair leg up when it comes to applying in Louisiana.
"We've had other efforts that started with dialogue that never ended in action," Whitley said. "But, having said that, I was very pleased with what happened in that meeting. The new leadership of the RSD, Patrick Dobard, seemed very sincere in wanting to get something done."
Dobard took over at the Recovery District last month after John White moved up to take over as state superintendent. In a statement Thursday, Dobard said, "While we believe the current process is fair, I have committed to revisit it to determine if we can make it even better."
For now, the Department of Education accepts charter applications each year during the summer and has them vetted by the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, or NACSA. The department typically sticks with NACSA's recommendations on whether to approve or deny -- though not in every case -- and sends them along to the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education for final approval in December.
Erika McConduit, an executive vice president at the Urban League of Greater New Orleans who has been critical of the state's process, offered a guarded statement of support for the task force: "Hopefully, dissecting the highs and lows will help lay the foundation for a stronger method of application, review, and approval in the future and address the critical issues of transparency, consistency, equity, and community access."
Andrew Vanacore can be reached at avanacore@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3304.
phasing in one grade at a time as the existing Carver High School phases out.
January 23, 2012
Recovery School District unveils latest charter takeovers in New Orleans
Published: Monday, January 23, 2012, 3:50 PM Updated: Monday, January 23, 2012, 3:58 PM
By Andrew Vanacore, The Times-Picayune NOLA.com
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State officials announced today the charter operators that will take over some of the last remaining traditional schools in the state-run Recovery School District. And they provided new details about plans to expand options for students who choose to go directly into the workforce, rather than college.
Times-Picayune archiveJohn McDonogh High School on Esplanade Avenue will be taken over next year by the charter group Future is Now.
The district said Collegiate Academies, a group that runs a high school in eastern New Orleans, will start a new campus at George Washington Carver in the Upper 9th Ward, phasing in one grade at a time as the existing Carver High School phases out.
The Future is Now Schools, a national group, will take over all existing grades at John McDonogh High School on Esplanade Avenue.
The group that runs Dr. King Charter School in the Lower 9th Ward will take over at Joseph Craig Elementary in Treme.
And finally, the Choice Foundation, which already runs two elementary schools in the city, will take over McDonogh 42, a charter school in Treme whose contract with the state was revoked last year.
The decisions released Monday have been widely anticipated for weeks, and all of them are somewhat controversial, as attested to by a clutch of sign-wielding protesters at a district press conference this afternoon.
In particular, questions over the fate of the city's historically black high schools -- Carver and John McDonogh among them -- have hit nerves.
Even though many New Orleans high schools have struggled academically for years, they still have large alumni networks with strong loyalties and often mixed feelings about the city's turn toward autonomous charter schools. In some cases, community groups with alumni ties have applied to run schools themselves and been turned down.
Nevertheless, Patrick Dobard, who took over as head of the Recovery District last week, framed the latest takeover decisions as a critical step toward boosting academic results at the city's high schools, many of which have continued to struggle for years under state supervision.
"When we talk about high schools students right now, we see that of 100 entering freshman, that only 57 will graduate, less than 20 will go to college and only eight will finish their degrees," Dobard said. "Those numbers are just horrific."
Along with new charter operators, Dobard unveiled a list of 20 different industry associations and businesses that have signed on to help provide career-track programs. A group including the Louisiana Restaurant Association, Woodward Design+Build and ConocoPhillips, will help shape new courses, provide adjunct faculty, and offer internships and job interviews.
9 Recovery School District charter applications go to BESE with state recommendation
9 Recovery School District charter applications go to BESE with state recommendation
Published: Friday, December 02, 2011, 8:50 PM
By Andrew Vanacore, The Times-Picayune NOLA.com
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Nine different nonprofit groups passed muster this year with the Department of Education to open new charter schools in the state-run Recovery School District, part of an annual process that is slowing transforming New Orleans into an all-charter school system.
View full sizeChris Granger, The Times-Picayune archiveThe Louisiana Board of Education is recommending withdrawing the charter of McDonogh 42, an elementary school in Treme that plans to fight the state's decision. This McDonogh 42 classroom was photographed in April 2008.
They will still need a yes vote from the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education when it meets Wednesday, but the board has rarely bucked the department's wishes on charter applications.
The nine groups recommended by the department for approval represent just a third of the 27 that applied. Some of the nine are already well established, with multiple campuses in New Orleans, others are expanding beyond a single school for the first time, and some are national organizations that are new to the region.
The department is also asking the board to pull the plug on two existing schools that haven't met state standards: Sojourner Truth Academy, an Uptown high school that has decided to turn its charter in voluntarily; and McDonogh 42, an elementary charter school in Treme that plans to fight the state's decision.
The state's approach in the Recovery District, which took over most New Orleans schools in 2005, is to give individual school leaders greater leeway to make decisions than traditional, district-run schools. But they also require that each school meet certain academic benchmarks. Schools that fall short face being shut down or replaced with another charter operator.
"Even though progress is being made across the city, in some cases it's not being made fast enough," said Chris Meyer, who heads the Recovery School District's Office of Portfolio, the group that leads decision making on which schools to bring into the district and which to close down.
To maintain a healthy pipeline of new groups ready to take over struggling schools, the state has accepted new charter applications each year. It contracts with the National Association of Charter School Authorizers to vet them, and the nonprofit group New Schools for New Orleans helps decide which groups get federal funding for certain startup costs.
State officials began notifying schools and charter groups about its recommendations earlier this week.
Of the nine charter operators cleared by the department of education this year, most would be slated to take over one of the traditional, non-charter schools operated by the Recovery District, although many of the details remain to be worked out.
The district has faced sharp resistance to certain charter takeovers in the past, especially in cases where locals felt the state was bringing in outsiders without roots in the community. The state Legislature even passed a bill this past spring requiring community input on decisions about the remaining traditional schools.
So state officials have been organizing public meetings to help select charter operators for specific sites, a process they hope to wrap up early next year.
Even so, the state's latest round of recommendations is sure to bring out angry petitioners at next week's board meeting.
"It's not going to be nice," said Eric Jones, who chairs one of the charter groups the department is not recommending for approval, the Lord Beaconsfield Charter Association. Jones said the group plans to bring a number of supporters up to Baton Rouge to protest the decision, still hoping for a chance to run L.B. Landry High School on the West Bank.
Supporters of McDonogh 42, one of 13 charters up for review this year, will be there also.
Roslyn Johnson Smith, an educational consultant who leads the charter school's board, said administrators deserve more time to execute a turnaround strategy put in place last year. Smith said the board brought in a new principal and put staff on notice that as many as half of the school's teachers could be replaced because of poor performance. She said the dip in the school performance score this year -- from a 65.3 to a 62.6 on a scale of about 200 -- is only a temporary result of the transition.
"We haven't had the chance to tell our whole story," Smith said. "We still think we're the best for our kids."
Meyer, from the Recovery District, said the department did not have a choice in McDonogh 42's case. The school is now in its fifth year and its most recent performance score falls below what the state considers "failing." Board policy mandates that the charter be yanked. If BESE goes along with the department's recommendation, Meyer said, the school will most likely get a new operator from among those approved.
That's not the case for Sojourner Truth high school. The school's board voted this week to voluntarily turn in its charter, and the school will close altogether in May.
It's just one of a series of recent decisions that will largely transform secondary education in New Orleans over the next few years.
If BESE approves the state's recommendations, three different groups will have the go-ahead to open four new high schools. Another group will be slated to take over the city's only high school for students who have been expelled elsewhere, and another will open its third "accelerated" school designed to catch students up to grade level.
The district has not released final decisions on where most of those schools will be housed, but it has committed to chartering the four remaining district-run high schools, all of which have struggled to bring up test scores: Sarah T. Reed, George Washington Carver, Walter L. Cohen and John McDonogh.
Still, Meyer said that doesn't necessarily mean the approved charter groups will take over those particular schools by next year. Collegiate Academies, for instance, the group that runs Sci Academy in eastern New Orleans, would have charters for two new high schools, but envisions only about 450 students in each. That means both high schools could fit in a building the size of Reed or Carver. So the state may need to accept additional charter applications before all of the existing schools are taken over.
The charter groups up for approval next week include:
•Collegiate Academies: 9-12 High School
•The Future is Now Schools: 9-12 High School
•The Friends of King School: K-8 Elementary
•KIPP New Orleans: K-8 Elementary
•Choice Foundation: K-8 Elementary
•ReNEW: K-8 Elementary, Accelerated High School*
•Rocketship Education Louisiana: K-8 Elementary**
•New Orleans College Preparatory Academies: 9-12 High School
•Crescent Leadership Academy: Alternative High School
*ReNew's K-8 school would open no sooner than the 2013-2014 school year.
**Rocketship Education plans to open eight separate K-8 schools over the next five years, starting with one campus in New Orleans. It will have to meet certain academic benchmarks before opening additional campuses.
Existing charters that passed their three-year review with the department, subject to a vote by the state school board:
•Akili Academy
•Crocker Arts and Technology
•KIPP Central City Primary
•Miller McCoy Academy
•Sci Academy
•Charters that passed their four-year review:
•Algiers Technology Academy - 3 year renewal
•Andrew H. Wilson - 3 year renewal
•Arthur Ashe - 3 year renewal
•KIPP Central City Academy - 9 year renewal
•New Orleans College Preparatory - 3 year renewal
Andrew Vanacore can be reached at avanacore@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3304.
CARVER 26 COHEN 12
November 5, 2011
Recovery School District announces which schools it will charter next year
November 1, 2011
Recovery School District announces which schools it will charter next year
Published: Tuesday, November 01, 2011, 5:18 PM
By Andrew Vanacore, The Times-Picayune NOLA.com
Taking New Orleans one step closer to complete charter management of its public schools, state officials said Tuesday they will convert the few remaining direct-run high schools and three more elementary schools to autonomous charters next year. Recovery School District Superintendent John White said the state will bring in charter operators for Sarah T. Reed and George Washington Carver high schools, and as previously announced, Walter L. Cohen and John McDonogh will become charters as well.
Susan Poag, The Times-PicayuneHundreds of former L.B. Landry graduates greeted one another during the dedication ceremonies for the new L.B. Landry School in Algiers in August 2010. The charter group running O.P. Walker will take over management of Landry next year.On the West Bank, the administrators who run O.P. Walker charter high school will take over management at L.B. Landry.
The list of planned takeovers also includes the K-8 school Joseph A. Craig and Charles R. Drew, which has fourth through eighth graders. The west bank elementary Murray Henderson will not take new kindergarten students next fall and will close after the 2012-2013 school year.
Abramson, a K-12 school that reverted to district control this summer after the state board of education revoked its charter, will get a new operator for its elementary grades. White said the district will find other schools for Abramson students heading into grades nine through 12 because of low enrollment in the high school.
More management changes could come later this year. A number of charter schools in the RSD are up for renewal in December, and without going into specifics, White warned that some have not cleared the bar set for them by the state board of education.
"We're looking very hard at schools that are not performing to the standard the board has prescribed," White said.
Still, the changes announced Tuesday mark one critical step in a process that by early next year will finally give the school system in New Orleans a more or less permanent shape after six years of tumult.
Since taking over at the head of the RSD this spring, White has moved quickly to resolve some of the important questions left open by his predecessor, Paul Vallas. He talked in greater detail on Tuesday, for instance, about pending decisions on a central enrollment system and providing options for students more interested in heading directly into the workforce, rather than a four-year college or university.
But the fate of the remaining traditional schools in the district was perhaps the biggest and most controversial question mark.
Some traditional schools have lifted results, and White is encouraging their administrators to put in charter applications to run those schools on their own.
But most RSD direct-run schools have struggled to bring up test scores and graduation rates as fast as the city's charters, a reality that has critics complaining of a two-tiered system that is failing students who don't opt for a charter school or can't win one of the limited available seats.
At the state Legislature in June, White and other state officials faced sharp questioning from Sen. Karen Carter Peterson, D-N.O., about why district-run schools had languished after five years under state control. "They were shoved under the rug," she said. "They were ignored."
White acknowledged the uneven gains as he announced the latest charter takeovers on Tuesday.
"New Orleans schools have made unprecedented progress with their students," White said, but added, "It is time that every child participate in that progress. Our parents and communities have made clear to us that they will not accept failing schools."
Bringing in new charter operators to take over will also bring controversy, as well as anxiety.
District officials met with the faculty at schools slated to be taken over or closed on Tuesday. Teachers and other staff are free to apply for jobs with whatever charter operator ends up managing the school, but there are no guarantees.
What sets charter schools apart from traditional schools is the leeway they have in deciding how to spend taxpayer dollars. Charter schools manage their own budgets, make their own hiring decisions and set their own pay scales. In return, they have to hit academic benchmarks set by the state.
Another likely point of contention may arise from some of the groups formed by local residents interested in running neighborhood schools themselves. Locals have complained in the past that they face an uneven playing field competing for charters with larger organizations like the Knowledge is Power Program, known as KIPP.
With O.P. Walker taking over at Landry, for instance, the Lord Beaconsfield Charter Association appears unlikely to get the shot it wanted to run the school. "I'm devastated," said Eric Jones, the group's chairman, calling the arrangement a "back room deal."
"We believe we wrote an excellent application," Jones added. "All we want is a fair opportunity."
New Orleans College Prep, a Central City charter, is already slated to take over Cohen, and White said he is confident that high performing charter groups will be available for John McDonogh and Carver. But White said he is less certain about immediately finding an operator for Reed, casting doubt on an application put in by New Orleans East Charter Academies, another group of locals vying for a charter.
Still, exactly which groups will take over which schools won't be settled until January.
The state Department of Education is reviewing some 30 different charter applications and will make recommendations on whether to approve them in December to the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, or BESE.
Meanwhile, the RSD is planning community meetings to help bring locals into the process of choosing among the pool of operators BESE clears. White is partnering with three community groups, The Urban League, the Orleans Public Education Network and the New Orleans Parent Organizing Network, to help gather input.
When it all wraps up in January, the eventual shape of school system in New Orleans will have come into greater focus than ever before.
White has already helped hammer out revisions to the city's master plan for school construction. He has committed to matching every school in the district with a building by the end of this year (Some are still in trailers or other temporary quarters and don't have assignments).
And beginning in February, parents and guardians will be able to apply for a spot at any school in the district through a new district-run enrollment system, created in response to complaints that some charter schools have avoided taking students with the most severe special needs.
It is still not clear how a student's proximity to a particular school will factor in the new system. State officials have held to an open enrollment policy as a means of giving students a path out of failing schools. But parents have been sharply critical of a system that sometimes shuts children out of the school down the street.
The question isn't settled yet, but White said most of the feedback he's gathered points to raising the cap on the proportion of seats K-8 schools can set aside for neighborhood students to about 50 percent. The state board of education cleared the RSD to make that call when it approved the central enrollment system last month.
White also outlined in greater detail plans to accommodate students who don't do well in traditional, college-prep type high schools.
He said a number of promising applications have come in from groups interested in running the city's alternative school, Schwarz, which takes students that have been expelled elsewhere.
And he said any of the new charter groups that step in to run a high school will have to provide career-oriented options.
White envisions partnerships between schools and companies or industry groups who would help shape curriculum, provide internships and commit to offering job interviews for students with good grades and attendance records. He said the district has heard strong interest in the idea from the hospitality, biomedical, construction, film and digital media sectors.
Andrew Vanacore can be reached at avanacore@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3304.
9th Ward field of deams
February 5, 2010 – 08:05 AM
After playing 4 years, having 3 brothers play 8 years, and being an active part of Carver's 50 years of football today I have had enough. Everywhere I go I see Orange and Green with the 9th Ward Field of Dreams and no mention of Carver or its true people. The Field of Dreams have nothing to do with Carver Football. When asked why I don't support the 9th Ward Field of Dreams, I have 10 reason:
1) In 2002, I found the information about the NFL matching funds grant and posted on this website. In 2004, I spoke with Coach Ricky Williams at Carver's last home game about this grant and he said he was in the process of getting that grant.
2) The City of New Orleans, Orleans Parish School Board, and the NFL was going to rebuild the stadium that was built in 1967 by the school board in the same location that the classroom trailers now sits.
3) The stadium was to be named Carver-Penn as a result of a land swap deal.
4) In October 2008, the Alumnae was working to save the school from going into land bank (closing). On a Thursday, following a meeting at the school, after the school was saved by tha Alumnae without any help from the 9th Ward Field of Dreams, that Friday I saw The 9th Ward Field of Dreams on TV raising money for a football stadium. This just proves that this deal was in the works whether Carver school was open or closed. This stadium will not belong to Carver.
5) Since the stadium is being built and no mention of rebuilding the school, I want to know if Carver School will remain as Carver School, no one seems to know.
6) Football is football and Carver football should belong to the people of Carver and not to people from around the world.
7) I read articles about Carver School, 9th Ward Field of Dreams and the football team and all the stories are about the improvished people, most dangerous neighborhood, drugs and killings. Never about any good that has happened in the lives from people who have roots in that neighborhood.
8)The 9th Ward Field of Dreams are telling people around the world about Carver's story but it is not our story. It is their version of our story filled with lies that they are spreading throughout this city and the USA.
9) I have not been able to understand why these people are all about the football stadium and not about Carver's school where the students were without books. Carver's football team has done well over the last 50 years without Bullsh_ _, just hard work, dedicated football players and coaches, fans and community without begging for money.
10) I would like these people to stop using Carver to fundraise for a stadium that will not belong to Carver but to who ever the 9th Ward Field of Dreams represent and that is not CARVER.
Riverside takes 38-30 victory over Carver in District 9-2A game
Carver, G.W.
(4-4-0)
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10/21/20117 p.m.
Riverside Academy
(6-2-0)
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Riverside takes 38-30 victory over Carver in District 9-2A game
David Helman, Contributing writer, October 21, 2011 11:14 p.m.
Riverside defenders close in to make the tackle on Carver’s Raheem Faulkins during the Rebels’ 38-30 victory Friday night at Riverside.- (Peter Forest/The Times-Picayune)
Riverside fended off several Carver rallies on its way to a 38-30 victory Friday night in a District 9-2A game at Riverside.
The Rams (4-4, 1-3 District 9-2A) seemed to be in trouble when wide receiver Niguel Veal came up inches short on a late fourth-down play in the fourth quarter. Things looked even worse minutes later when Riverside running back Nate Williams plunged into the end zone to give the Rebels (6-2, 3-1) a 38-24 lead.
But as Carver took possession with 1:36 to play, quarterback Joey Louis led the Rams back.
Louis finished with 221 passing yards, 89 rushing yards and three total touchdowns.
Louis led the Rams 60 yards in just more than a minute and scored his second rushing touchdown to cut the Rebels' lead to eight.
But even after the late touchdown, the Rebels' win seemed secure with just 15 seconds to play.
Again, Louis and the Rams had an answer, as he booted an onside kick to midfield, where a Carver player claimed the ball from the scrum with four seconds remaining.
The Rams' comeback finally fell short, as Louis' desperation pass fell short in the Riverside red zone.
The frantic fourth quarter capped what had begun as a Riverside comeback bid. Behind the power running of tailbacks Nate Williams and Jonquial Sanders, the Rebels fought from the first quarter to keep up with the Carver passing attack.
After the Rebels fell behind 8-0, Sanders broke around left tackle and raced to a 71-yard touchdown, cutting the lead to 8-7. Sanders finished with 130 yards.
Carver had an answer for every Rebel attack in the first half. Louis led the Rams downfield before finding Raheem Faulkins for a 15-yard touchdown and a 16-7 advantage.
Riverside quarterback Tate Scioneaux came through in several crucial situations to bring the Rebels back. Scioneaux found wide receiver Brandon Millet for a 12-yard touchdown just seconds before halftime to cut Carver's lead to 16-14.
The senior then gave the Rebels their first lead midway through the third quarter when he found Williams for 32 yards and a 22-16 lead.
With the Rebels trailing 24-22, Scioneaux connected with Javon Patterson on a tipped ball that went for a 36-yard touchdown and gave Riverside the lead for good.
Solid offense and "clean' play carries Newman past Carver
Greg Fischer, Contributing Writer, September 30, 2011 10:03 p.m.
The Newman Greenies (2-3, 2-0) got their second district win 29-20 Friday night at Lupin Field against the G.W. Carver Rams (3-2, 0-1).
Both teams presented a balanced attack, but it may have been the presence of Newman’s field goal kicker Adam DeGenova and overall cleaner play that gave the Greenies the edge.
“We had a great week of practice,” Newman Head Coach Nelson Stewart said. “Everything was hitting clean. Carver is a really good football team. They made a lot of nice adjustments in the second half.”
The Newman attack was led by senior running back James White, who rushed 25 times for 171 yards and a touchdown. Quarterback Eli Sterbcow threw the ball for 124 yards and two touchdown passes.
“Credit our offensive line, I thought the quarterback did a great job, and James White, as he’s done each week has really been our workhorse,” Stewart said.
“It feels great,” running back James White said. “We started out [the season] a little rough but in the district we feel pretty good.
The first half ended with the Greenies on top 17-14. The Greenies brought the ball down the field 67 yards and scored on their second possession of the game, an 8-yard run by James White. White capitalized on a huge hole up the left middle. Adam DeGenova tacked on the extra point.
Carver answered on their next drive, bringing the ball down the field 76 yards. The score came with :38 left to play in the first quarter, a 13-yard pass to Dedrick Stalbert by quarterback Joey Louis.
After a four-and-out from the Greenies to round off the first quarter, the Rams reclaimed the football only to lose it again after two plays, the first ending in a sack by seniors Phillip Stephens and James Kohnke of the Greenies.
The next play resulted in a Greenie interception by captain linebacker Daniel Martinez. Martinez returned the catch 69 yards back to the Carver 18-yardline. Despite a Rams offsides call on third down, the Greenies had to settle for a 24-yard field goal by DeGenova.
The next eight minutes belonged to the Rams. After a couple big calls, including a roughing the passer that brought back an interception and a fumble called back down by the officials, the Rams scored on a four yard pass from Louis to junior Raheem Faulkins. The two-point conversion attempt was successful, almost an identical play.
Carver Head Coach Byron Addison said that they might have won if they had played “mistake-free football.”
“We made too many mistakes,” Addison said, “too many penalties: offsides, false starts, late hits, you name it.”
Carver shuts out Sophie B. Wright 46-0
September 24, 2011
Carver shuts out Sophie B. Wright 46-0
Pat Mashburn, Contributing writer, September 24, 2011 11:20 p.m.
Eugene Brazley led the Rams with 93 yards rushing and a pair of touchdowns and added a pair of conversion runs on Saturday at Pan American Stadium.
Carver (3-1) overwhelmed the Warriors with 34 second-half points and 428 yards in total offense. The Warriors gained 117 yards, 6 in the second half.
Carver hit its stride in the second quarter when quarterback Joey Lewis found Raheem Faulkins twice in the last two minutes for touchdowns for a 12-0 halftime lead.
Lewis completed 10 passes for 162 yards.
Lewis went to Dedrick Stalbert for his third touchdown in the third quarter. Brazely later scored on a 5-yard run and a 32-yard run
Carver rattles McDonogh in 51-15 victory
Carver rattles McDonogh in 51-15 victory
The Times-Picayune, September 17, 2011 10:46 p.m.
Carver used three McDonogh turnovers in the third quarter to break open a close game and take a 51-15 non-district victory against the Trojans at Pan American Stadium on Saturday night.
Carver (2-1) scored three touchdowns in the span 3:10 in the third quarter to gain control against the Trojans (0-3).
The Rams’ Damian Carter recovered a McDonogh fumble at the Trojans’ 20. Four plays later, Carver running back Eugene Brazley ran 3 yards for a touchdown and a 29-15 lead with 4:03 left in the third quarter.
On the next possession, Carver’s Gregory Daniels returned an interception 35 yards for a touchdown and a 35-15 lead. With 53 seconds left in the quarter, Darnel Williams recovered a fumble in the end zone for a 43-15 lead.
Carver 2011 prep football preview
Carver 2011 prep football preview
Pat Mashburn, The Times-Picayune, August 25, 2011 5 a.m.
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Sophomore Joey Lewis will lead the Carver offense at quarterback. - (Michael DeMocker / The Times-Picayune)There is an air of resiliency at Carver High School. Having been part of the Recovery School District, it has faced its share of challenges and found renewed optimism as the start of the 2011 approaches.
A core group of veteran players and a new coach have the team pointed in a direction of hope despite the departure of former head coach Shyrone Carey. Taking over is Byron Addison, selected two weeks ago to fill the post.
Carver graduate Jessie Gibbens spent the summer as interim coach and said the players look ready for a successful 2011 season.
"Our kids have worked their butts off this summer," Gibbens said. "We've had great participation in our spring and summer condition program. There are leaders on this team who are ready to lead."
Due to realignment, it will be cramped quarters in District 9-2A, as Carver joins Curtis, Clark, Riverside, Cohen, Newman and South Plaquemines. Since some schools in District 9-2A and 10-2A are non-football playing schools, for football only, the remainder of the schools are placed in one district, 9-2A.
The Rams were 3-7 on the field last year but were forced to forfeit those three victories because of the use of ineligible players, giving them an 0-10 record. Carver was 5-6 in 2009 with a playoff appearance. Seniors Willie King and Hasaan Cousan know all about the trials and tribulations of the program. They've been part of the team since 2007, the first season following a two-year absence of the sport after Hurricane Katrina.
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"We had a very young team last year," Gibbens said. "Everyone had to pull together for us to make progress. You could say that about everyone in the Recovery School District. We faced transportation issues of getting kids to and from classes, and many of them had jobs, too. It's a testament to their desire and determination."
Versatility is the term that best describes King and Cousan. As both enter their final season, each brings two years of starting experience into the mix. King's build, 6 feet 3, 200 pounds, provides a multitude of options on both sides of the line, as does Cousan, who floats between linebacker and offensive tackle. Nigel Blount is another senior who is expected to play both ways.
Two players who are certain to draw loads of attention from the opposition are a pair of juniors in wide receiver Raheem Faulkins and running back Eugene Brazely. Both already have received recruiting interest. Although Faulkins had minor issues with injuries that slowed his progress, he was still one of the leaders in production last season. Brazely was a weight room regular in the summer, adding bulk and speed, including running a 4.5 time in the 40.
At the helm of the Ram offense will be sophomore Joey Lewis, who started as a freshman. Lewis served as the team's kicker last season and kicked a pair of extra points in a 39-6 victory against Ben Franklin in a game where the Rams generated 340 yards in total offense.
"With improved technique, he can get it down even further, in the 4.4 range," said Gibbens. "We were able to work one-on-one with him and really see some good things."
DISTRICT 9-2A
Times-Picayune Prediction
1. Curtis
2. Riverside
3. South Plaquemines
4. Newman
5. Carver
6. Cohen
7. Clark
CURTIS
Coach: J.T. Curtis (43rd season, 492-54-6).
Last year: 12-2, 6-0 (first in 9-2A); defeated Many 54-6 in bi-district, University 42-13 in regionals, Riverside 33-19 in the quarterfinals, East Feliciana 40-8 in the semifinals; lost to Evangel 28-14 in the Class 2A state championship.
Offense
Wide receivers: *Tre’ Perrier, 5-10, 170, Sr.; Kaylon Bernard, Sr.; or Jordan Morton, 5-11, 180, Jr.
Tight end: *Dillon Gordon, 6-4, 260, Sr.
Center: *Brandon Godfrey, 6-2, 225, Jr.
Guards: Brett Salomon, 5-9, 220, Sr.; *Matt Kimble, 6-0, 250, Sr.
Tackles: Jonathan Levens, 6-9, 320, Sr.; *Anthony Taylor, 6-6, 330, Jr.
Quarterback: Patrick Morton, 5-11, 180, Jr.
Running backs: Tevin Horton, 5-10, 190, Jr.; Raekwon James, 5-9, 165, So.; George Moreira, 5-9, 185, So.
Defense
Tackles: Destin Theus, 6-3, 245, Sr.; Cyle Cortez, 6-0, 265, Jr.
Nose guard: *Chris Lorden, 6-1, 220, Sr.
Linebackers: *Torrey Bell, 6-5, 245, Sr.; *Duke Riley, 6-1, 210, Jr.; *Sherman Badie, 5-11, 190, Jr.; Fred Beauford, 5-11, 200, Jr.
Cornerbacks: Jacolby Cooper, 5-9, 165, Jr.; Richard Allen, 5-9, 175, Jr.
Safeties: *Jason Jaume, 6-0, 180, Sr.; Brandon Porter, 5-10, 200, Jr.
Specialists: K - Austin Linden, 5-10, 210, So.; P - *Robbie Campo, 6-0, 180, Sr.; RS - Raekwan James, 5-9, 165, So.; RS - Richard Allen, 5-9, 175, Jr.
Outlook: The Patriots need eight victories to earn Coach J.T. Curtis his 500th win, but their chief priority is to avoid becoming the first Curtis team to go three consecutive years without winning a state title since 1974. After finishing as Class 2A runner-ups the past two seasons to Evangel, this year’s team must replace 12 starters, six on each side of the ball. But the defense is expected to be exceptional and a talented group of promising skill players will operate behind a veteran offensive line that includes LSU commit Dillon Gordon at tight end and two talented juniors in tackle Anthony Taylor and center Brandon Godfrey. The emergence of junior Patrick Morton at quarterback is another cause for excitement on offense.
RIVERSIDE
Coach: Mickey Roussel (22nd year, 191-78).
Last year: 10-3, 5-2 (third in 9-2A); defeated Mangham 49-14 in bi-district, Pope John Paul II 41-21 in regionals, lost to Curtis 33-19 in quarterfinals.
Offense
Wide receivers: *Brandon Millet 6-0, 175, Sr.; Trevin Woods 6-5, 200, So., or Trevor Kenney 5-11, 175, Sr.
Center: Jonathan Newbauer 6-1, 170, Sr.
Guards: *Heathe Robertson 6-0, 245, Sr.; Steven Leblanc 5-8, 190, Sr., or Cameron Bivonia 5-10, 210, So.
Tackles: *Travis Trosclair 6-0, 245, Sr.; Paydon Triche 6-0, 230, Sr., or Evan Kirkwood 5-11, 200, Jr.
Quarterback: Tate Scioneaux 5-11, 175, Sr.
Fullback: Jonquil Sanders 5-8, 185, Jr.
Running backs: *Nate Williams, 5-8, 155, Sr.; *John Lewis 5-7, 155, Sr., or Jeremiah Berteau 5-8, 130, So.
Defense
Nose guard: Garrett Ganacheau, 5-9, 220, Jr.
Ends: *Wren Vicknair 5-11, 160, Sr.; Shane Weber 6-0, 180, Sr.
Linebackers: *Grady Gieger 5-9, 170, Sr.; *Kalen Jenkins 6-2, 180, Sr.; Matt Dupepe 5-9, 165, Jr.; Brandon Hymel 5-8, 165, Fr.
Cornerbacks: Nate Williams 5-8, 145, Sr.; Tate Scioneaux 5-11, 175, Sr., or *Gerald Songy 6-0, 155, So.
Safeties: Josh Ladner 6-0, 170, Sr.; Zack Weber 6-0, 180, Sr.
Specialists: K - C.J. Edler 5-7, 165, Sr.; RS - Nate Williams, Jonquial Sanders, Tate Scioneaux.
Outlook: Gone is the bulk of the Rebels’ offense from last year, quarterback Darnell Rachal. Look for more in the running game with the return of running back Nate Williams. The Rebels have good team speed but need the lines to develop.
SOUTH PLAQUEMINES
Coach: Craig Laborde (first year).
Last year: 10-4, 6-0 (first in 9-1A); defeated False River 51-6 in bi-district, Oak Grove 40-26 in regionals, Southern Lab 22-6 in quarterfinals; lost to Ouachita Christian 27-13 in semifinals.
Offense
Wide receivers: Jace Williams 6-1, 180, Fr.; Joseph Gibson 5-5, 150, Jr.; *Jammall Williamson 5-8, 165, Sr.
Tight end: *Ryan Cepriano 6-0, 205, So.
Line: Rashad Smith 5-10, 210, So.; Adam Billiot 5-6, 225, Fr.; Michael Powell 5-9, 250, Jr.; *Lesone Smith 6-2, 325, So.; Anthony Huon 6-0, 215, Sr.
Quarterback: Lorne Barthelemy 5-8, 175, Sr.
Running back: Andrew Barthelemy 5-7, 175, Jr.
Defense
Line: *Sean Wilson 6-3, 245, So.; *Lesone Smith 6-2, 235, So.; Anthony Huon 6-0, 215, Sr.
Linebackers: Lorne Barthelemy 5-8, 175, Sr.; Michael Powell 5-9, 250, Jr.; *Ryan Cepriano 6-0, 205, So.;; Caleb Ragas 6-0, 195, Jr.
Backs: *Jammall Williamson 5-8, 165, Sr.; Jace Williams 6-1, 180, Fr.; Joseph Gibson 5-5, 150, Jr.; *Andrew Barthelemy 5-7, 175, Jr.
Specialists: K/P - Michael Powell 5-9, 250, Jr.; RS - *Jammall Williamson 5-8, 165, Sr.; Joseph Gibson 5-5, 150, Jr.
Outlook: South Plaquemines moves up in class, from 1A to 2A, with only three returning offensive starters. But the Hurricanes have plenty of speed and should be competitive in this rugged league.
NEWMAN
Coach: Nelson Stewart (sixth season, 43-16).
Last year: 8-4 3-3 (fourth in 9-2A); defeated Port Barre 35-27 in bi-district; lost to East Feliciana 56-32 in regionals.
Offense
Wide receivers: Morgan Hall, 6-1, 180, Sr.; Gilly Andry, 6-2, 170, Jr.; Russell Gardner, 5-8, 140, Jr.; *Philip Lapeyre, 6-0, 160, So.
Center: Sebastian Escarfuller, 5-10, 210, Sr.
Guards: Kyle McGoey, 6-3, 220, Sr.; *Phillip Stephens, 6-2, 240, Sr.
Tackles: *Alex Paul, 6-6, 310, Sr.; Jon Drennan, 6-2, 235, Jr.
Quarterback: Eli Sterbcow, 6-0, 170, Jr. or Jabari Tyler, 5-6, 145, Fr.
Running back: *James White, 5-11, 165, Sr.
Defense
Tackles: *Jon Drennan, 6-2, 235, Jr.; Akee Kazi, 6-0, 230, Jr.
Ends: *Saunders Alpaugh, 6-3, 195, Sr.; *Michael Levin, 6-3, 200, Sr.
Linebackers: *Daniel Martinez, 6-0, 185, Sr.; Anthony Alfonso, 5-11, 160, Sr.; Peter Miller, 6-2, 170, Jr.
Cornerbacks: *Braden Weaver, 5-8, 170, Sr.; Ian Athmann, 6-0, 160, Jr.
Safeties: *Justin Harrell, 5-10, 165, So.; *Hunter Lapeyre, 6-0, 175, Sr.
Specialists: K - Adam DeGenova, 6-0, 160, Jr.; Saunders Alpaugh, 6-3, 195, Sr.
Outlook: The Greenies lost several key skill players to graduation but the offensive and defensive fronts should be good. Look for more running than usual from the offense. Though in a brutal district, Newman still should be in the running for a playoff berth.
CARVER
Coach: Byron Addison (first season).
Last year: 0-10, 0-7 (last in 10-3A).
Offense
Wide receivers: *Raheem Falkins, 6-4, 195, Jr.; *Dedrick Stalbert, 6-3, 190, Jr.; Nigiel Veel, 5-10, 185, So.
Tight end: *Norris Hales, 6-2, 210, Jr.
Center: Giovanni Braud, 6-1, 245, Jr.
Guards: *Nigel Blunt, 6-3, 250, Jr.; Louis Sturdivant, 6-5, 300, So.
Tackles: *Willie King, 6-3, 245, Jr.; *Hasaan Cousan, 6-2, 225, Jr.
Quarterback: *Joey Louis, 6-0, 175, Jr.
Running back: *Eugene Brazley, 5-10, 185, Jr.; Alton Rogers, 5-9, 175, Jr.
Defense
Ends: James Wells, 5-10, 195, So.; Keanon Scott, 5-11, 200, So.
Tackles: *Nigel Blunt, 6-3, 250, Jr.; Jacobey Turner, 5-11, 250, So.
Linebackers: *Hasaan Cousan, 6-2, 225, Jr.; James May, 5-10, 225, Sr.; *Kelvin Johnson, 5-11, 195, So.
Cornerbacks: *Eric Bridges, 5-10, 175, Sr.; Glenn Harris, 5-11, 175, So.
Safeties: *Darnell Williams, 5-11, 185, Jr.; *Dedrick Stalbert, 6-3, 190, Jr.
Specialists: K/P - Keanon Scott, 5-11, 200; RS - Nigiel Veel, 5-10, 185, So.; RS - *Eugene Brazley, 5-10, 185, Jr.
Outlook: The Rams were 3-7 on the field but forced to forfeit the three victories because of the use of ineligible players. The Rams have moved down one level in classification into District 9-2A. Byron Addison has moved over from Clark in a return to his alma mater to replace Shyrone Carey as head coach. A trio of outstanding junior skill players in wide receiver Raheem Falkins, quarterback Joey Louis and running back Eugene Brazley headline a cast of eight returning offensive starters that are expected to carry the team until the defense matures. Eleven starters return overall, but three of those players – Hasaan Cousan, Nigel Blunt and Dedrick Stalbert -- project as two-way players. Falkins projects as one of the state’s top senior prospects in 2012.
Byron Addison has replaced Shyrone Carey
Mike Strom, The Times Picayune, August 17, 2011 7:05 p.m.
In need of a football coach, Cohen Principal Alfred Jones trusted his instincts and turned to a revered former rival.
Robert Welch, likewise, could not refuse the invitation from his one-time foe to direct the fortunes of the Green Hornets.
“It’s always in your blood, coaching,’’ said Welch, 53, a coaching veteran of nearly 30 years, who was a teacher at Ehret the past three years and out of coaching after previously directing programs at McMain, Fortier and Sarah Reed prior to accepting his fourth head coaching assignment. “This is opportunity for me to be able to give back to kids. I couldn’t turn it down.
“I’m going to be working with kids whom I’m accustomed to working with, inner city kids, kids with single parents, some kids who are raising themselves, some who have been neglected through no fault of their own, kids who are not fortunate enough to go to private school. These kids are looking for love just like everyone else. It’s not their fault the situations they’re in.’’
Welch has replaced Tommie Dyer Jr., who was not retained by Jones following a 4-6 season that included a 4-3 mark in District 10-3A and a forfeit victory from Carver. The Green Hornets have moved down in classification and now will compete in District 9-2A alongside Curtis, Riverside, Newman, South Plaquemines, Carver and Clark.
Welch, who has been on the job for approximately six weeks, was among three finalists who interviewed with Jones, who competed against Welch when Jones was head football coach at now defunct Nicholls and Douglass.
“We had a lot of candidates,’’ Jones said. “Bob was the best selection. We go way back, so I knew the person I was getting. We have coached against each other, so I didn’t have to do a lot of interview questions with him. Bob is a good person. He’s a mature guy, a gentleman. He lets the kids know that academics come first. And he’s a good math teacher.
“When we were in the same district, he was always the toughest opponent we played. He’s put out some tough teams through the years. He’s a good fit for us at Cohen.’’
Cohen is among six Orleans Parish Public Schools that have new head football coaches. The other five are:
CARVER: Byron Addison has replaced Shyrone Carey, who resigned during the summer to become running backs coach at Langston University in Oklahoma. Addison, 34, brings seven years of head coaching experience (five at Clark and two at Desire Street Academy) to his third head coaching stop after being released by Clark Prep. He is returning to his alma mater where he played cornerback under Coach Wayne Reese from 1991-95. Carver finished 0-10 last season after forfeiting all three of its District 10-3A victories due to the use of ineligible and unregistered players. The Rams are now members of District 9-2A.
CLARK PREP: Chad Brown, 33, brings five years of middle school coaching experience to his first head coaching assignment as Addison’s replacement. The Bulldogs were 3-7 and 3-4 in District 10-3A in 2010, but like Cohen and Carver are scheduled to compete in District 9-2A. Clark Prep is now a charter school operating under the FirstLine Charter system after having been in the Recovery School District of Louisiana system. Brown is a New Orleans native and 1995 McMain graduate who played running back and linebacker for the Mustangs prior to sustaining a career-ending neck injury as a senior.
BEN FRANKLIN: Walter “Wally’’ Scott has replaced Ralph Tankersley, who was not retained following a 3-7 season and 2-5 mark in District 10-3A that included a forfeit victory from Carver. Scott, 52, is making his head coaching debut after spending the last seven seasons at Ecole Classique where he most recently served as offensive coordinator. Scott is entering his 28th year of coaching with previous stints at McMain and Easton.
SARAH REED: Athletic Director Gavin Lewis has re-assumed the head coaching post he manned for three seasons in 2007, ’08 and ’09 following the departure of Terry Washington. Washington is now head coach at Ellender in Houma. Lewis, 31, is a six-year coaching veteran who’s spent the past five years at Reed. The Olympians have moved down in classification into District 10-3A with De La Salle, Lusher, McDonogh and McMain following a 0-10 season as a member of District 10-4A.
MILLER McCOY: Jeremiah Scott, 30, has replaced Craig Laborde, who resigned to take the head coaching post at South Plaquemines. Scott is making his high school head coaching debut after spending the past two seasons as offensive coordinator for the Lions, who were 3-7 in 2010 against a schedule that included losses to St. Augustine, Carencro, Lakeshore and Redemptorist. Scott also served three seasons as head football coach at McDonogh 15 Middle School. Miller McCoy is a Class 3A school that has seniors for the first time, but is unable to compete for championship honors in football until 2013. The Lions are scheduled to play an independent schedule until then.
Marshall Faulk had the will and the desire to better himself and his family
Marshall Faulk had the will and the desire to better himself and his family
Published: Tuesday, August 02, 2011, 6:16 AM Updated: Tuesday, August 02, 2011, 7:43 AM
By Nakia Hogan, The Times-Picayune NOLA.com
Matthew Hinton/The Times-PicayuneMarshall Faulk, a former star football player at Carver who grew up in the Desire housing development, will become the first New Orleans native to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
The rows of brick apartments that were so deplorable that some locals simply referred to them as "Dirty D" have been demolished.
The courtyards that hosted the heated sandlot rivalry between Abundance Court and boys from Florida Boulevard have been redeveloped.
Many of the bad boys who roamed this area two decades ago have fallen victim to the streets of the Desire housing development, which once had more than 262 buildings and a reputation of being one of the nation's most dangerous areas.
Almost all that is left are the memories, mostly of sad times filled with poverty and crime.
And there is Marshall Faulk, Desire's most famous former resident.
Faulk, a former star football player at Carver, where nearly half of the students dropped out before reaching the 12th grade, did what many of his friends and neighbors couldn't do -- he made it out. And on Saturday he'll land in a place that no other New Orleans native has -- on a bust in Canton, Ohio, as he'll become the first native to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
"I didn't know how hard it was and how difficult the path was until I got to college and looked back on where I was," Faulk said. "Living in that situation and going to Carver and being in that environment was just life for me.
"When you acknowledge something is hard and that it's insurmountable, that's when failure starts to creep in. But for me, it was just this is my life and this is how it is. I got to make this happen."
As a teenager growing up in a household with six older brothers and a single mother who was struggling to pay bills, Faulk knew failure wasn't an option.
Faulk's parents divorced when he was four, and his mother, Cecile, worked as a hotel maid and store clerk.
If anybody was going to make it out of "Dirty D," Faulk believed, it would be him, the youngster who idolized Walter Payton and dreamed of making millions.
Road to Canton
Times-Picayune: We dropped the ball on 1990 Faulk omission
Wednesday: A look back at Marshall Faulk's pro career
Thursday: Faulk remains in spotlight
"Marshall is so special," said Mark Bruno, Faulk's childhood best friend. "Only one out of a million can do what he has done coming where we come from. That's one out of a million."
Bruno should know. He was a budding star basketball player at Carver but drifted wayward, even missing Faulk's Super Bowl victory in 2000 while serving a year in jail on a theft charge.
"As a kid growing up how we grew up and to make it from our environment and make it to the stature that Marshall has is so special and so inspiring," Bruno said. "Coming from where we come from the only way to sum it up is you have to be one in a million, and you have to be the chosen one."
Destined to succeed
Cecile Faulk didn't take her youngest son seriously when he made the bold prediction.
When Faulk was about 15, he watched as his mother came home exhausted from another grueling work day, her feet aching and her bank account hovering around the "non-sufficient funds" mark.
He told his mother one day he would put himself in a financial situation to get her out of the ghetto. Cecile simply laughed and nodded.
"OK, baby, whatever," Cecile Faulk said.
Seriously, Faulk responded: "I'm gonna make it, Mama. I am going to take care of you, and you are not going to have to work."
Ted Jackson/The Times-Picayune archiveMarshall Faulk tours his devastated Desire neighborhood in the Katrina-ravaged 9th Ward in January 2006. At the end of the tour, Faulk donated $70,000 to Desire Street Ministries, a youth organization near the old housing development site.
At the time, such prophecy didn't seem realistic. The Desire had a way of keeping its residents from succeeding. After all, Faulk's older brother, Raymond, lost the battle and landed in prison for seven years.
Somehow, though, Faulk always was different.
"Marshall was a shrewd person," former Carver coach Wayne Reese said. "He was a guy who knew exactly where he was going. He called all the shots. People say, 'Well, Coach, what did you do?' I didn't do crap. I helped guide him a little bit. But me making those decisions, uh-uh."
It was Faulk, who grew up playing for his older brothers' sandlot teams in the Desire, who made the decision to play high school football. He had planned to play as an eighth-grader at Carver Middle School, but on the day Faulk was to take his physical examination to play on the team, he misbehaved in school and landed in detention.
He missed the trip to the doctor's office with the rest of the team, forcing him to miss his first season playing for the school.
"I was a knucklehead," Faulk admitted. "I didn't really follow all the rules; I couldn't go to get the physical the day I was supposed to get the physical, and I couldn't play."
But Faulk made sure he was on the team as a freshman at Carver High School.
There Reese took a liking to the young player, keeping Faulk involved in the offense that featured several older standout players, including Tyrone Jones.
Faulk was relegated to a backup role, playing in mop-up duty. He watched as Jones racked up the big yards and received attention from college coaches.
The Associated Press archiveSan Diego State was the only school that wanted Marshall Faulk as a pure running back.
Then came a homecoming game against Cohen. With Carver trailing by five touchdowns, Reese inserted Faulk.
The play was a delay pass to Faulk, who snagged the ball out of the air and raced more than 50 yards for a touchdown.
"That's when I was one of the kids people were on the lookout for," Faulk said.
Hiccups along the way
By his sophomore year, Faulk was on the fast track in the Ninth Ward.
He was the new star player, and he was the kid everyone would come to watch play on Friday nights. He was the one some believed just might make it out of the projects, but with a bleak financial situation at home, Faulk was ready to quit football and school.
He needed to get a job.
Reese, though, wasn't having it. He went to see Cecile, and he explained to her that as much as he needed Faulk on his team, Faulk needed to be a Ram. Football just might be the avenue that leads to buying Cecile that house and the life of retirement that Faulk promised.
Cecile agreed. Marshall was staying on the team.
"The influences on Marshall's life -- I know Coach Reese was there, I know his mother was there and his brothers -- Marshall had tremendous influences in the positive direction, even though there was a whole lot of negativity around him," said Aeneas Williams, a New Orleans native and former Pro Bowl teammate of Faulk with the St. Louis Rams.
Those negative influences were aplenty.
One day Reese got an up-close experience with just how close he was to losing Faulk to the streets when the coach saw his star player hop in a van with one of his friends. The van had been stolen.
Reese knew that Faulk was a good kid, and he wasn't about to stand by and let Faulk ride away to prison.
Reese ran behind the van, and he made Faulk get out of the vehicle and sent the driver on his way.
"Just imagine if the police had stopped them," Reese said. "He was going to jail. We were just fortunate to get him out of that van and told that boy to get the heck on about your business and leave these boys alone."
A star is born
With football back to getting much of his attention, Faulk was thriving, gaining notoriety around the city as one of its top players.
He also was working equally hard in the classroom. Reese remembers times he found Faulk in the bleachers of the gym doing homework at 8 p.m. when nearly everyone in the school had long called it a day.
Faulk also would come to school at 6 a.m. to make money working with the janitorial crew, sweeping floors.
"It was hard," said Joseph Hurst, Faulk's brother. "He knew what he wanted, and he stuck to it -- and it paid off."
Faulk had become a bona fide star on the gridiron, playing running back, receiver, quarterback, tight end, cornerback and kicker during his final two years at Carver. During his last two seasons, he rushed for 1,800 yards and scored 32 touchdowns. He also intercepted 11 passes his senior year and returned six for touchdowns.
His skills as an all-around player landed Faulk scholarship offers from the likes of Nebraska, Miami, Texas A&M and LSU. They all, except San Diego State, wanted him to play defensive back. Faulk, though, always considered himself a running back.
Faulk would have loved to play at LSU or Miami, but neither school budged when it came to allowing Faulk to play on offense.
"When I started to think about it, everything that I needed to get away from was still there if I went to LSU," Faulk said. "But granted, had LSU given me the opportunity to play the position I wanted, I feel no doubt I would have went there."
So San Diego State it was.
Faulk told Reese of his plans, and the coach was shocked.
"When he said he was going to San Diego State, hell, I almost fell down," Reese said. "San Diego? Man, do you know where that's at?"
On his way
San Diego was quite different from New Orleans.
There was less crime, the heat and humidity wasn't an issue, and Faulk, who for the first time was in daily contact with other races, was no longer living in the projects.
"It was a true definition of a culture shock," he said. "I went out there and I was able to put all the negative things that growing up in the Desire projects can bestow upon you -- every gun shot at night, every time you hear of somebody getting murdered -- I was able to go and be a kid on campus and enjoy life. And it was the greatest feeling you can have. I had no worries, no worries in life.
"In high school, in basketball and football, I had never played with anyone other than my kind. So to go to college and to compete and play with multiple races and sit in classrooms with multiple races to see that the things that I may struggle with is not racial. It just is.
"We all struggle with the same things in life. It just opened my eyes up to the world. From that day forth, I was like open mind and open heart. I am going to go out here and just be Marshall Faulk; I am not going to let something decide who Marshall Faulk is going to be like."
He did have a mountain to climb. Four running backs were listed ahead of him on San Diego State's depth chart, including incumbent starter T.C. Wright.
But by the time the season opener of his freshman season came around, Faulk -- the player whom LSU, Nebraska and Miami told wasn't fit to play running back -- had worked his way up to second team.
In the second game of the 1991 season against Pacific, Faulk, who wasn't even an All-Metro pick as a senior at Carver, burst onto the national scene.
Wright went down with an injury, and in a little more than three quarters of action, Faulk rushed for 386 yards and seven touchdowns, leading San Diego State to a 55-34 victory.
"I was going, 'Wait a second, where did this guy come from?' " said New Orleans native Ray Peterson, who played with Faulk in college. "I knew he was talented, but when Marshall started running on that field, I saw another step, a different speed.
"But he stayed humbled. He remained low key; he remained quiet. People who come from his surroundings have two choices: Blow up and start acting a fool or blow up and appreciate it."
That season Faulk led the nation in rushing with 1,429 yards despite missing three games with a collapsed lung and two cracked ribs and not starting until the fifth game.
"I didn't look back," he said. "I never took a peek in the rear-view mirror. For me, I was having fun. I was enjoying myself, and things started working out for me."
The next season, Faulk again led the nation in rushing, gaining 1,630 yards and finished second in the 1992 Heisman Trophy voting behind Miami quarterback Gino Torretta. As a junior, he rushed for 1,530 yards and finished fourth in the Heisman Trophy voting.
By then, Faulk was a household name, and he was being talked about as the next Gale Sayers.
Meanwhile, he was close to finally realizing his dream and fulfilling his promise to his mother. Faulk decided to skip his senior season and enter the NFL draft, where he would become an instant millionaire.
"Any kid who watches his mom bust her butt like I watched my mom do, the one thing you are going to say is, 'Mom, if I ever make it, I'm getting us out of this situation,' " Faulk said. "I am going to take care of you. And to this day, that's what I do."
Shyrone Carey has resigned,This is a great opportunity for me
Former Carver Coach Shyrone Carey has joined Langston University staff of Mickey Joseph
Mike Strom, The Times Picayune, July 27, 2011 10:28 a.m.
Shyrone Carey has resigned as head football coach at Carver to accept an assistant coaching position at Langston University in Oklahoma.
Carey, a former standout running back at LSU and Archbishop Shaw, resigned his positions as a teacher and coach at Carver in early June and subsequently accepted an offer to coach running backs at Langston earlier this month, Carey and Carver Athletic Director Walter F. Harris said Tuesday.
Carey, 29, has joined a Langston staff headed by former Nebraska and Shaw All-American quarterback Mickey Joseph.
Joseph, 43, was named interim head coach at Langston on June 7 after serving as offensive line coach for the Lions in 2010. Joseph replaced Greg Johnson, who resigned following a 6-4 season in 2010. Joseph joined Langston in 2008 as a receivers and special teams coach, who also directed the program’s football operations department.
In addition to Carey, former McNeese State and Belle Chasse linebacker Dwone Sanders has joined Joseph’s football staff, serving as assistant head coach for the defense and linebackers coach. Sanders most recently coached at Miller-McCoy Academy.
Langston is a NAIA school that competes in the Central States Football League.
“This is a great opportunity for me,’’ Carey said Tuesday. “I am honored that Mickey thought of me for this position. This was a hard decision for me. But it was an opportunity that I could not pass up. I’m in a position where I can learn a lot (about football) from Coach Mickey.’’
“Shyrone is a great hire,’’ Joseph said. “We have kind of the same playing background. He played at LSU. You play at schools like that, he sat down with (current Florida State Coach) Jimbo Fisher and (current Alabama Coach) Nick Saban for five years, so his knowledge of the game is by far outstanding with his background. Plus, he was coached by one of the best to ever coach high school football in Louisiana in (former Shaw, West Jefferson and current Ponchatoula Coach) Hank (Tierney).’’
Carver has not yet named a replacement for Carey, Harris said.
Carey directed Carver to a state playoff appearance in 2009 during the second of three years he coached at the New Orleans east school. He began his coaching career at O. Perry Walker in 2007.
The Rams return three standout juniors in wide receiver Raheem Falkins, running back Eugene Brazley and quarterback Joey Louis.
“Carver was like my family,’’ said Carey, a cousin to Falkins and Brazley. “I had a great time at Carver. I think the program is better off now than when I took it over from ground zero (following Hurricane Katrina). I left a great deal of talent there and with a new coach coming in I feel like they are going to win and bring the program back to the level where it deserves to be. I strongly believe that Carver is on its way back to the glory days of the past.’’
Joseph previously coached at Desire Street Academy, first in New Orleans and subsequently in Baton Rouge where the school relocated following Katrina. He was named Class 1A State Coach of the Year after leading Desire Street to the state semifinals in his final season there in 2007.
Joseph also has coached on the college level at Tulane, Nicholls State, Alabama State, Central Oklahoma and Wayne State College in addition to other high school coaching stops at Shaw and Omaha, Neb., North.
“This is a great opportunity for me,’’ Joseph said. “I’ve been blessed to get this opportunity to become a head coach. I’m going to try to surround myself with a good guys. And, look out, here we come. We’ve got a lot of Louisiana guys. We’re going to recruit the hell out of Louisiana.
“This is a great opportunity for me and the Joseph family. I have a great group of kids and staff and we are looking forward to winning on and off the field.’’
Lynaris Elpheage
July 19, 2011 – 10:00 AM
Tulane Youth Impact Program is a teaching lesson for all
Published: Tuesday, July 19, 2011, 7:15 AM
By Tammy Nunez, The Times-Picayune The Times-Picayune
The squad room at the Wilson Center is teeming with the kind of energy only a child can generate.
Eliot Kamenitz/The Times-PicayuneSaid former Tulane player Lynaris Elpheage: 'When they (at-risk children) first come in, they don't know what to expect, and our big thing is to show them discipline by them getting the experience of being on a college campus.'
Feet are wiggling, fingers are drumming on the desks, and heads are popping up and down in tune with a 9-year-old’s perpetual internal rhythm.
But this group of 100 at-risk children is relatively quiet despite the unconscious movements. It stayed that way for most of the hour as they were lectured on nutrition and hydration by Tulane’s head athletic trainer, Andy Massey.
How do you get a roomful of kids aged 9-12 to stay that calm as an adult goes over the USDA’s old food pyramid?
“Football is the hook that gets them,” Tulane Youth Impact Program director Lindsey Stineman said.
After a day of attending classes — reading, math and life skills — the reward is coming out to Tulane’s football practice fields. From about 2-3:30 p.m. each afternoon, the children play football under the watch of former Tulane standout Lynaris Elpheage.
For years, Elpheage has worked with the program, extolling the virtues of balancing football with academics. He guided children through the program that’s designed to mimic the day of a college football player.
The main objective is to graduate, which Elpheage, who left school early to enter the NFL draft, didn’t do.
About the same time the program concludes its annual four-week run in July, Elpheage finally will have his college degree in social science in hand, 11 years after taking his first class on campus.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Elpheage said. “It took me a while to come back. I had a few mishaps; I was supposed to come back, but I kept pushing it off. I’m just happy I did come back, and it’s about to be worth the while.”
Eliot Kamenitz/The Times-PicayuneFormer Tulane player Lynaris Elpheage runs the football portion of the Youth Impact Camp on Wednesday.
Elpheage said he can identify with children who might be struggling in the classroom or grappling with issues beyond their control, such as household finances. Some children come in and need a little time to adjust to the discipline of the program — the campers are expected to walk in straight lines, use respectful language in addressing each other and adults and learn to account for their behavior and performance.
“You can see a big difference (from the beginning to the end),” Elpheage said. “When they first come in, they don’t know what to expect — and our big thing is to show them discipline by them getting the experience of being on a college campus, exposing them to new things. Once they get adapted to that, then they buy into the program. That’s all it’s about, once they buy into it, they’re kids, they’re enjoying themselves.
“If you do good in the classroom, you get to come out here. They all work together; they are excited to be out here. We’re excited to be out here watching them. It’s a fun program.”
The program is funded by the NFL and runs at other locations across the country as well. At Tulane, it has great appeal, drawing from five local elementary schools, as well as accepting some walk-ins.
The program is free.
Children are supplied with football equipment, clothing and lunch. There are 13 Tulane student-athlete — “mentors” — who bond with the kids and guide them through the day, as well as volunteer coaches and teachers from local schools. Most of the mentors are paid with stipends from the program, but Green Wave receiver Wilson Van Hooser, for example, volunteered last summer.
“It was a lot fun, so I just kept doing it,” Van Hooser said. “I got really close to the guys, and I still talk to one of them. One of them, he still texts me. I get real fired up there, so they can feel the energy — and he was another passionate kid.”
Stineman, who also is Tulane’s director of student-athlete academic services, said one of the greatest impacts of the program is on the mentors. Jordan Sullen, a Tulane defensive back who is a first-year mentor, agreed.
In dealing with one of the children in his group, he had to change his tactics. He said he learned how to draw from a variety of approaches in leading the group.
“One kid would always come in ... with a frown on his face,” Sullen said. “He would always be sad. Everyone else would be doing everything, and he would just be sitting in the corner. I would ask him why. Sometimes I could hear him using foul language around the other kids; sometimes I approached him in the wrong way, disciplining him.
“One day, I just decided to pull him to the side and talk to him. He said that this is the way my mom talks to me at home. This is the way my brother gets talked to, my sister talks to me like this. He is constantly like taking this negative criticism. Nothing constructive. He told me that. I have more respect for the kid; I try to make sure his day is going just as well as mine is going.”
The program challenges the youths, too. There are push-ups for bad behavior or not following directions, but the result is gratifying, Stineman said.
“I look forward to it every year,” Stineman said. “I visually can see and I hear the stories from the elementary school coaches that this kid did a complete 180. I hear those stories all the time. We had a principal who said before the program if (a camp participant) was in a room with 25 kids, he was the one causing trouble — always.
“She said after the program, and he had a rough start, and by the end of it he got MVP of his group. ... She said I really believe in this program because it took a kid like that now if he’s in a group of 25 kids, he’s the one rounding them up, putting them in line. She said he truly developed as a leader because of the program. I hear stories like that all the time.”
2011 FOOTBALL SCHEDULE
June 22, 2011 – 07:00 AM
<
Football Schedule
2011-2012
Carver, G.W.
9-2A
Carver, G.W. Week 1 9/2/2011 Walker, O.P. 4A 9 H
Carver, G.W. Week 2 9/9/2011 Sojourner Truth Academy 2A 9 H
Carver, G.W. Week 3 9/16/2011 McDonogh, John 3A 10 H
Carver, G.W. Week 4 9/23/2011 Wright, Sophie B. 2A 9 H
Carver, G.W. Week 5 9/30/2011 Newman, Isidore 2A 9 A
Carver, G.W. Week 6 10/7/2011 Curtis, John 2A 9 A
Carver, G.W. Week 7 10/14/2011 Clark, J.S. 2A 9 H
Carver, G.W. Week 8 10/21/2011 Riverside Academy 2A 9 A
Carver, G.W. Week 9 10/28/2011 South Plaquemines 2A 9 H
Carver, G.W. Week 10 11/4/2011 Cohen, W.L. 2A 9 A
www.orangeandgreen.net
Marshall Faulk confident of Pro Football Hall of Fame chances
February 4, 2011
Marshall Faulk confident of Pro Football Hall of Fame chances
Published: Friday, February 04, 2011, 6:04 AM
By Nakia Hogan, The Times-Picayune
Marshall Faulk is in Dallas this week to do his job.
The Times-Picayune archiveRunning back Marshall Faulk scored 100 rushing touchdowns and 36 receiving touchdowns and made first-team all pro three times and second-team three times.
An analyst for the NFL Network, Faulk, a New Orleans native turned NFL star running back, will help break down Sunday’s Super Bowl matchup between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Green Bay Packers.
But on Saturday, Faulk will sit back and let others analyze his playing career. He and 14 others will have their NFL resumes vetted by a collection of Pro Football Hall of Fame voters.
“I’m excited about it on every level,” Faulk said. “I’m anxious about it. I’m excited to be in the process. It’s an honor. This is awesome on every level, regardless of where you come from. Any time you get an opportunity to experience this honor, you embellish and you enjoy it.”
Faulk starred at Carver in the early 1990s, and made a name for himself as a multi-purpose player.
Back then, it was hard for him to fathom he could become the first New Orleans native inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
But after a stellar 12-year NFL career with the Indianapolis Colts and St. Louis Rams that left him 10th all-time in the NFL in rushing with 12,279 yards, a winner of the 2000 Super Bowl and the 2000 NFL MVP with the St. Louis Rams, Faulk stands to make history Saturday.
“It’ll definitely be special because I’ve been around for a long time and I have seen some great athletes, and for this guy (potentially) to be the first inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame that just blows your mind,” said Wayne Reese, Faulk’s coach at Carver. “But he deserves it. And everything that goes along with it, he should have it.”
Colleagues: Faulk easily a first-ballot choice
Peter Finney: A vote for Willie Roaf
Former Saints offensive tackle Willie Roaf, running backs Curtis Martin, Jerome Bettis and cornerback Deion Sanders are among 15 finalists for the class of 2011. The other finalists are receivers Tim Brown, Andre Reed and Cris Carter; center Dermontti Dawson; defensive ends Richard Dent, Charles Haley and Chris Doleman; defensive tackle Cortez Kennedy; and tight end Shannon Sharpe, along with NFL filmmaker Ed Sabol. Senior nominees Chris Hanburger and Les Richter also will be considered.
“This should be one of the easiest days ever for the Hall of Fame selection committee,” NFL Network analyst Charles Davis said. “No need for speeches, recitation of statistics and career achievements. When the names Marshall Faulk and Deion Sanders are presented, it’s simple. Welcome to the Hall of Fame, gentlemen. Your spots were reserved from the moment you retired.”
Faulk’s chances
Without coming across as conceited, Faulk admitted that he liked his chances of being one of the five selections. On the ballot for the first time after retiring in 2006, Faulk knows getting in so early is never an easy task.
But he’s also aware of all that he accomplished.
Faulk played in seven Pro Bowls, scored 100 rushing touchdowns and 36 receiving touchdowns. He also caught 767 passes for 6,875 yards, and made first-team All Pro three times and second-team on three occasions.
His accomplishments don’t stop there.
Faulk is the only player to have 12,000 yards rushing and 6,000 yards receiving and the only player in NFL history to rush for more than 70 touchdowns and catch more than 30 touchdowns.
His No. 28 jersey was retired by the Rams in 2007.
“I do (like my chances),” Faulk admitted. “I understand the process. I understand the type of players that they want in. I just hope that it is viewed in the same way. I believe we all look at our own work regardless of what it is, and we are a little narcissistic about it because it is our own work. But I hope that the writers see it how I saw it, and like a lot of people said they saw it.”
Rich Eisen, a co-worker at the NFL Network, said Faulk is a no-brainer first-ballot Hall of Famer.
Eisen said he even discussed Faulk’s chances with St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Bernie Miklasz, who will speak for Faulk on Saturday when the selection committee meets to decide which players get inducted.
“I told Bernie you should just stand up and say the words ‘Marshall Faulk’ and sit down,” Eisen said. “There’s nothing else you have to say.
“If he’s not a first-ballot Hall of Fame, there shouldn’t be a first ballot. I’m not just saying that because I’m biased, having known him pretty much since he stepped off the field, and having worked with him. From the research that I’ve done, he has for a running back an incredible record. I believe only 17 receivers in the Hall of Fame have more receptions than Marshall, so that just goes to show you what a dual threat he was.”
Seizing opportunity
Long before Faulk ran into the NFL record books, Reese, Faulk’s prep coach, knew there was something special about the fast and shifty kid from the Desire housing development.
Reese said Faulk always carried himself well. And he had a drive like no other player Reese had coached.
“Marshall was a guy who fit right in as a ninth-grader,” Reese said. “As Marshall continued to grow, he became one of those guys on the football field who could do any and everything. He could play quarterback, defensive back, running back. He could do it all.
“You could see the guy was special. And with all the talent that he had, he was a humble kid. You never would see him frown or get angry. The only time he would get angry was when he couldn’t stay in the football game. He thought he was supposed to stay in the game for 48 minutes of football.”
He also announced early on that he was going to make it, whether that was to the NFL or simply out of the projects.
At 15, Faulk, who was just then finding his niche in the backfield at Carver, surprised his mother Cecile Faulk when she returned home from work and he deadpanned: ‘Mama, one day you’re not going to have to work anymore. I’m going to take care of you.’”
It was obvious then that Faulk’s plans were different from many of his friends.
“He’s a guy that looks ahead,” Reese said. “He is a great business guy. He put everything in perspective, all the things that he wanted to do and accomplish.”
He went on to become a star player in high school. He then took the nation by storm as a freshman at San Diego State, rushing for a then-NCAA record 386 yards and seven touchdowns in his second game.
Faulk parlayed a brilliant college career into becoming the second overall pick in the 1994 draft by the Indianapolis Colts.
Shortly after, he made good on his promise to his mother, buying her a house and a new Lexus.
Faulk said he was simply making the most of the opportunities he had.
“Just as a kid that’s all we ever talked about,” he said. “And it was playful because when you living in the projects you dream about making it in life. And making it in life for us was getting a decent job and doing something with yourself, not becoming an NFL pro player and making it into the NFL Hall of Fame. It just doesn’t correlate.
“But that opportunity presented itself to me, and I took advantage of it. It was just a sweet, sweet opportunity for me to live out.”
Staff writer Dave Walker contributed to this report. Nakia Hogan can be reached at nhogan@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3405.
RSD schools expect little of students, and they get it:
January 2, 2011
RSD schools expect little of students, and they get it: James Gill
Published: Sunday, January 02, 2011, 7:10 AM
By James Gill
Public education in New Orleans may be much improved following the post-Katrina rush to charters, but a way will always be found to give poor black kids the shaft.
Lance Hill, director of the Southern Institute at Tulane, has been perhaps the most vociferous in denouncing the injustice done to students abandoned to the city's lousiest schools, while charters bask in plaudits.
G.W. Carver High would be high on any list of lousy schools, but that does not mean the kids there lack the will to succeed. Last year one third of them signed up for the advanced placement classes that provide college credits for those who pass the year-end exam.
Your heart must ache for the Carver kids, all of whom failed the exam, but educators quoted in the paper are made of sterner stuff. They pronounce advanced placement classes a success because they have apparently raised the kids' self-esteem. In case you don't understand how failure can do that, Carver Assistant Principal Toyia Washington explains, "They realized they were capable of doing something outside the box, whereas everything is usually inside the box."
Educators have an obvious motive for putting their students' performance in the best possible light, but what are they going to say if some kid eventually passes the exam? They'll have no words left to express their joy.
In truth, no Carver kid is likely to pass the exam. Recovery School District Superintendent Paul Vallas, who has not shown any reluctance to close down ineffective schools, may well have Carver in his sights. Reports to that effect have caused Tulane's Cowen Institute, which used to provide supplies and teacher training for AP courses at Carver, to withdraw its support.
Carver still offers AP English, but, with the departure of the Cowen Institute, must now lag even further behind the city's selective-admissions charters. So perhaps it makes sense to regard an unsuccessful struggle with AP as an achievement.
Still, it is axiomatic that low expectations hold underprivileged students back, and it must be dispiriting for students at Carver, and the other five schools where the Cowen Institute provides AP support, to read in the paper that passing the exam "is not the only or even the primary goal."
Maybe that is just as well, considering that, of 158 kids enrolled at AP classes in those schools, only three passed an exam. But perhaps the results would have been better if kids hadn't been written off from the get-go. If they were keen enough to volunteer for the classes, they deserved to be given every opportunity to succeed.
If the object of a course is not to pass it, there is no penalty for lollygagging. AP kids on the Cowen Institute program do receive extra tutoring, but the rest is fun. They are taken out to dine in restaurants on Saturdays, and given tours of the Tulane campus. When time comes to fail the exam, they are transported by limousine. You'd think they had just graduated from Harvard.
No doubt the experience expands horizons for the young denizens of the inner city and might be regarded as education. But the kids would probably still fare much better if they learned some math or English.
The Cowen Institute is no longer providing AP support at John McDonogh High either, because the new principal there, Ron Taylor, figures he cannot afford to bother with a few brainy wannabes when 80 percent of last year's seniors could not meet the modest requirements of the state Graduate Exit Exam. The backward have to come first, but Taylor hopes to bring back AP next year.
By then it may be too late for some. Perhaps it is a bit of a stretch to suggest a mute, inglorious Milton might be languishing within one of New Orleans' worst schools, but, if the object of public education is to let all kids develop to the limits of their ability, the likes of Hill are right to suggest we are letting a lot of kids down.
James Gill is a columnist for The Times-Picayune. He can be reached at 504.826.3318 or at jgill@timespicayune.com.
Tubman Elementary School in Algiers will lose its charter
January 18, 2011
Tubman Elementary School in Algiers will lose its charter
Published: Tuesday, January 18, 2011, 6:30 PM Updated: Tuesday, January 18, 2011, 6:41 PM
By Cindy Chang, The Times-Picayune
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Print Harriet R. Tubman Elementary in Algiers will lose its charter after failing to meet both academic and financial benchmarks, while 13 other New Orleans charter schools are on their way to operating for at least three more years.
Susan Poag, The Times-Picayune archivePre-K teacher Michelle Garnett and students do the bunny hop during an Easter egg hunt in March at Harriet Tubman Elementary School in Algiers.
On Tuesday, the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education's Recovery School District committee gave three-year charter renewals to the following schools: McDonogh No. 28 City Park Academy, McDonogh No. 32 Elementary, Nelson Elementary, O. Perry Walker High School, Samuel J. Green Charter, Singleton Charter and William J. Fischer Elementary.
Dr. Martin Luther King Charter School and Sophie B. Wright Charter School received four-year renewals, KIPP McDonogh 15 received a five-year renewal and KIPP Believe College Prep received a 10-year renewal.
Lafayette Academy Charter School met the requirements for an automatic three-year renewal and did not need to come before the committee.
All the schools opened shortly after Hurricane Katrina and are in their fifth year of operation. The length of the renewal is based on how well the school fulfills a slate of academic, financial and contractual criteria.
The committee deferred action on two schools -- Eisenhower Elementary and Martin Behrman Elementary -- after Algiers Charter Schools Association officials advocated for five-year renewals instead of the four the committee was prepared to give.
The renewal decisions must still be approved by the full board on Thursday. The board will also consider the Eisenhower and Behrman issues.
Several Tubman parents said they still have faith in the Algiers Charter Schools Association and look forward to placing their children in other ACSA schools.
Including Tubman, ACSA operates six elementary schools and three high schools. Among them, McDonogh No. 32, O. Perry Walker, Fischer, Eisenhower and Behrman were recommended for renewals of at least three years.
After five years, Tubman remained in the "academically unacceptable" category, with a school performance score of only 55.4, and had not improved enough to meet renewal requirements. The school also submitted its annual financial report more than two months late and had issues with internal financial controls.
ACSA CEO Andrea Thomas-Reynolds concurred with the committee's decision, which she said is a sign that charters are being held accountable for their performance.
"We were not successful over the course of five years with Tubman, and we do understand the board's decision," she said. "To have high-quality schools, we have to perform to that threshold. We do have other high-performing schools in our network, and we will have parents apply to those schools."
The RSD committee also approved a plan for community-based groups whose charter applications were rejected last month to work with district officials in order to be granted a school next year.
Although the district cannot legally enter into an official "memorandum of understanding" with community groups, the arrangement will amount to the same thing.
RSD officials will help the groups draft their applications, find charter operators and secure financial assistance through the $33 million Investing in Innovation grant awarded to the nonprofit New Schools for New Orleans last year, said RSD Superintendent Paul Vallas.
The groups receiving assistance are the George Washington Carver Charter School Association, seeking to charter Carver High; the Lord Beaconsfield Charter Association, seeking L.B Landry High; the Walter Cohen Alumni Association, seeking Cohen High; and the Friends of King School, seeking Craig Elementary.
At last month's BESE meetings, many speakers complained that the charter approval process was biased against community groups, which sometimes lack the expertise and financial wherewithal to produce a polished application.
"I'm very optimistic that what you're going to get next year is community-driven charter initiatives of the highest quality," Vallas said.
Cindy Chang can be reached at cchang@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3386.
Carver forced to forfeit three football victories for using ineligible players
December 14, 2010
Carver forced to forfeit three football victories for using ineligible players
Mike Strom/The Times-Picayune, December 13, 2010 7:35 p.m.
Carver has been fined $1,300, placed on probation for one year and forced to forfeit all three of its 2010 football victories for using four ineligible players, according to the Louisiana High School Athletic Association.
Carver received its sanctions last Tuesday following an LHSAA investigation that resulted from a written complaint filed by Higgins that accused the school of playing two student-athletes whose attendance zone residences were in Higgins’ school district on the West Bank.
The LHSAA investigation found that only one of the two players, freshman safety James Cole, was ineligible due to a violation of the association’s residence eligibility rule that requires students to sit out one year if they attend a school outside of their residence zone, LHSAA Executive Director Kenny Henderson said.
Starting sophomore wide receiver Raheem Falkins was declared eligible because he was in his second year at Carver and had established residence eligibility during his freshman year.
The LHSAA’s one-year statue of limitations for rules violations prevented the association from sanctioning Carver for allowing Falkins to play as a freshman starter in 2009, thereby saving the Rams from an additional fine and having to forfeit all of their victories in a 5-6 season that included an advance to the Class 3A state playoffs.
The LHSAA compliance officer who investigated the complaint additionally found three other players, who were not identified, as being ineligible because they were not registered with the association. Those players had no physical/health forms, birth certificates, parental permission slips or drug forms on file at Carver.
In addition to the forfeits and being placed on administrative probation for one year in the sport of football carrying until Dec. 7, 2011, Carver was fined the $400 maximum for permitting Cole to participate in all 10 games and $300 apiece for the three unregistered players. Administrative probation is the LHSAA’s least stringent and still permits schools to compete for district and state championship honors.
Ben Franklin, De La Salle and Cohen all were awarded forfeit victories by the LHSAA, reducing Carver’s 3-7 season that included a 3-4 mark in District 10-3A to 0-10 and 0-7 respectively.
Carver Coach Shyrone Carey also was ordered to attend the LHSAA’s handbook certification class.
Carey, in his third year at Carver, said Cole and Falkins were his relatives who did not want to attend Higgins.
“These were family members who wanted to go to Carver,’’ said Carey, a West Bank native, who was an All-State football player at Shaw, who went on to play at LSU. “They are my blood relatives. They wanted to go to Carver because Higgins does nothing to help their players go to college. They were eighth- and ninth-graders and we thought they were eligible. We weren’t aware that we were breaking any rule because they were eighth- and ninth-grade kids who were choosing their first school.’’
All Orleans Parish public schools have operated under an open enrollment policy since Hurricane Katrina that permits students to attend any school in the parish and enjoy immediate athletic eligibility as long as they are attending their first high school. Orleans Parish attendance zone policy does not carry over into Jefferson Parish in which Higgins is located.
Higgins Coach Wayne Meyers declined comment other than the point out that his program has had 52 players sign football scholarships during his 15-year tenure.
Carver has acknowledged its violations in playing Cole, but plans to appeal and seek a reduction in the $900 fine tied to the three unregistered players, said Isaac Johnson, interim athletic director for the Recovery School District of Louisiana Region I that encompasses Orleans Parish.
Carver Athletic Director Walter Harris has secured the missing documentation on the three unregistered players that was unavailable during the LHSAA’s visit and is in the process of forwarding that information to the association, Johnson said.
“We have the documents so we’re going to present them to the state,’’ Johnson said. “The district is going to do an investigation as well and we’re going to make sure that Mr. Walter Harris follows through as well. We’re also going to take some steps to make sure that this doesn’t happen again.’’
The LHSAA’s executive director said that Carver’s most egregious error was to allow the three unregistered students to participate in athletics without documentation on file of their having passed a mandatory physical.
“It needs to be cited just for the sheer safety of those kids that they were playing without physicals,’’ Henderson said. “This was just not about paperwork. Our schools have just got to do their due diligence.’’
Rejection of L.B. Landry High School charter application is protested
December 9, 2010
Rejection of L.B. Landry High School charter application is protested
Published: Thursday, December 09, 2010, 8:00 AM
Cindy Chang, The Times-Picayune
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Graduates of L.B. Landry High School angrily confronted the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education Wednesday after a board committee said it could not support the group's application to charter its alma mater.
View full sizeSusan Poag,The Times-PicayuneThe Friends of Landry alumni group plans to appeal the rejection of its application to operate L.B. Landry High School as a charter school.
Other charter school hopefuls, including an alumni group from Carver High and a group led by James Weldon Johnson's principal, Wanda Brooks, also demanded more time to revise their applications.
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Share 4 Comments Many speakers said community groups like the Landry alumni, most of whom received negative reviews from the Department of Education, were at a disadvantage in the process.
"I have no money, our board has no money. All we have is a passion," Brooks said. "We went to the community. The community supported us. How do you take a person who has a true community charter and say that's not adequate?"
On Wednesday, BESE's Recovery School District committee made a recommendation on another contentious issue: State Superintendent Paul Pastorek's plan for returning some New Orleans schools to local control. The committee approved the plan 5-2, with Louella Givens and Dale Bayard voting no and Walter Lee abstaining.
With a narrow majority generally supportive of Pastorek, the plan is also expected to pass when it comes before the full board today.
Following Hurricane Katrina, most city schools were declared failing and turned over to the state-run Recovery School District. The Orleans Parish School Board was left with fewer than 20 relatively high-performing schools.
The Pastorek plan allows schools meeting an academic threshold to choose whether to return to local control or stay in the RSD. The plan also allows for the creation of a new local governing board in place of the Orleans Parish School Board.
Six schools -- Behrman, KIPP Believe, KIPP Central City Primary, KIPP McDonogh 15, Dr. Martin Luther King and New Orleans Charter Science & Math Academy -- are expected to be eligible to opt for local control, with another four likely to join the list.
In revisions released earlier this week, Pastorek's plan also allows a failing school to exit the RSD after five years if an application to improve it, whether from the OPSB or a charter management organization, is approved by BESE.
Opponents of Pastorek's plan argue that it violates state law because schools can stay in the RSD indefinitely, even after they become academically successful. At Wednesday's meeting, OPSB member Thomas Robichaux issued a stern warning to BESE.
"In voting for this plan and passing this plan, you commit an act of malfeasance," Robichaux said. "It is an illegal act. ... Don't let Pastorek be your puppetmaster."
The Department of Education's reviews of the charter school applications were based on detailed evaluations by the National Association of Charter School Authorizers. Most of the decisions require final approval by BESE, which made recommendations Wednesday in committee and will vote as a full board today.
Nine new charter schools in New Orleans -- four elementary schools, one high school, three alternative schools and one French-immersion school -- received a thumbs-up from the Department of Education last week. On Wednesday, BESE committees seconded the recommendations.
Nearly three-quarters of public schools in New Orleans are already independently managed charters -- by far the largest proportion in the country. The new charters would push the percentage even higher.
Some BESE members said their hands were tied when it came to the appeals by Landry and the other rejected applicants. If a Recovery School District, or Type 5, charter, is denied by the Department of Education, it does not come before BESE for reconsideration.
BESE member Givens was among those who urged that the community-based groups, including alumni groups from Landry, Carver and Cohen high schools, to sign a memorandum of understanding with the RSD so the district can ready the group to take over the school.
But many from the Landry alumni association said the school should be given an extension to revise its application based on the NACSA critique. Some said racism was a factor in the community groups being denied.
"Landry is the heartbeat of our community," said Carol Edgar Lang, a Landry alumna and former principal of Fischer Elementary.
9 charter schools get thumbs-up from state
December 8, 2010
9 charter schools get thumbs-up from state
But alumni groups don't make the cutTuesday, December 07, 2010 By Cindy ChangStaff writer
State education officials have recommended the approval of nine new charter schools in New Orleans -- four elementary schools, one high school, three alternative schools and one French-immersion school.
Most would be takeovers of existing schools, though in most cases the exact schools remain to be determined.
The Department of Education recommendations, which are based on detailed reviews by the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, are not final until a vote by the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education on Thursday. The board typically goes along with the department's recommendations.
Nearly three-quarters of public schools in New Orleans are already independently managed charters -- by far the largest proportion in the country. The new charters would push the percentage even higher.
Eight of 18 applications for Recovery School District charters received a thumbs-up in the reviews, which were released late Friday. None of the alumni groups seeking to charter their alma maters -- Carver High, L.B. Landry High and Walter L. Cohen High -- were successful, however.
9 charter schools get thumbs-up from state - Page 2
But alumni groups don't make the cutPage 2 of 4
The reviews can be accessed on the Department of Education website: RSD Type 5 reviews at http://www.louisianaschools.net/lde/uploads/17327.pdf and Type 2 reviews at http://www.louisianaschools.net/lde/uploads/17324.pdf.
New schools in the mix
If approved by BESE, the following Orleans Parish charter schools will be part of the RSD and could begin operating as soon as next summer or fall:
Community Leaders Advocating for Student Success will run Fannie C. Williams Elementary. The group includes current Principal Kelly Batiste and Assistant Principal Terri Williams as well as community members.
Crescent City Schools, which received a $250,000 grant from the charter incubator New Schools for New Orleans, will take over a yet-to-be-determined failing elementary school. Candidates include Reed, Gentilly, Banneker and James Weldon Johnson.
NACSA denied an application from Friends of King, which operates Dr. King Charter School and includes King principal Doris Hicks, to take over Joseph A. Craig Elementary, but the Department of Education overrode the denial based primarily on the team's strong record at King. Friends of King must submit a satisfactory revised plan or the state could rescind the charter.
New Orleans Charter Science and Math Academy, which operates a high-performing high school by the same name, will charter a second high school, likely a takeover of an existing school. The new school will be called Collegiate Academy Charter School.
Education for Quality Alternatives, led by Elizabeth Ostberg, will operate an alternative school called NET Charter High School to serve students who have dropped out of regular high schools. Ostberg, currently an administrator with the FirstLine charter network, will be the principal.
ReNEW, which opened two charter elementary schools this year, also will enter the alternative-school sector with two charters recommended for approval by NACSA and the state. ReNEW's application for a takeover elementary school -- possibly Reed, Tubman, McDonogh 32 or James Weldon Johnson -- also was approved.
Gary Robichaux, executive director of ReNEW, said his organization focused on alternative schools this year because there is an extreme need for better programs. The two ReNEW schools will offer no extracurricular activities, focusing entirely on helping students to accumulate the academic skills and credits they need to graduate.
Of the 15 applications for Type 2, or statewide charters, only one in Orleans Parish -- the Lycee Francais de la Nouvelle Orleans -- was approved by both the NACSA committees and the Department of Education.
The Type 2 process is being litigated by the Orleans Parish School Board, which was stripped of most of its schools after Hurricane Katrina and is arguing that it should have been allowed to vet the charter applicants.
If an Orleans Parish Civil District Court judge grants the School Board's request for an injunction, the Lycee Francais and other Orleans Parish Type 2 applications could be in limbo, although School Board officials intend to base their decisions on the NACSA recommendations, just as the state does.
Civil District Court Judge Kern Reese heard two hours of arguments Monday before announcing that he would issue his ruling on the injunction by Wednesday at noon, just one day before BESE is set to vote on the applications.
Two charter applications for statewide virtual schools -- the Community School for Apprenticeship Learning and the Louisiana Connections Academy -- also were given positive recommendations and will go before BESE on Thursday.
9 charter schools get thumbs-up from state - Page 3
But alumni groups don't make the cutPage 3 of 4
"Since I've been working in public education in New Orleans, I've seen a huge void where we lose so many eighth-graders, overage eighth-graders, who drop out," Robichaux said. "There hasn't been anything of quality that's addressed that head-on."
Applications denied
Besides the alumni groups, the following RSD charter applications were denied: a group, including current principal Wanda Brooks, seeking James Weldon Johnson Elementary; a group called John T. Scott Middle School, seeking Albert Wicker Elementary; NOECA Inc., seeking Sarah T. Reed elementary, middle and high schools; a group, including current principal Cheryllyn Branche, seeking Banneker Elementary; and Young Audiences of Louisiana Inc., seeking Joseph A. Craig.
Orleans Parish Type 2 applications that were not approved were Amachi Charter Schools Association, for an elementary school in the Upper 9th Ward as well as four alternative schools; Learn Louisiana Inc., for an elementary school called Imagine New Orleans Prep Academy; Pelican Educational Foundation, which operates Abramson Science and Technology Charter School, for a second New Orleans school; and the Upperroom Learner's Academy Charter School, for an elementary school.
The Amachi elementary school application received a thumbs-up from NACSA. But the positive recommendation was overruled by the Department of Education, which expressed doubts about the group, EdisonLearning, that would run the school.
Louisiana Virtual Education Partners Inc. was not approved for a virtual school in Orleans Parish.
Camacia Smith-Ross, who led the Landry charter effort, said the process appeared to be political and showed a lack of understanding of what community groups can contribute. The Landry group will appeal the recommendation.
Five years after Hurricane Katrina, the Algiers high school reopened in one of the first new buildings constructed with an initial chunk of a historic $1.8 billion FEMA settlement.
"We realize we must continue to fight for what's actually ours," Smith-Ross said. "L.B. Landry was resurrected by the Friends of Landry, the alumni association. That school would not be erected today if the alumni had not fought for it, and we're willing to do the exact same thing for this charter."
Even the name of the school is important to the community, Eric Jones, leader of the Lord Beaconsfield Charter Association said at a press conference outside the school Monday afternoon. The school is named after Lord Beaconsfield Landry, a physician who operated a medical clinic in Algiers.
9 charter schools get thumbs-up from state - Page 4
But alumni groups don't make the cut
Jones urged BESE to "put our charter application under a microscope," to see if NACSA's findings are valid.
"We're willing to do whatever it takes to make this right," Jones said Monday, backed by Landry alumni and representatives of City Councilwoman Kristin Gisleson Palmer, U.S. Rep-elect Cedric Richmond, Ministerial Alliance and the NAACP. "If we have any deficiencies, we're willing to address those deficiencies."
James Raby, president of the Cohen Alumni Association, said he would like to form a coalition with other rejected charter applicants to address what he sees as biases in the review process.
"It's obvious there's an agenda that appears not to support community groups," Raby said. "The whole process is slanted toward charter management organizations or those closely aligned with the RSD."
Caroline Roemer Shirley, executive director of the Louisiana Association of Public Charter Schools, said she believes the chartering process is fair.
She said Lycee Francais was successful on its second try, and she hopes the alumni groups will try again, too.
"It's sad to see none got through the process, but I hope just like the Lycee group that the alums learn from the experience and keep at it," Shirley said. "Ultimately, they will perfect it and have a chance to be a part of those schools. I support the NACSA process. It's a good, strong policy that takes the politics out of the decisions."
. . . . . . .
Dennis Persica contributed to this story. Cindy Chang can be reached at cchang@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3386.
LHSAA releases preliminary districts for 2011-2012, 2012-13 school years
The Times-Picayune, October 27, 2010 4:24 p.m.
It's official.
The Catholic League will be gone for at least the next two school years.
The Louisiana High School Athletic Association released its first district plan for the 2011-12 and 2012-13 school years (click here for entire state district plan) Wednesday in Baton Rouge and the Catholic League _ currently made up of Brother Martin, Jesuit, Rummel, St. Augustine and Shaw _ will split as St. Augustine and Shaw move down to Class 4A.
Jesuit, Brother Martin and Rummel were placed in a 5A district along with Bonnabel, Chalmette, Ehret, Higgins, King and West Jefferson. All-girls schools Chapelle, Mount Carmel and Dominican were also placed in that league.
St. Augustine and Holy Cross, which went up from 3A to 4A, will be together in one district with Easton, Ben Franklin, Karr, O.P. Walker and McDonogh 35.
Shaw was placed in a district with Assumption, Belle Chasse, Helen Cox, Ellender, Morgan City, South Terrebonne and Vandebilt.
In Class 2A, South Plaquemines moves up from 1A and has been placed in a district with Curtis.
PROPOSED METRO AREA DISTRICTS
FOR 2011-12 and 2012-13 SCHOOL YEARS
CLASS 5A
District 6-5A: Covington, Fontainebleau, Hammond, Mandeville, Northshore, Ponchatoula, St. Paul’s, St. Scholastica (AG), Slidell.
District 7-5A: H.L. Bourgeois, Central Lafourche, East St. John, Destrehan, Hahnville, South Lafourche, Terrebonne, Thibodaux.
District 8-5A: Brother Martin, Bonnabel, Chalmette, Chapelle (AG), Dominican (AG), Ehret, Higgins, Jesuit, Grace King, Mount Carmel (AG), Rummel, West Jefferson.
CLASS 4A
District 6-4A: Belaire, Broadmoor, Istrouma, Lutcher, Plaquemine, St. Michael, Tara.
District 7-4A: East Jefferson, Franklinton, Lakeshore, Pearl River, Riverdale, Salmen.
District 8-4A: Academy of Our Lady (AG), Assumption, Belle Chasse, Helen Cox, Ellender, Morgan City, Shaw, South Terrebonne, Vandebilt.
District 9-4A: Cabrini (AG), Easton, Ben Franklin, Holy Cross, Karr, McDonogh 35, St. Augustine, O.P. Walker, Ursuline (AG).
CLASS 3A
District 7-3A: Brusly, Donaldsonville, Livona, Port Allen, St. Charles, St. James, E.D. White.
District 10-3A: Cohen, De La Salle, Lusher, McDonogh, McMain, Reed, St. Mary’s (AG), Xavier Prep (AG).
CLASS 2A
District 8-2A: Doyle (NF), French Settlement (NF), Northlake Christian, Pine, Pope John Paul II, Springfield, St. Helena Central, St. Thomas Aquinas.
District 9-2A: Sacred Heart (AG), Algiers Tech (NF), Carver, Clark, Curtis, Fisher, Haynes, Thomas Jefferson, McGehee (AG), Newman, Priestly Charter (NF), Riverside, South Plaquemine.
CLASS 1A
District 6-1A: Hannan, Christian Life, Kentwood, Mount Hermon, Southern Lab, Varnado.
District 8-1A: Ascension Catholic, Ascension Christian, East Iberville, St. John, West St. John, White Castle,
District 9-1A: Country Day, Crescent City, Ecole Classique, Houma Christian, Lutheran, Ridgewood, St. Martin’s.
CLASS B
District 8-B: Centerville, Holden, Hosanna Christian, Madison Prep, Patrick Taylor.
CLASS C
District 7-C: Bishop McManus, First Baptist, Grand Isle, Holy Rosary, Phoenix.
AG - All girls; NF - Schools that don't compete in football.
Pan American
New Orleans, LA
Carver, G.W.
(2 - 5 - 0)
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McMain tops emotional Carver team 38-30
Andrew Astleford, Contributing writer, October 17, 2010 2:18 a.m.
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Carvers Charles McCoy holds a jersey of Dontrel ‘Tank’ Claiborne during the coin toss before all the football players from McMain and Carver gathered for a moment of silence and prayer for Rams football player Dontrel Claiborne on Saturday at Pan American Stadium. Claiborne collapsed at football practice earlier in the week and died at Tulane Medical Center. - (David Grunfeld/The Times-Picayune)Senior wide receiver Charles McCoy hoisted the jersey of his fallen teammate at the start of an emotion-filled night at Pan American Stadium.
Four days had passed since Carver junior defensive tackle Dontrel Claiborne, 16, collapsed during practice and died at Tulane Medical Center a short time later. McCoy took the field holding Claiborne's framed white No. 72 jersey along with teammates Devon Clark, Joey Louis and Brian Mason. It was time for the coin toss.
"I know it's going to be a hard game today," the head official told captains from Carver and McMain. "But let's play some football."
McMain defeated Carver 38-30 on Saturday in a District 10-3A game, but Claiborne's memory marked the game. Players and coaches from both teams honored Claiborne throughout the night.
About an hour before kickoff, McMain Coach Kevin Roussell stood on the sideline and watched his players begin pregame warm-ups. He sympathized with everyone at Carver. He knew the night was going to be hard.
"Just hanging in there," he said.
"You're so competitive. But you feel for them. He was just a kid."
Carver players walked onto the field 46 minutes before kickoff. All the sights of a typical pregame routine began to take focus. Four orange Gatorade coolers were placed on a table between two aluminum benches. Footballs were tossed between teammates. During pregame stretches, Raheem Falkins led Carver in chants from the front row.
"C-A-R-V-E-R!" he screamed.
But subtle signs made this night far from normal. Carver players and coaches wore black bands around their right arms. Carver's Edward Isom scratched "#72" on his eyepaint. Above the bleachers behind McMain's bench, a yellow-and-black sign made of construction paper read, "McMain mourns with Carver ... Respect for #72."
Before kickoff, a small blue plastic chair was placed on Carver's sideline.
"He's right here," said Jasmine Hampton, a Carver junior and a water girl for the football program. "He's watching over us right now."
The chair was the night's most visual memorial. It was covered in orange-and-green ribbons that spelled out "R-I-P" with small pictures of Claiborne's smiling face. A bouquet of daisies and pink roses was placed on top of the display.
Before kickoff, players and coaches from both teams locked elbows and walked from both end zones to greet each other near midfield. They slapped hands and said the Lord's Prayer in unison. After Carver took an 18-0 lead into halftime, fans observed a moment of silence and recited another prayer in Claiborne's memory.
Last Tuesday, Claiborne became dizzy during warm-up drills in the first 25 minutes of practice at Carver. His condition worsened, and he collapsed.
Early coroner findings suggest Claiborne likely died from congenital heart failure.
The LHSAA will conduct its first reclassificiation meeting Oct. 27.
October 13, 2010
The LHSAA will conduct its first reclassificiation meeting Oct. 27. That's when the association will set the classes for 2011-12 and 2012-13 school years.
Schools have until Oct. 27 to appeal their enrollment numbers.
One former Catholic League member, Holy Cross, will likely move up to 4A, joining St. Augustine and Shaw.
RECLASS NUMBERS
Here is the unofficial breakdown of what classes metro area schools will be for the 2011-12, 2012-13 school years. The Louisiana High School Athletic Association will hold its first reclassification meeting _ where classes will be set _ on Oct. 27.
CLASS 5A
Jesuit, Brother Martin, Fontainebleau, Slidell, Ehret, Mandeville, Rummel, Bonnabel, Covington, Northshore, Higgins, Hahnville, Destrehan, St. Paul’s, Chalmette, East St. John, West Jefferson, King, Chapelle, Dominican, Mount Carmel, St. Scholastica.
CLASS 4A
East Jefferson, Shaw, St. Augustine, Helen Cox, Salmen, O.P. Walker, Karr, Belle Chasse, Easton, Holy Cross, McDonogh 35, Pearl River, Riverdale, Lutcher, Lakeshore, Ben Franklin, Academy of Our Lady, Cabrini, Ursuline.
CLASS 3A
Reed, McDonogh, McMain, Lusher, De La Salle, Cohen, St. Charles, St. James, St. Mary’s, Xavier.
CLASS 2A
Carver, Haynes, Thomas Jefferson, Clark, Curtis, Pope John Paul II, Riverside, Newman, Fisher, Northlake Christian, South Plaquemines, Sacred Heart, Algiers Tech, McGehee, Priestley Charter.
CLASS 1A
Country Day, St. Martin’s, Hannan, West St. John, Ecole, Ridgewood, Crescent City, Lutheran.
Carver High School mourns football player who died after collapsing at practice
October 13, 2010
Carver High School football player dies after collapsing during practice
Published: Wednesday, October 13, 2010, 10:46 AM Updated: Wednesday, October 13, 2010, 11:33 AM
Cindy Chang, The Times-Picayune
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A 16-year-old Carver High School football player collapsed during football practice Tuesday evening and later died at a hospital, the Recovery School District said in a news release.
Medical personnel at Carver immediately administered first aid, and the student was transported to Tulane Medical Center. He was engaged in non-contact drills when he collapsed, the RSD said.
Deceased Carver High School football player identified
Published: Wednesday, October 13, 2010, 12:23 PM Updated: Wednesday, October 13, 2010, 1:23 PM
Ramon Antonio Vargas, The Times-Picayune
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Officials have identified the Carver High School football player who died after collapsing during practice Tuesday.
Recovery School District Superintendent Paul Vallas
Preliminary findings indicated that Dontrel Claiborne, 16, apparently died of a congenital heart defect, according to John Gagliano, chief investigator for the Orleans Parish coroner's office.
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Share 5 Comments At a press conference Wednesday morning, Paul Vallas, Recovery School District superintendent, said Claiborne, a junior, felt dizzy a few minutes into his football practice warmup exercises and collapsed.
Vallas said an employee of the Tulane Institute of Sports Medicine was on the scene and EMS paramedics arrived within five minutes. Claiborne was transported to Tulane Medical Center, where doctors pronounced him dead about 5:00 p.m.
Claiborne weighed 275 pounds and stood at 5 feet, 8 inches, according to the Carver football team's roster. He played defensive tackle.
Carver High School mourns football player who died after collapsing at practice
Published: Wednesday, October 13, 2010, 5:15 PM Updated: Wednesday, October 13, 2010, 6:25 PM
Ramon Antonio Vargas, The Times-Picayune
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The day after his football team lost 37-0, Carver High School junior Dontrel Claiborne signed on to his Facebook account and announced to his friends that he and his teammates were going to "bounce back."
Matthew Hinton, The Times-PicayuneCarver High School defensive tackle Dontrel Claiborne, No. 72, center, chases a Holy Cross ball carrier during the last football game of his life at Pan-American Stadium at City Park on Oct. 8.
The 16-year-old's chance to help his fellow Rams do that would have been Saturday, but he won't ever get it. During practice Tuesday, Claiborne collapsed and died a short while later.
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Share 6 Comments "The football players ... (and) the coaches are all very upset," Recovery School District Superintendent Paul Vallas said Wednesday at a press conference discussing details about Claiborne's death. "To them, it was just a tragedy."
The 5-foot-8, 275-pound Claiborne became dizzy within the first 25 minutes of training, during warm-up drills, Vallas said. Claiborne's condition soon worsened, and he collapsed.
Vallas said a Tulane University School of Sports medicine employee was on duty at the school on Higgins Boulevard on Tuesday afternoon, and New Orleans Emergency Medical Services paramedics received a call about the emergency at 4:56 p.m. They made it to the school's athletic fields within five minutes and took Claiborne to Tulane Medical Center, EMS spokesman Jeb Tate said.
Claiborne arrived in critical condition, Tate said, and doctors pronounced him dead not long after, according to John Gagliano, chief investigator for the Orleans Parish Coroner's Office.
The coroner's early findings on Wednesday showed that Claiborne likely died from a congenital heart defect.
"There was no pre-existing condition indicating that something like this would happen," Vallas said.
Claiborne's teammates and coaches packed the hospital waiting room in support of him Tuesday alongside his mother and close relatives. Vallas, who joined them in the waiting room, said "it was extraordinarily painful" to watch the young Rams grieve after receiving word that Claiborne had died.
Health requirements satisfied
Claiborne is the second Louisiana high school football player to die suddenly this fall. In September, a sophomore lineman in Farmerville collapsed in his team's field house and died soon after at a hospital from an enlarged heart, authorities said.
In October 2007 a lineman at a high school in Clinton died after a practice in which he barely participated. Authorities, though, never determined the precise cause of his death because his mother would not permit an autopsy for religious reasons.
The Louisiana High School Athletics Association requires annual physicals and medical history forms to be completed and kept on file for all of its participating student-athletes.
"A licensed physician or licensed nurse practitioner in collaboration with a doctor or a licensed physician's assistant under the direction of a licensed physician" are required to perform and sign off on the physicals. A parent or guardian is supposed to complete and sign the medical history form.
Vallas said Claiborne satisfied all requirements to play.
Carver football coach Shyrone Carey said Wednesday that RSD officials instructed him not to speak about Claiborne with the media. RSD officials said coaches discussed canceling the school's District 10-3 showdown against McMain on Saturday at 7 p.m. at Pan-American Stadium, but the team's members voted to play.
Both schools' players plan to wear black wristbands and helmet decals in Claiborne's honor. They also plan to gather at midfield before kickoff as a gesture of mourning.
"They want to bring life back to normal as quickly as possible," Isaac Johnson, interim athletic director for the RSD, said.
A fallen leader
Claiborne, a defensive tackle, helped Carver to a 2-1 district record this season. He played his last game ever Friday in the loss to Holy Cross.
According to officials, Claiborne did what he was asked to both on the field and in the classroom. He was considered a leader by the Rams, who include his younger brother, Ronald, a defensive back.
Messages Dontrel Claiborne wrote on his Facebook page showed he spent his last days playing with his dog and cheering the New Orleans Saints.
Three days after Carver's first game in September, the junior expressed his excitement simply: "Football season!"
High school sports writer Mike Strom contributed to this report. Ramon Antonio Vargas can be reached at rvargas@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3371.
Both Landry and Carver are currently being managed by the RSD, but may be chartered as soon as nextt
October 4, 2010
year L.B. Landry High School in Algiers has shaky start
Published: Monday, October 04, 2010, 8:00 AM
Cindy Chang, The Times-Picayune
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Less than two months after reopening in a new $54 million building, L.B. Landry High School is struggling to get off the ground.
Susan Poag, The Times-PicayuneLandry is one of two new high schools built with the first chunk of a $1.8 billion FEMA settlement.
The Algiers school, which had been closed since its former building was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, had to scramble to find enough students. In June, Principal Eric Richard was replaced by Natalie Franklin.
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Share 7 Comments Then last month, Recovery School District Superintendent Paul Vallas ousted Franklin and moved in Carver High School principal Lee Green, amid reports of teacher shortages and fighting in the halls.
When Green arrived at Landry, a month into the school year, he said he found himself taking care of matters that are usually opening-week business. Guidance counselors were working through weekends to rejigger schedules. Students took long-overdue assessment tests and got ID cards for the first time.
Discipline was 'a problem'
Alana Robinson said she was on the verge of removing her daughter, who had attended private school until this year, from Landry. The fights in the hallways were scary, and the 10th-grader's constantly shifting schedule often did not include the cosmetology program that had attracted her to the school in the first place.
"I feel sorry for the children. They're way behind. It's a little upsetting as a parent -- I'm not used to that," said Robinson, who will also be a substitute teacher at the school. "With the new principal, there's been some improvement. Discipline was a problem, but hopefully he'll get it together."
Darryl Williams, who recently resigned as president of the Friends of Landry alumni group after taking a position at the school, said the early troubles have forced his alma mater to rehabilitate its image, but things are on the right track now.
"Come see for yourself. Learning is taking place here," he said.
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Susan Poag,The Times-Picayune SUSAN POAG / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE L.B. Landry Principal Lee Green helps tenth grader Sherriell Peters find her new class Wednesday, September 29, 2010 on the first day new schedules were implemented. Green, who was principal at Carver High School until a week ago, and has served as principal at McDonogh 32 Elementary in Algiers, is the third principal at the recently rebuilt $54 million school which opened earlier this year. "We are going to have structure and discipline,"said Green about his new tenure, stressing that he did not know what the problems were at the school before and that he wanted to work to build it into something that students,parents and staff could all be proud of.
Landry is one of two new high schools built with the first chunk of a $1.8 billion FEMA settlement. In the coming years, nearly all of the city's 80 or so schools will be rebuilt or substantially renovated.
Landry was to begin its first year after Katrina with only ninth-graders, but more students were needed to fill the 210,000-square-foot facility. In April, then-principal Richard announced that the school would also accept seventh-, eighth- and 10th-graders. Enrollment now stands at nearly 600 students.
Task will be difficult
Green acknowledged that the new facility, with its two gymnasiums, 650-seat auditorium, health clinic, six science labs and vocational-technology center, creates extra pressure for him.
"It's like walking around with a diamond and being afraid to drop it," Green said. "But it gives you accountability -- you're accountable to the school, the community, the parents."
Starting a new school requires a principal of uncommon ability, said Brian Riedlinger, CEO of the School Leadership Center.
As former head of the Algiers Charter Schools Association, Riedlinger was once Green's boss and has high respect for Green's work ethic. But in Riedlinger's mind, the task is so difficult that the only sure bet is someone who has done it successfully before.
"What we've seen in the past is when you combine kids from a lot of different neighborhoods, it takes somebody just extraordinary -- I don't mean good, I mean extraordinary -- to get these kids to think that this is their home school," Riedlinger said.
Many believe Green can provide a fresh start for Landry, which has over 70 years of pre-Katrina history and a dedicated alumni group. But at Carver High in the Ninth Ward, where Green began the year, faculty members say their school was shortchanged when Green left.
Vallas, who made the decision to transfer Green, said he always considered Franklin an interim principal. But he acknowledged that he replaced Franklin earlier than planned because of the "bumpy" beginning.
Franklin is now co-principal at Joseph S. Clark High School in Treme. Carver, which has experienced its share of upheavals in the last few years, is being headed by Toyia Washington, who has worked as an assistant principal there for the last three years, until a permanent replacement is found.
"We needed to get a strong leader in Landry," Vallas said. "The job he did at Carver gave me the confidence that we could move him to Landry and get a strong leadership team at Carver, not hurting Carver while at the same time helping Landry."
Reached by phone, Franklin said she had no comment.
Post-Katrina instability
The shake-ups at the two high schools are the latest example of the instability that has characterized post-Katrina public education in New Orleans, as charter schools spring up and many traditional schools are phased out.
Despite management shifts, personnel changes and moving schools between buildings, test scores have risen rapidly in the RSD, mainly due to the strong performance of many charters.
Vallas, however, has been criticized for his management of the 22 district-run schools, which remain some of the worst in the city. Both Landry and Carver are currently being managed by the RSD, but may be chartered as soon as next year.
Last Wednesday, a week after Green's arrival, Landry students were attempting to follow their revamped schedules for the first time. As they changed classes around 10 a.m., some were still learning how to navigate the expansive new building. Green wasn't taking any excuses.
"Move to class, or I'll move you myself!" he barked.
He ordered a girl to tuck her shirt in before chiding another group of girls about their uniforms.
"If I see you wearing that today, you're gonna be in trouble," Green said, referring to a student's non-uniform orange cardigan.
In one week at Landry, Green has made an impression on the students with his etiquette policing and habit of popping into classrooms unannounced. Nicknamed "the Energizer bunny" by colleagues, he goes on hall patrol when he can no longer bear to sit still in his office.
"He's more strict on us," said 10th grader Sherriell Peters.
Reputation as a principal
Green is no stranger to the West Bank. A resident of the Cutoff area for two decades, he made his reputation as a principal at McDonogh 32 Elementary School after the storm. In his first two years there, he raised the school performance score to 55.4 from a dismal 33.8.
Several of Green's top aides at McDonogh 32 have followed him to Carver and now Landry.
"32 was out of control, wild. I put structure in," Green said. "SPS scores jumped -- it's going to happen here."
Green gives ample credit to staff members, but his remarks betray a healthy self-confidence.
"I guarantee this school will be one of the best in the city in a short period of time," he said.
Vallas said he has been interviewing principals for months to fill the positions at Landry and other schools. Riedlinger said local superintendents have complained of a shortage of principal talent in the area, which may account for Vallas' decision to remove Green from Carver.
In response to the need, Riedlinger has started an alternative certification program that trains a hand-picked group of local educators to be principals.
Carver's building was also destroyed by Katrina, and the school has operated in modular buildings, plagued by persistent rumors that it would soon close. Last year, it was rocked by allegations that then-principal Vanessa Eugene and then-assistant principal Washington had given students advance copies of the Graduate Exit Exam.
Washington said the RSD found her innocent of the cheating charge over the summer. She plans to continue the policies that Green put in place, but that may be difficult if the school remains short-staffed after the departure of Green and his team.
"If we have the same resources, no changes will occur," Washington said. "If they take away and don't put back and create a void, that creates problems."
Carver math teacher Julie Heath questioned why Landry deserves Green more than her students do.
"The district should have enough respect for the school not to do that. It's not fair to yank one school's principal because another school needs it. If they need to hire a new administrator, they should do that," Heath said.
Cindy Chang can be reached at cchang@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3386.
New Orleans high school football preview: Carver 2010
August 30, 2010
New Orleans high school football preview: Carver
Published: Thursday, August 26, 2010, 5:55 AM
Maya Jones, The Times-Picayune
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In his third season as head coach, Carver's Shyrone Carey is expecting more than just another winning season from the Rams.
Matthew Hinton/The Times-PicayuneCarver had a winning record and made the playoffs last year, but Coach Shyrone Carey says more is possible this season. 'We have a lot of young guys who are willing to step up and play their role,' he said. 'We want to get back to the playoffs.'
Carey feels the team could've done better last year after finishing 6-5, and 4-3 in District 10-3A. The team did make the playoffs, falling 43-14 to eventual state champ Notre Dame in the bi-district playoff round.
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Share This season, Carey said he is impressed with the number of players who are willing to work harder to get the job done. With the elimination of players who, Carey said, have not been dedicated in the past, he believes that the younger players who are willing to put up an effort will make the difference.
That should push the Rams to another level, he said.
"We have a lot of young guys who are willing to step up and play their role, " Carey said. "We want to get back to the playoffs."
Carey says the team has been doing very well during the offseason, and the attendance at practices has been a lot better.
There are 28 players on the roster right now, but Carey says the number will likely grow as the season approaches.
Team leaders also have kept Carey optimistic, as he lists tailback Eugene Brazley, defensive back Charles McCoy, offensive tackle LaRon Jones and wide receiver Raheem Faulkins as a few of the players who keep the team focused and grounded.
"They're all great guys who have been there for two years or more, and I expect them to have a big impact on the season, " Carey said.
Brazley is one reason Carey is optimistic. As a freshman, Brazley rushed for 1,000 yards. He carried for 218 yards on 13 attempts with two touchdowns in the Rams' 54-10 victory against Ben Franklin. McCoy had four interceptions last season.
As a coach, Carey's main focus is bringing the school that had no team after Hurricane Katrina to being a team capable of playing to its potential.
"After the storm we had no team, so with this team, I'm looking to win and make it to the playoffs, " Carey said.
Earlier this year, Saints quarterback Drew Brees helped Carver's football program by purchasing new uniforms for the upcoming season. This gesture, Carey says, shows that the bond Carver has goes beyond football.
"It's about the tradition and (Carver's) history that's been going on since the '50s, " Carey said. "It's an important part of New Orleans' culture. It's one of the first schools in New Orleans for African-Americans. It's a historic situation."
With this mentality and knowing how important these wins are to the Carver community, Carey continues to condition his team to be better mentally and physically.
"I'm going to be very optimistic about what's going on (with the team), " Carey said. "I feel we can do better than we did last year.
2 Carver High School administrators suspended amid allegations of exit exam cheating
April 3, 2010
2 Carver High School administrators suspended amid allegations of exit exam cheating
By Sarah Carr, The Times-Picayune
April 02, 2010, 4:18PM
Times-Picayune archiveRecovery School District officials suspended two administrators at Carver High School on Thursday while the district investigates allegations of cheating on the state's Graduate Exit Exam, or GEE.
Some students "may have been exposed to questions that were too similar to (test) questions," said Siona LaFrance, the district's chief of staff.
She said the allegations concern a study guide provided to about 16 students by a member of the school's staff before the students took the constructive response portion of the exam last month. An anonymous member of the Carver community called the state's department of education about the guide, she said.
LaFrance said all of the students who saw the guide will be retested. She said the school's principal, Vanessa Eugene, and an assistant principal have been suspended with pay "until we can figure out what happened and whether anything was amiss."
Eugene said Friday that the similarity between one question on the study guide and one on the GEE was "just a coincidence."
"I don't think any intentional harm was meant," she said.
Eugene said the administrator who gave the study guide to about 11 students had not seen a copy of this year's GEE exam. Only a school's principal and testing coordinator had access to the exam in advance of test time, she said.
"As the principal of the school, I take full responsibility for the error of that document," she said. "I'm just saddened by the incident. We've worked really, really hard all year at Carver to make sure all of our students were learning and being prepared for testing."
Schools are supposed to use only study guide materials released by the state, Eugene said. The assistant principal gave the study guide, intended to help prep them for the math portion of the constructive response exam, the day before students started taking the GEE, Eugene said.
LaFrance said the district and state have not received any other allegations of testing improprieties or cheating so far this year. In a departure from past precedent, the state divided up administration of the high-stakes LEAP and GEE exams this spring. Students took the constructive response part in March and will take the other sections in mid-April.
A representative from the Recovery School District central office will help with daily administration at Carver pending the results of the investigation, LaFrance said.
Scott Norton, the assistant state superintendent for student and school performance, said Louisiana typically confirms between 10 and 20 cases of cheating or improprieties each year, although state officials receive many more allegations.
Sarah Carr can be reached at scarr@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3497.
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-Mays will add a grade until Carver no longer exists.RAMS BLOWOUT FALCONS 54--00
September 27, 2009
School within a school is new strategy to transform education
By Sarah Carr
September 27, 2009, 10:46PM
At first, Aliska Prejean was a little skeptical when school leaders told her a new administration would take over the lower grades at Carver Elementary, where her five children are enrolled.
Without a car, she worried about the logistics of picking up her children at different times. And without much money, she worried about having to buy a bunch of new uniforms.
The educators who visited her house to explain the concept were reassuring, however. And when school started in August, her pre-kindergartener and second-grader happily went off to the new school, Benjamin Mays Prep, located on the same campus as Carver, which her three older children continued to attend.
Jennifer Zdon / The Times-PicayuneThe student body of Benjamin Mays Prep participate in a 'community' circle on Thursday. The circle is held two days a week to help motivate the students.
Carver is one of four campuses across the city where educators have embarked this fall on an unusual method of rehabilitation. Instead of closing the school completely, or handing over the reins to a new leader, they hope to transform the schools gradually:
At the Carver campus, Benjamin Mays Prep, a charter school, took over only the pre-kindergarten through second grades; each year, Mays will add a grade until Carver no longer exists.
"If we can prove this transformation process works, it holds tremendous promise not just for New Orleans, but nationwide, " said Matt Candler, chairman of the Louisiana Association of Public Charter Schools, who helped design the concept.
The strategy comes at a time of intense interest nationally in how to turn around the country's lowest-performing schools. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has charged states with devising ways to reinvent the country's "chronically underperforming" schools, the bottom 5 percent.
So far, three other approaches have dominated: closing the weakest schools; reconstituting them with new faculty and staffs; or handing them over to new operators, like the state or a nonprofit group that manages clusters of charters.
The strategy under way at Carver and the other three campuses is unique in that it blends all three approaches, but takes more time to implement. Its backers say that it's less painful to a community than closing a school outright, and makes it easier to eradicate low expectations and unhealthy school cultures since the new programs start with only the youngest children. Critics call it inefficient to staff one campus with two separate administrations and support staffs, and worry about neglect of the older students.
Regardless of such opinions, the experiment at Carver, Henderson, Wicker and Drew elementary campuses requires unprecedented cooperation among the schools.
"We knew very early on that this marriage had to work, " said Duke Bradley, the leader of Mays Prep.
Education with a drumbeat
Early one morning at the Carver campus, housed in modular units not far from the flood-ravaged original building in the Upper 9th Ward, a handful of Carver students in navy uniforms quietly walked between the buildings. As visitors approached the rear of the campus, the sound of children's voices chanting in unison built to a crescendo.
"Mays Prep! Mays Prep! Mays Prep Knights!!!"
Jennifer Zdon / The Times-PicayunePrincipal Duke Bradley III leads the student body of Benjamin Mays Prep in a chant Thursday. He gets the youngsters revved up to learn. In the small Carver auditorium, the entire student body of Mays Prep sat in a horseshoe pattern around Bradley.
"We're going to count to 50 by fives, " he cried out. "I don't know if Southern University can do that. I don't know if Boston University can do that. I don't know if Smith (College) can do this well." Like many other charter schools, Bradley refers to classes by the alma mater of their teacher, an attempt to instill a college-bound focus in children as young as four.
After revving up the youngsters for 30 minutes, Bradley brought out a drum and played as the children headed back to class.
By the end, he dripped with sweat and the school staff and students stood wide awake, as if from a jolt of caffeine.
Most of Mays Prep's students attended Carver last year, with the exception of the pre-kindergarteners, who usually have older siblings at either Carver or Mays Prep. The schools share gym and auditorium space, but have separate dismissal times and locations, and completely separate staffs and academic programs.
Mays Prep, like the four other new "transformation" schools, is a charter, meaning it is publicly funded and accountable, but privately run. Carver, Drew, Henderson and Wicker -- the four schools that will gradually be replaced -- are all non-charters run by the Recovery School District. In one indication of the different management styles, two of the transformation schools invited a reporter to stop by on the spot, while a leader of one of the traditional schools sought permission from the district before commenting on the arrangement.
Prejean said she loves both schools this year, despite their somewhat different feels. "Usually you can't just stop a principal dead in his tracks and ask him or her a question, but you can do that at both these schools, " she said.
Another parent, who did not want to be named, said she prefers Mays Prep to Carver. She wishes the new charter had taken on more grades, because she has children in the older grades as well.
"Mays Prep does home visits, they make phone calls, " she said. "You don't hear much from Carver."
The takeover strategy
While Candler might try to bring the grade-by-grade transformation model to other communities, some other local educators are taking a different approach to failing schools.
Two New Orleans-based charter management organizations have applied to take over poorly performing schools as soon as next year. They would take control of all the grades at once, a more common model nationally.
"The whole push under Obama is to have turnaround organizations go in and take over the weakest links, " said Gary Robichaux, director of one of the new charter organizations.
The takeover strategy avoids the friction that can result when two different schools coexist, but it can be incredibly challenging unless the new leaders come with in-depth knowledge of the school community, staff and needs.
Jennifer Zdon / The Times-PicayuneMays pupils gather around their principal and beg to be counted. Louella Givens, a member of the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, which oversees the RSD, said she's skeptical of the transformation model because of the inefficiencies and unallayed "concerns about what is happening for the children in the upper grades."
"They haven't given us any reports on what's going on in those schools, " she said.
Candler argues that "more often than not, (leaders of both schools) see themselves as accountable to the whole population."
In the past year, the Recovery School District has brought in new leaders at all four of the schools being phased out to ease the transition. At the Drew campus, for instance, both principals have a background working for the Knowledge Is Power Program, or KIPP network of schools.
"I think it helps when you have similar philosophies, whether it's KIPP or not, " Drew principal Marc Merriman said.
Prejean said the Benjamin Mays/Carver cohabitation is working out better than she had initially thought. Though she can't afford to buy more than one uniform for each of her five children, she takes time to wash all five each night, whether it's the maroon and khaki of Mays Prep, or the navy blue of Carver.
"I guess since Katrina nothing at all is weird to me anymore, " she said. "I've been in church buildings where there was two different churches going on and it worked out fine. That's how Mays Prep inside of Carver feels to me."
Sarah Carr can be reached at scarr@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3497.
Former basketball standout Perry McDonald, prep coach Larry Schneider to be inducted into Greater Ne
Former basketball standout Perry McDonald, prep coach Larry Schneider to be inducted into Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame
Posted by Pierce Huff, The Times-Picayune June 03, 2009 10:10PM
Categories: Sports
The latest two inductees into the Allstate Sugar Bowl Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame are proof that to be successful in sports, one has to adapt at times.
Perry McDonald averaged 23.9 points during his four-year career at Carver High School, but he changed the focus of his game to become a defensive stopper at Georgetown.
Larry Schneider was an intense 24-year-old baseball coach who hardly ever let his players relax when he first started at Rummel High School in 1972. However, before he retired in 1995, he learned the importance of getting his players to have fun while playing.
The duo will be inducted into the Hall during a ceremony Saturday at the Superdome.
College basketball was more a game of effort than execution for McDonald, who could throw his 6-foot-4 frame down in the low post to battle taller forwards and centers for rebounds one minute, then swing outside and hit an open midrange jump shot the next.
He finished his career at Georgetown with a 7.7 scoring average, 577 rebounds and 120 steals in 133 games. He is listed at No. 30 on the school's career list of players in the "Georgetown Basketball History Project" on Hoyabasketball.com. He is the only guard to lead Georgetown in rebounding in consecutive seasons (1986-87 and 1987-88).
McDonald developed his disciplined, unselfish style of play under two coaches who had dominant personalities and a penchant for turning student athletes into good men.
McDonald played at Carver from 1980 to 1984 under long-time Rams coach Tom Priestly, who had a career record of 415-111 with 14 district titles and two LHSAA championship-game appearances in 24 seasons.
"Coach Priestly always stressed education first and everything else second, even to the point where he always made sure you did your homework first before practice," McDonald said.
Once McDonald got to Georgetown, longtime Hoyas coach John Thompson taught him the discipline necessary to be successful.
"Coach Thompson said that if you wanted to attend his university, the first thing you had to do was study, and the minimum grade-point average for the players on the team was a 2.8," McDonald said.
McDonald played for an NCAA championship his freshman season in 1985, when No. 1 seed Georgetown lost to No. 8 seed Villanova 66-64 in a game that ranks as one of the greatest upsets in college sports history.
"The pain from that loss has gone away, but I still think about it from time to time," said McDonald, who went on to play in pro leagues in Belgium and Spain, the World Basketball League and the Continental Basketball Association.
The baseball memory that stands out the most for Schneider was coaching his younger brother, Don, and his son, Larry Jr., at Rummel.
Schneider, currently a social studies and driver's education teacher at Rummel, played third base and outfield at Jesuit and third base at Tulane from 1965-1967.
He had a record of 424-192 at Rummel and 607-158 for the Rummel-based Schaff Brothers American Legion team. He coached Rummel to state championships in 1974, 1981, 1987 and 1989, six Catholic League titles, 10 state tournament appearances and 12 state playoff appearances. He coached Schaff Brothers to state championships in 1987 and 1993 and reached the Mid-South Regional final in 1987.
"Baseball was my life for so much of my life," he said.
Yet, in 1995, as tough as it was, Schneider decided to give up the game he loved for good.
"I just got to a point in my life where I felt I was getting tired," he said.
But the players he coached and the lives he touched during his coaching career are something that will last his lifetime. Schneider said he still keeps in contact with many of his former players.
And they are always there to help him when needed. Schneider had knee-replacement surgery last year, performed by Dr. Charles P. Murphy, who played on Rummel's 1974 championship team.
"The players and the games are what I will always remember, along with the teams, players and friendships," Schneider said.
Pierce W. Huff can be reached at phuff@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3809.
UPDATED: Spartans get DT Howard to commit
January 23, 2005
UPDATED: Spartans get DT Howard to commit
Scout.com
By Mike Fowler
SI editor
Posted Jan 23, 2005
Haywood Howard of New Orleans is Michigan State's latest committment and was a dominating force according to Gilbert Ceasar who runs the team's website OrangeandGreen.net. Howard's astounding statistics and his fine academic work were just two of the reasons he was recruited by five top southern schools. Find out much when you get Inside!
NEW ORLEANS - Haywood Howard of New Orleans is Michigan State's latest committment and was a dominating force according to Gilbert Ceasar who runs the team's website, OrangeandGreen.net.
Howard's coach Ricky Williams of George Washington Carver high school confirmed to Scout.com that Howard has committed to Michigan State.
The 6-foot-4, 280-pound interior lineman recorded an astounding 110 tackles and 15 sacks on statistics kept by Orangeand Green.net and was recruited by Memphis, Mississippi, LSU, and Lousiana Tech.
Howard played both offense and defense throughout the 48 minute games. He was an exceptional offensive and defensive player, leading his young team to a 6-0 District Championship. Howard played offensive line and defensive line and was a District 8-5A selection on the defensive line this season. Williams said Howard is academically qualified and could contribute at Michigan State immediately .OrangeandGreen.net .
The Rams finished 6-4 with Howard being named all-District for his play along the defensive line.
Gilbert Ceasar
www.OrangeandGreen.net
2009 Louisiana Hall of Fame Inductees: St. Louis Rams running back Marshall Faulk
June 20, 2009
2009 Louisiana Hall of Fame Inductees: St. Louis Rams running back Marshall Faulk
Posted by Ted Lewis, The Times-Picayune June 18, 2009 10:03PM
Categories: Football
Sean Payton needed a way to keep his star running back stimulated.
Just having him learn his own assignments wasn't enough.
So the future Saints coach, the running backs coach at San Diego State in 1992, would give Marshall Faulk a quarterbacks quiz just to find out how much of the Aztecs' offense he knew.
Which was pretty much all of it. Defensive assignments, too.
"Marshall was one of the smartest players I've ever coached," Payton recalled. "He was extremely intelligent about football. It came easy to him -- the mental part of the game. As talented as he was physically, he was just as smart."
There was certainly no doubt about Faulk's physical skills. As a runner, he combined speed, balance and vision with a sure-handed receiving touch.
Throw in the above-mentioned intelligence and it becomes easy to see how a relatively obscure recruit out of Carver High School could have a stellar college and NFL career, one that likely will merit Faulk's being a first-ballot selection for the Pro Football Hall of Fame when he becomes eligible in 2011. The Louisiana Sports Hall of Fall has beaten Canton, Ohio, to the punch, though. Faulk will be one of eight inducted June 27 in Natchitoches.
How are these for bona fides?
MVP in the NFL in 2000 and Offensive Player of the Year from 1999 to 2001.
A league-record 2,429 yards from scrimmage (1,381 rushing, 1,048 receiving) in 1999.
Offensive Rookie of the Year in 1994 after the Indianapolis Colts had made him the No. 2 pick in the draft.
Seven Pro Bowls
Career totals of 12,279 yards rushing with 100 touchdowns plus 6,875 yards receiving and 36 touchdowns.
And that was after a college career that saw Faulk finish second in the 1992 Heisman Trophy voting, be selected two-time consensus All-America and in his second collegiate game set a then-Division I-A single-game record with 386 yards rushing and seven touchdowns.
"Whenever you talk about who the best was, you've got to include a lot of names," said Dick Vermeil, coach of the Faulk-featured Super Bowl XXXIV champion St. Louis Rams, when Faulk announced his retirement in 2007. "But whenever you're talking about one of the finest to ever play, you've got to put Marshall Faulk in that conversation."
Faulk, the youngest of six boys, largely avoided the pitfalls that waylaid many of his compatriots in the 9th Ward, although he admits, "I didn't always walk that straight line."
But several people, most prominently Carver football coach Wayne Reese, saw in Faulk the talent to use football as a means of escaping his environment, plus the mind-set to make it happen.
"Marshall was a young man, but he had the mind of an old guy," said Reese, who will present Faulk on June 27. "He knew what he wanted to do, even in high school. And part of that was breaking away from the ones who weren't going to make it. He understood that there are some guys who are just undesirable to be around and you have to disassociate yourself from them."
Of Reese, Faulk says, "He showed me how to dream."
However, Faulk said, it was a summer job that motivated him as much as anything.
"I was on a garbage truck for BFI," he said. "Making those runs to the dump and smelling that smell made me know that there was no way this would be my life."
Faulk began to accumulate his football knowledge at Carver, out of necessity.
The Rams were not a playoff team during Faulk's prep days, and Faulk was often pressed into service as a quarterback, receiver, defensive back, kicker and return man in addition to playing running back.
Teammates called him "The 48-Minute Man."
That meant learning every position.
"Marshall had a hell of a mind," Reese said. "He could do things that weren't taught, but he also studied the game."
To Faulk, it was just part of being successful.
"You've got to acquire as much knowledge as you can, no matter what you're doing," he said. "I didn't want to just know the running plays, I wanted to know why we were running it, when does it work and when does it not work, if the quarterback is going to check and if he does what he's going to check to.
"If we're out there trying to win a football game, what is our angle of approach? If you're going to be the best player you can be, then you've got to know more than your opponent."
Despite his multiple offensive talents, major powers -- LSU, Miami and Nebraska were the leaders -- coveted Faulk as a defensive back.
Only San Diego State, where St. Rose native Curtis Johnson was the receivers coach, recruited Faulk strictly for offense.
And that was what Faulk wanted.
"I could have been a good cornerback," he said. "But I knew what I wanted to do."
At San Diego State, Faulk became a sensation at a program that struggled for attention. The team sold a record 30,000 season tickets and Faulk-related material was available everywhere.
That would have been enough to swell the head of almost any youngster, but Johnson, now the Saints' wide receivers coach, helped Faulk keep things in perspective.
"Curtis would call me in his office and explain to me how good I wasn't," Faulk said. "I was really lucky to have good people like him and Sean Payton around me."
As a sophomore in 1992, Faulk led the nation in rushing with 1,620 yards despite missing two games and finished second to Miami quarterback Gino Torretta for the Heisman despite playing on a team that finished with a 5-5-1 record.
After another All-America season in 1993, Faulk declared for the draft and immediately justified the Colts' investment in him with 1,282 yards and 11 touchdowns.
Traded to the Rams in 1999 after he'd threatened to hold out for a new contact, Faulk along with Kurt Warner became the catalysts for "The Greatest Show on Turf," winning the Super Bowl that season and making it back to the Super Bowl two years later after being eliminated by the Saints in the first round of the 2000 playoffs.
That second Super Bowl -- a 20-17 loss to New England at the Superdome -- Faulk ranks as the biggest disappointment of his career.
"I never took losing a game so hard," Faulk said.
Faulk played for four more years before injuries ended his career. The Rams retired his number in 2007.
Faulk immediately moved into his analyst spot with the NFL Network, and with other business investments such as a pair of Popeyes franchises in Houston, he is able to maintain a comfortable lifestyle with homes in San Diego, St. Louis and Houston.
And through his Marshall Faulk Foundation, he has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars, including $70,000 to Desire Street Ministries immediately after Hurricane Katrina.
According to Reese, there have been numerous incidents of unpublicized aid to those in need in New Orleans as well.
"You can never do enough," Faulk said. "But it's amazing what can happen to you when you find out that other people care."
But Faulk added success ultimately depends on putting oneself in the right situation to be able to take advantage of the opportunities that life presents.
For him, that meant emphasizing the mental part of football as much as the physical.
When Faulk retired, former Rams offensive line coach Jim Hanifan recalled how often Faulk would come to his office to pick his brain.
"You want to know what made Marshall so good," Hanifan said. "Smartest bleepin' guy in the room, that's what he was. Smartest bleepin' guy."
Ted Lewis can be contacted at tlewis@timespicayune.com or 504.232.5071.
Four schools get charter operators
April 3, 2009
Four schools get charter operators
Recovery district names administrators
Thursday, April 02, 2009
By Darran Simon
Staff writer
The Recovery School District has settled on matches between new charter operators and four struggling district-run schools where the early grades will be chartered in the 2009-10 year.
The move to turn over control to private charter entities represents an attempt to improve academically weak schools during the next several years.
The state-run district will for now continue to control the upper grades at Drew, Carver, Gregory and Wicker elementary schools, but plans to eventually place all grades at the schools under the charter operators.
"I am excited for the kids of these schools to have a leader that's going to concentrate strictly on these four grades," said Gary Robichaux, the district's executive director of prekindergarten through eighth-grade schools.
Under the "transformation" plan, already approved by state education officials, each school would be broken up into a "lower elementary," managed by the state-approved charter operator. The district will manage the upper grades.
Plan details include:
-- ARISE Academy will take over pre-K through second grade at Drew Elementary in the Bywater neighborhood. Andrew Shahan, who has worked as an educator in Atlanta, Guatemala and New York City, including two years at KIPP:STAR, a high-performing charter school in New York, is the school leader.
-- Benjamin E. Mays Preparatory Academy will take over pre-K through second grade at Carver Elementary in the Upper 9th Ward. Duke Bradley III will be the school leader. Bradley most recently served as a New Leaders for New Schools resident principal at Craig Elementary, as part of a principal development program.
-- Pride College Preparatory Academy will take control of pre-K through second grade at Gregory Elementary in Gentilly. Michael Richard, a Louisiana native and Teach for America alum who has worked in Chicago, will be the school leader.
-- Success Preparatory Academy will take over pre-K through third grade at Wicker Elementary in Mid-City. St. Clair Adriaan, who has worked at the Noble Street Charter in Chicago and the KIPP Adelante in San Diego, is one of two leaders. The second is Niloy Gangopadhyay, also a Teach for America alum.
Each of the new charters will be responsible for academics, staffing and payroll, officials said. For the past year, in preparation for running RSD schools, the charter principals have been receiving guidance and other assistance from New Schools for New Orleans, a nonprofit that supports charters.
The Orleans Parish School Board, which lost authority over most of its schools during a 2005 state takeover, is seeking state permission to operate Drew and offer an alternative to the "transformation" model.
Robichaux said the schools' names will be modified, but not lost, under the new structure. Carver will become Carver Lower and Carver Upper, and others will follow suit.
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The RSD administrator said the charters could elect to expand one grade at time, or wait a year or two and take over all remaining grades.
He said district officials haven't decided who the principals will be for upper grades at the four schools.
District officials say principals for the upper grades of the schools may reassign teachers from lower grades to fill vacancies in the upper grades. Affected teachers in lower grades could apply for a place in the charter-run grades or could interview at other RSD schools, officials said.
RSD officials said they cannot guarantee placement but that they want to hold on to effective teachers.
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Darran Simon can be reached at dsimon@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3386.
Louisiana High School Athletic Association releases preliminary districts for next two school years
February 28, 2009
Louisiana High School Athletic Association releases preliminary districts for next two school years
The Times-Picayune, February 26, 2009 2:42 p.m.
BATON ROUGE _ The Louisiana High School Athletic Association began its reclassification process Thursday by releasing its preliminary plan for redistricting.
The big change for the metro area is that Shaw, which has been in Class 4A the past four school years, is back in Class 5A and was placed in the Catholic League along with Brother Martin, Jesuit, Rummel and St. Augustine.
Chalmette, in the Catholic League for the past two school years, has been shifted to Jefferson Parish-based District 8-5A with Bonnabel, Ehret, Higgins, King and West Jefferson.
Holy Cross has fallen from 4A to 3A and will play in District 10-3A.
The other major change is that Lutcher, which has moved up to 4A, will replace Shaw in District 8-4A. The school had hoped to move to a Baton Rouge area 4A league.
Curtis, Evangel and Calvary Baptist all remain in Class 2A.
For the most part, most of the area districts aren't changing. That, however, could change. The LHSAA will conduct area meetings in which it will hear feedback for the plan. The second reclassification meeting will be held in Lafayette on March 12 and the final meeting on March 26 in Baton Rouge.
Here are the metro area districts in the preliminary plan.
CLASS 5A
District 5-5A: Destrehan, Dutchtown, East Ascension, East St. John, Hahnville, St. Amant.
District 6-5A: Covington, Fontainebleau, Hammond, Mandeville, Northshore, Ponchatoula, Slidell, St. Paul’s, St. Scholastica.
District 8-5A: Bonnabel, Chalmette, Ehret, Higgins, King, West Jefferson.
District 9-5A: Academy of Our Lady, Chapelle, Rummel, Brother Martin, Dominican, Jesuit, Mount Carmel, Shaw, St. Augustine.
CLASS 4A
District 7-4A: Belle Chasse, Helen Cox, Ellender, Lutcher, Morgan City, Vandebilt.
District 8-4A: Cabrini, East Jefferson, Franklinton, Pearl River, Riverdale, Salmen, Ursuline.
District 9-4A: Easton, Karr, McDonogh 35, Reed, O.P. Walker, Rabouin.
CLASS 3A
District 8-3A: Brusly, Livonia, Plaquemine, Port Allen, St. James.
District 10-3A: Sacred Heart, Carver, Clark, Cohen, De La Salle, Ben Franklin, Holy Cross, McDonogh, McMain, St. Mary's, Xavier.
CLASS 2A
District 8-2A: Doyle, French Settlement, Northlake Christian, Pine, Pope John Paul II, Springfield, St. Helena Central, St. Thomas Aquinas.
District 9-2A: Curtis, Douglass, Fisher, Lusher, McGehee, Newman, Riverside, St. Charles.
CLASS 1A
District 6-1A: Hannan, Christian Life, Desire Street, Jackson, Kentwood, Southern Lab, Varnado.
District 8-1A: Ascension Catholic, Ascension Christian, East Iberville, North Iberville, St. John, West St. John, White Castle.
District 9-1A: Crescent City, Ecole, Lutheran, Country Day, Ridgewood, South Plaquemines, St. Martin’s.
CLASS B
District 8-B: Holden, Maurepas, Mt. Hermon, Patrick Taylor.
CLASS C
District 10-C: Bishop McManus, First Baptist-Slidell, Grand Isle, Holy Rosary, Phoenix, Reserve Christian.
Southern senior cornerback Glenn Bell
November 29, 2008
Southern Jaguars look toothless after Bryant Lee pulls out
Posted by Peter Steinbauer, The Times-Picayune November 29, 2008 9:52PM
Categories: Bayou Classic
Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune
Grambling State cornerback Kenneth Anio, top, and Southern wide receiver Juamorris Steward both come down with the ball in the end zone at Saturday's Bayou Classic in the Superdome. The play was ruled a touchdown.Southern quarterback Bryant Lee drives the Jaguars' offense, and it may be more apparent now than ever. Lee passed for 184 of the Jaguars' 195 total yards in the first half of Southern's 29-14 loss to Grambling State in the State Farm Bayou Classic. He then left the game with a twisted knee at the end of the half.
Lee went 12-for-17 in the first half and completed his first 10 passes.
Southern sputtered in the second half without Lee, as Grambling held the Jaguars to 133 yards and no points.
Quarterback Warren Matthews was 8-for-15 passing, but he threw three interceptions.
"I've been in this situation before, " Matthews said of coming off the bench. "So I wasn't surprised. I should have just made plays. . . . I have to read the defenses better."
Lee, who prepped at Hahnville, said it was difficult to watch the lead slip away.
"I wouldn't say we got too comfortable, " he said. "It's really disappointing."
JAGUARS BREAK OUT: Southern senior cornerback Glenn Bell was playing in front of a hometown crowd at the Superdome for the final time.
He wanted to leave with a win. It's what motivated the Carver High alumnus to lead Southern's defense. He finished with 12 tackles, including two for a loss.
"I love playing in front of my hometown, " said Bell, who wants to coach football after he graduates. "It wasn't about me going out and having a big performance because I was in my hometown. I just wanted to go out there and help my team out."
Offensively, Southern receiver Juamorris Stewart added to an impressive sophomore season with nine catches for 174 yards and one touchdown. He was chosen the Jaguars' MVP.
Stewart has 76 catches for 1,138 yards and 12 touchdowns this season. He has the most yards for a Southern receiver since Chris Davis accumulated 897 in 2003.
"I came out and played hard, " Stewart said. "It just wasn't enough."
TIGER SCORING TRENDS HOLD: Grambling has had problems scoring points in the first quarter, and the trend continued against Southern.
The Tigers scored 27 first-quarter points through their first eight games. They failed to score against Southern, falling behind 14-0 at the end of the first. The deficit was Grambling's largest of the season.
But the Tigers don't have the same problem later in games. Grambling has outscored opponents 280-105 in the second, third and fourth quarters this season.
Grambling outscored Southern 29-0 after the first quarter Saturday.
NO LUCK WITH TRICK PLAYS: Grambling and Southern both tried to gain an advantage with trick plays, but neither team executed anything that worked.
In several cases, the plays changed the game in the other team's favor.
Southern attempted a fake punt ahead 14-6 in the second quarter but fell 1 yard short of a first down when punter Josh Duran completed an 11-yard pass to Jeremy Paul.
Grambling gained possession on its 49, and quarterback Greg Dillon then completed a 40-yard pass on the next play to set up a touchdown.
Grambling attempted a double reverse from its 26 ahead 15-14 in the third quarter. Kiare Thompson fumbled the second handoff, and Southern's Don Holloway recovered.
Four plays later Duran missed a 30-yard field-goal attempt.
COIN TOSS AVOIDED: The Southwestern Athletic Conference avoided having to resort to a tiebreaker with the Grambling win.
The win eliminates the possibility of a three-way tie among Southern, Jackson State and Grambling.
If Southern had won, the tie would have been decided by a coin toss. Representatives from each school would have met today in New Orleans. All three teams would have flipped, with the odd one eliminated
Teacher says she didn't get bonus
November 20, 2008
Teacher says she didn't get bonus
RSD says it required 3-year commitment Thursday, November 20, 2008By Sarah Carr
Like many teachers drawn to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, Staci Morgan wanted to contribute to the rebuilding of the city.
But the prospect of a $17,300 bonus provided extra enticement. In the summer of 2007, the perk was part of the reason Morgan chose a job at Cohen High School, operated by the Recovery School District, over a charter school position.
Now, however, Morgan and her husband regret that decision, arguing the district still owes them $5,000. After Morgan accepted a job with the RSD, they said the district changed its policy, specifying that only teachers who made a three-year commitment to the district were eligible for the full bonus. Morgan left the district for a job at Warren Easton Charter School after her first year at Cohen.
"What they are doing might not be illegal," said Jack Morgan, Staci's husband. "But it's wrong."
District officials counter forcefully that they have always communicated that teachers needed to stick with the RSD for three years to get the full bonus. They say an early policy draft mistakenly released to Morgan is the only document that does not mention the three-year commitment. They didn't know whether others received the same draft, but said no one else has contacted them about it.
"That document should never have been handed to Staci Morgan without 'draft' on it," said Elizabeth Shaw, the district's director of human resources.
"There are so many documents we created that so clearly lay out the three-year commitment," she added, citing, for instance, a teacher recruiting Web site, www.whyyouteach.org, created by the district in the summer of 2007. Shaw noted that the state's Board of Elementary and Secondary Education approved the three-year commitment as part of its bonus policy in August 2007.
Whether or not the document Moran received was a mistake, the dispute highlights confusion that has surrounded district bonus policies in the past year, particularly for educators at Gentilly Terrace Elementary School -- an RSD school managed by the University of New Orleans -- and for teachers like Morgan who have switched schools after a year with the RSD.
Larry Carter, the president of the United Teachers of New Orleans, notes that some teachers who have contacted the union seemed unaware of the three-year commitment. "There definitely was some confusion," he said.
Small print at the bottom of the bonus material Staci Morgan originally received states: "This package is under the full control and discretion of the Board of Elementary & Secondary Education and is subject to change without notice."
That document, described by Shaw as a draft and dated Aug. 1, 2007, makes no mention of a mandatory three-year commitment for teachers.
A second document -- which is also dated August 2007 but which Jack Morgan says the couple received months later -- says candidates must "make a three-year commitment to work."
Both documents pledge a total bonus package of $17,300 for teachers who relocated to New Orleans to take jobs with the RSD for the 2007-08 school year. That amount includes a $2,500 relocation and signing incentive; a housing stipend of up to $4,800, divided into monthly payments;; plus $5,000 lump-sum payments at the end of each of the first two school years.
Jack Morgan said the first document was consistent with the information school district officials provided verbally when the couple was deciding whether to relocate to New Orleans from Nicaragua in June of 2007. He said the district has never referred to that document as a "draft" in repeated exchanges.
Staci Morgan says she received the $2,500 relocation incentive, plus a $400 monthly housing subsidy for 10 months. But she also expected to receive a $5,000 payment after completing the school year. She never did.
"I got the final paycheck, and there were rumors swirling around that we were going to get our bonuses," she said, "and then it didn't come."
Shaw said some teachers who transferred to RSD charter schools last summer also asked about whether they would receive the $5,000. But Morgan, she said, is the only teacher she has heard from who moved to a charter school outside the auspices of the district.
Warren Easton is under the control of the Orleans Parish School Board, rather than the recovery district. None of the teachers who transferred to charter schools are eligible for the $5,000, no matter what type of charter school they moved to, Shaw said, adding that the point of the point of the bonus was not only to recruit new teachers, but retain them in the RSD.
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Sarah Carr can be reached at scarr@timespicayune.com or at 504.826.3497.
Orleans Parish School Board approves $2 billion schools plan
Orleans Parish School Board approves $2 billion schools plan
by Darran Simon, The Times-Picayune
Thursday November 06, 2008, 11:01 PM
The Orleans Parish School Board voted to approve a public school facilities master plan Thursday, pushing ahead on the largest school building effort in the city's history.
The sweeping construction and renovation blueprint would spend nearly $700 million on 30 campuses in the first phase, which wraps up about 2013. The rebuilding blueprint calls for about $1.3 billion more in construction and renovations during the future phases, for which officials still have to find money.
Further, 46 campuses could be "land banked, " which means demolished, sold, redeveloped or reopened as schools in the future. The plan reduces a bloated portfolio of more than 120 run-down campuses to about 87 elementary and high schools at the end of the two-decade blueprint to handle a shrunken student population.
"We have taken a great leap ahead in telling kids we value you and expect achievement from you, " School Board President Torin Sanders said.
Board Vice President Heidi Daniels, the lone vote against the plan, said she did not feel there was an even number of campuses being upgraded or rebuilt in each school district.
"I would like the amount of money spent in each district to be equitable, " Daniels said after the vote.
The state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education still has to approve the plan and recommendations from School Superintendent Darryl Kilbert, State Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek and Recovery School District Superintendent Paul Vallas.
Even with the approval of the demographic-driven plan, each project still would have to be authorized as part of the annual capital budgets of the Orleans Parish School Board and the Recovery School District. Demographics would also be reviewed every two years, and the plan adjusted.
Thursday's meeting drew more than 100 people and elicited a few praises from alumni of Carver High School, the site of a new high school in the Upper 9th Ward. Students and supporters of Eleanor McMain Secondary School in Uptown also lauded a decision to keep the school open and build a new gymnasium and other upgrades.
But the meeting also drew passionate pleas from several Lower 9th Ward residents to immediately build a high school in their repopulating community.
"The life is being sucked out of our community, and the money is being spent somewhere else, " said Vanessa Gueringer, a member of the Lower 9th Ward Stakeholders Coalition, a group of 10 community organizations.
Initially, a first draft released in August proposed building a high school in the Lower 9th Ward in the next five years. The recommendations that the board approved Thursday call for a high school in the Lower 9th Ward but not until the second phase of the plan, which is after 2013.
"It's a crucial need for infrastructure development in the Lower 9th Ward, " said Patricia Jones, executive director of Neighborhood Empowerment Network Association, which is part of the coalition.
The coalition stated in a press release that Vallas "verbally promised" a new high school in the first phase. Jones said the coalition also signed an agreement with the state-run district to receive $50,000 toward the planning of a high school in the flooded community.
In a phone interview from Chicago on Thursday, Vallas said, "We promised that there will be a high school in the 9th Ward and it would be built in the Lower 9th Ward and be built in phase one."
But Vallas said community input and demographics, and the size of the 65-acre Carver campus, which has an overflowing student enrollment being taught in modular buildings, were among the justifications for the change.
Other recommendations include moving up the timelines of three new schools and reducing the size of new elementary schools. Board members Thursday voted to list in the plan that McDonogh 35 High School will be rebuilt on the combined Phillips Middle and Waters Elementary site. The board also moved a small high school planned at the Audubon Institute's Species Survival Center and at the NASA Michoud facility into the second phase.
Officials will hold off on decisions to close four campuses -- Frederick A. Douglass Senior High School, O. Perry Walker High School, Walter L. Cohen Senior High and Samuel J. Green Charter elementary -- until at least 2016. Decisions about the future of those schools hinge on demographics and the quality of the programs.
Several members of the Walker faculty spoke in support of keeping the school alive, saying it is a high-performing, open-enrollment charter school with strong graduation rates.
"We have a dedicated staff. We have great leaders, " math teacher Nolan Grady said.
Pastorek said officials do not intend to hurt good programs and will work to ensure they are not displaced as campuses close.
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Darran Simon can be reached at dsimon@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3386.
Board likely to vote on schools overhaul today
November 6, 2008
Board likely to vote on schools overhaul today
by Darran Simon, The Times-Picayune
Thursday November 06, 2008, 6:33 AM
The Orleans Parish School Board likely will vote to support a revised public schools facilities master plan tonight, bringing the sweeping construction and renovation plan a step closer to reality.
The project's first phase, stretching to about 2013, calls for spending close to $700 million on a total of 32 campuses. The plan includes an additional $1.3 billion in projects for future phases, which are not fully financed. Another 46 campuses would be mothballed, or "land-banked," an effort to shrink the city's bloated portfolio of campuses in response to sharply reduced school enrollment.
Three of seven board members said this week they would support the plan, and President Torin Sanders said he predicts the board will approve the recommendations. Board members Heidi Daniels, Una Anderson and Cynthia Cade couldn't be reached for comment.
"We'll probably still have to have a lot of debate about it," Sanders said, referring to pending discussions about the plan's implementation and the role of the local board, which owns all of the city's school buildings, and the state-run Recovery School District, which has control of most campuses.
The plan calls for a superintendent-appointed five-person committee to oversee the project. School officials are talking to city's inspector general's office and City Council about assisting with oversight.
The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education must also approve the plan, and it may vote on it this month.
State schools Superintendent Paul Pastorek, Recovery District Superintendent Paul Vallas and Orleans Parish School Board Superintendent Darryl Kilbert this week announced revisions to the plan, many in response to complaints from community groups after the plan's initial release in August.
The revisions recommend moving up completion deadlines for three new construction projects. Two of the proposed new projects, elementary schools, are near shuttered public housing complexes slated for redevelopment in the Treme and Central City neighborhoods.
The plan also reduces the size of new elementary schools, which would shift about $60 million to other projects in the first phase. The new recommendations also call for the construction of a high school at the Carver site in the Upper 9th Ward, also during the first phase.
Another change calls for building a new high school multiplex in the first phase, rather than the second, at the former Edward Livingston High School campus in eastern New Orleans. That would help eliminate the use of costly, unpopular modular buildings at schools citywide.
The plan would keep McMain Secondary School at its Uptown location and pour $12 million of upgrades into the school, including a new gymnasium, rather than close the facility and relocate students possibly to the Booker T. Washington campus.
Officials will also hold off on decisions to close four campuses -- Samuel J. Green, Frederick A. Douglass Senior High School, O. Perry Walker High School and Walter L. Cohen Senior High -- until at least 2016. The schools could be taken off the list of facilities slated to be land-banked, meaning those campuses could be closed, demolished, sold, put to another use or reopened as schools sometime in the future.
The decisions to keep those programs, officials said, hinge on the quality of the programs and the student population there.
Even with the master plan's approval, each project still would have to be authorized as part of the capital budgets of the Orleans Parish School Board and the Recovery School District. Demographics will be reviewed every two years and the plan adjusted accordingly.
Darran Simon can be reached at dsimon@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3386.
School officials take second look at master plan
November 2, 2008
School officials take second look at master plan
In response to community input, more projects shifted to first phase
Sunday, November 02, 2008
By Darran Simon
and Sarah Carr%%par%%Staff writers
School officials on Monday will unveil a revised school facilities master plan that shifts more projects into the first, five-year phase -- the only portion of the sweeping plan currently fully financed -- and defers decisions on closing four currently occupied campuses for several years.
The revisions also reverse decisions to close two campuses and instead call for construction or renovation in the first phase. Eleanor McMain Secondary High, previously considered for a move, will now be renovated at its Uptown location, and Carver High School will see its current campus demolished to make way for a new high school.
Previously, the plan called for that new high school to be built in the Lower 9th Ward. That neighborhood will still see a new high school, though in the second phase of the plan.
Another major change: reducing the size of 10 proposed elementary school buildings, in an effort to reduce costs and create smaller schools. The schools, originally slated to serve about 600 students each, will now serve between 450 to 530.
Those changes should shift about $60 million toward additional projects added in the first phase.
Ultimately, the building plan will span over six phases for elementary schools and five phases for high schools. It will cost up to $2 billion.
The plan aims to shrink the city's bloated portfolio of school buildings to account for drastically decreased public school enrollment, both because of the flood and declining enrollment over the past three decades.
The first phase, which carries the bulk of construction, could result in the renovation and new construction of 32 campuses, paid for with close to $700 million, drawn mostly from federal flood-recovery money.
The Orleans Parish School Board -- with only two current members remaining in office to see the bulk of the phase-one construction -- will vote Thursday on the joint recommendations from board Superintendent Darryl Kilbert, state school Superintendent Paul Pastorek and Recovery School District Superintendent Paul Vallas.
The state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education also must approve the plan; it is scheduled to vote this month.
The recommended changes largely were the result of hundreds of public comments received since the first draft was presented in mid-August.
In response to community criticism and appeals, school officials said they will hold off on proposals to close four schools: the Frederick A. Douglass, Samuel J. Green, Walter L. Cohen Senior and O. Perry Walker high school campuses. Those decisions won't be made until phase two, after 2013.
The decisions will hinge on the strength of programs and the student population at that time, Pastorek said.
The first draft of the sweeping facilities plan recommended mothballing some 52 campuses -- including several historic buildings and some relatively successful programs.
That proposal sparked fear among some residents about the future of academic programs in those buildings, and, in some cases, backlash from elected officials.
However, officials decided to keep the majority of buildings on the list for "land banking," meaning the campuses will be closed as schools and the buildings sold, put to another use or reopened as schools sometime in the future.
Only one occupied building, the Audubon School extension Uptown, is scheduled to be land banked before the end of the first phase, officials said. Audubon's main campus will remain open and be renovated in phase one, but the resulting school will serve substantially fewer students.
The revisions also call for three schools to move from the second phase to the first: Edward Livingston, which currently houses two charter schools in modular buildings, will become the site of a new high school, and Carter G. Woodson and Phyllis Wheatley schools, which are near two now-closed public housing developments slated for redevelopment into thousands of housing and rental units.
The organizations redeveloping those former public housing developments -- the C.J. Peete, near Woodson, and the Lafitte, near Wheatley -- have committed to helping finance those schools. But the financial details of those arrangements still must be worked out.
The changes were driven in part by lobbying from school faculties and community groups to have their projects moved into the first phases.
Those complaints stemmed from worries that future phases of the plan, which will cost up to $1.3 billion, might not get financed. Tulane University's Cowen Institute and the independent watchdog group, Bureau of Governmental Research, raised red flags about how much isn't financed at this point.
The two groups argued that if money is not found for later phases of the plan -- a likely scenario, they say -- it would exacerbate inequities in children's access to quality school programs and buildings.
But Thelma French, director of board operations and intergovernmental relations, countered that the schools in later phases have already received more than $100 million in repairs and renovations to get them reopened after the flood.
Advocates of several schools expressed relief that the protests produced change in the plan.
Teachers and parents from McMain, who advocated strongly to stay at the Uptown site -- in a residential area near universities -- rather than move to the campus of Booker T. Washington -- near an industrial site -- will now enjoy a $12 million renovation of the current school, including the addition of a gym.
"That's what we wanted. That's what the students and parents and most, if not all, of the teachers wanted," said Natalie Maloney, a McMain teacher.
Pastorek said keeping McMain on its current site was, "the biggest compromise."
Even with the approval of the master plan, each individual project still will have to be authorized as part of the capital budgets of the Orleans Parish School Board and the Recovery School District.
Carver's future still in doubt
Carver's future still in doubt
Friday, October 31, 2008By Pierce W. Huff
What's going to happen to Carver?
The question cast a pall over the school's first homecoming football game in four years.
A group of Carver alumni had a table in the parking lot outside of Pan American Stadium on Oct. 18 and solicited signatures for a petition to take to the Recovery School District in hopes of keeping the school alive.
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Carver's football players prepared for their game against Rabouin wondering if their first homecoming game in the Rams' green, orange and white jerseys would be their last.
"I worry about the future of the school every day," quarterback Nick Adams said.
In the end, the 12-8 loss to Rabouin wasn't what Carver players, students, fans and alumni were most concerned about.
"It's important that Carver stays open," Coach Shyrone Carey said.
Carver Athletic Director Brian Bordainick said students ask him and the other Carver teachers what's going to happen to the school.
"I hear different things in the rumor mill, and every day it's different stuff," he said.
The Recovery School District's draft master plan, which was released in August, recommended having a high school in the 9th Ward area, but officials still are determining the location. It could be at Carver or the Martin Luther King Jr. Charter School, which added a ninth grade this year.
There was a public comment period in which residents were allowed to comment in hearings or in writing to the Orleans Parish School Board.
State Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek, Orleans Parish Superintendent Darryl Kilbert and RSD Superintendent Paul Vallas have been evaluating the issue and will make their recommendations soon. The Orleans Parish School Board and the state board of education will vote on the final plan in November.
Bordainick said he hates not having a definite answer for his worried students.
"A girl in my class asked me what's going on," he said. "It was hard for me not to be able to explain what's going on."
Friday, October 31, 2008By Pierce W. Huff
What's going to happen to Carver?
The question cast a pall over the school's first homecoming football game in four years.
A group of Carver alumni had a table in the parking lot outside of Pan American Stadium on Oct. 18 and solicited signatures for a petition to take to the Recovery School District in hopes of keeping the school alive.
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Carver's football players prepared for their game against Rabouin wondering if their first homecoming game in the Rams' green, orange and white jerseys would be their last.
"I worry about the future of the school every day," quarterback Nick Adams said.
In the end, the 12-8 loss to Rabouin wasn't what Carver players, students, fans and alumni were most concerned about.
"It's important that Carver stays open," Coach Shyrone Carey said.
Carver Athletic Director Brian Bordainick said students ask him and the other Carver teachers what's going to happen to the school.
"I hear different things in the rumor mill, and every day it's different stuff," he said.
The Recovery School District's draft master plan, which was released in August, recommended having a high school in the 9th Ward area, but officials still are determining the location. It could be at Carver or the Martin Luther King Jr. Charter School, which added a ninth grade this year.
There was a public comment period in which residents were allowed to comment in hearings or in writing to the Orleans Parish School Board.
State Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek, Orleans Parish Superintendent Darryl Kilbert and RSD Superintendent Paul Vallas have been evaluating the issue and will make their recommendations soon. The Orleans Parish School Board and the state board of education will vote on the final plan in November.
Bordainick said he hates not having a definite answer for his worried students.
"A girl in my class asked me what's going on," he said. "It was hard for me not to be able to explain what's going on."
TRYING TIMES
TRYING TIMES
Despite a setback at homecoming and doubt about the future of their school, Carver's football players and coaches are determined to succeed Friday, October 31, 2008By Pierce W. Huff
Carver quarterback Nick Adams said he didn't know what to expect when he walked on the plush green FieldTurf at Pan American Stadium toward a gathering of his teammates and coaches after the Rams' 12-8 homecoming loss to Rabouin on Oct. 18.
It was a game that Carver thought it could win. Rams Athletic Director Brian Bordainick hand-picked Rabouin as Carver's homecoming opponent based on the timing of the game and the Falcons' lack of competitiveness.
Carver players and coaches were confident about the game as they enjoyed the school's homecoming festivities all week.
Entering the game (the Rams were 0-2, and the Falcons were 0-3), the only thing those associated with Carver might have lacked confidence about was the future of their school.
There is no official word from the state board of education on the future of Carver, and because of that the uncertainty about the school cast a pall over the homecoming festivities. Those at Carver now realize that saving the school is more important than any wins or losses on the football field.
Junior defensive tackle Brandon Molden said he loved "70's Day" during homecoming week, when students walked around in afro wigs and bell bottoms. Molden said he even tried to get two friends to dress with him as Run DMC on "Celebrity Day," but they changed their minds.
At no time during homecoming festivities was it mentioned that Carver could lose the football game.
Then it happened. Rabouin scored the game-winning touchdown in the final minute, and the party was over.
In its glorious football past, Carver never would have lost to Rabouin. The Rams had teams that contended for district titles annually. One Carver team went to West Monroe and upset the Rebels, a perennial power in Class 5A.
But this is a different Carver football team. The school just resumed its program, and the team has a group of young, inexperienced players who still are trying to figure out what to do and how to play.
After the game, Carver Coach Shyrone Carey stood in front of his players and congratulated them for playing hard and making progress in their rebuilding season.
It was the most distinct sign of what Carver's football comeback has come down to -- celebrating close games and moral victories.
Adams couldn't believe it.
"I expected (Coach Carey) to show some fury and talk about how some people were not doing their job," Adams said. "He gave us a round of applause."
This season Carey has been forced to temper his expectations about Carver because of the immense rebuilding job.
"I was very disappointed about the loss to Rabouin, but that was the first time we competed the whole game," he said. "It was close, and that hurts the most. We talk about competing all 48 minutes, and the fact that they did that alone makes me proud of the kids. That's what we want."
The final touchdown in the Rabouin loss still haunts Molden. He almost made a game-saving tackle to prevent running back Richshad Lee from scoring on a 3-yard touchdown run with 56 seconds remaining.
"I hit him low, below his waist line and above his knees before he got to the goal line," Molden said. "He came to a stop. Then, there were more hits, and he just fell forward."
Lee's touchdown was disappointing to Molden, his teammates and the Carver fans, including some alumni who traveled from as far as Texas to see the game.
"At the time I was like: 'Oh, my God. I can't believe he just scored,' " Molden said. "Then, I had confidence that our offense would get the job done and we would score and win."
It never happened.
Carver lost its first two games of the season to Slidell and Cohen by a combined score of 107-14.
Carey and the team viewed the Rabouin game as a measuring stick.
They got a mixed answer.
Carver forced Rabouin into three turnovers and held the Falcons to 5 yards passing.
Adams accounted for Carver's touchdown when he threw a 50-yard pass to receiver Johnell Davis.
"We did better in this game," Adams said. "I'm proud of my team, because we hung in there."
Junior center/defensive tackle Chris Lacy said Carver had shown much improvement since its first two games.
"Our defense played harder than ever," he said. "We had a chance to win the game."
Still, Carey pushes on, determined to build the program to its pre-Hurricane Katrina heights.
"I talk to Shyrone all the time, and I tell him that three or four years from now, when we're 9-1 or 8-2 we'll look back on these days and laugh," Bordainick said. "He doesn't want to hear stuff like that now."
And neither do the Carver players.
"I think we're getting better," Adams said. "I think we're close."
In the Rams' latest game, Carver (0-4) fell to Rummel (7-0) 46-0 on Oct. 24.
. . . . . . .
Pierce W. Huff can be reached at phuff@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3809.
Petition
Go to HANDOUT on the left menu to print your copy of the petition to save Carver This petition is to show our opposition to the Master Plan Committee of the Orleans Parish School Board and the Recovery School District decision not to rebuild the school. We are trying to gather as many signatures as possible by October 21st to present at a meeting scheduled at Mc35 High School @ 5pm. Everyone is invited, bring your signed petitions and wear your orange and green.
Game plan for building N.O. schools questioned
October 16, 2008
Game plan for building N.O. schools questioned
by Sarah Carr, The Times-Picayune
Wednesday October 15, 2008, 10:26 PM
Two independent groups on Wednesday raised red flags about the long-term financing behind the city's ambitious and unprecedented school construction plan.
At a meeting of the state school board, the groups also probed school officials for more details about the costs of individual projects. Representatives of Tulane University's Cowen Institute and the Bureau of Governmental Research argued that if money is not found for later phases of the plan -- a likely scenario, they say -- it would exacerbate inequities in children's access to quality school programs and buildings. Specifically, they said, it would lead to a situation where some students attend school in state-of-the-art buildings while others remain indefinitely in decrepit, outdated buildings.
"We probably will not be able to fund the final phases of this plan, " said Tara O'Neill, policy analyst with Tulane University's Cowen Institute. She said that means the plan "will lead to greater disparity between facilities."
The six-phase school construction and renovation plan will cost about $2 billion. New Orleans officials have at least $685 million in financing available for the first phase. That leaves up to $1.3 billion unfinanced, although school officials have said they will likely be able to pull together at least another couple hundred million dollars for future phases.
Recovery School District officials called it standard practice in long-term capital planning to begin projects before all of the money for the entire plan has been identified or earmarked. They said delays would only increase costs.
"At some point we have got to start building, " Recovery School District Superintendent Paul Vallas said.
Karen Burke, the district's deputy superintendent for operations, said, "If you want to discuss equity, we have equity right now: Most of our buildings are bad."
Cowen Institute and BGR officials said they don't want the plan delayed, but seek more details about the cost of specific building projects. They note that the plan breaks down costs by phase, but not by specific projects.
"Before we really move forward, someone has to have a clear understanding of what the numbers really are, " said Janet Howard, BGR president.
Per-student costs
The master plan calls for paying nearly twice as much per student on a building project than the national average, according to Cowen Institute research.
That research shows that the national average of the cost of new schools currently under construction is $24,200 per student, compared with an average cost of $42,000 per student in the master plan.
Recovery School District officials called the comparison unfair and misleading. They said the figures do not take into account the considerable cost of building elevated schools that can withstand hurricane-force winds or the relative cost of building projects in post-Katrina New Orleans.
Burke said the school buildings in New Orleans all have to be set on pilings and raised above the ground, and will have windows that can withstand 125-mph winds.
"All that is done so that if there is a hurricane, the buildings won't be totally destroyed, " she said.
Ramsey Green, the director of capital projects for the district, added that the master-plan projections include the cost of furniture and technology equipment for the schools, while national averages do not.
"We're not building Cadillacs, " he said.
Burke added: "If they think they have a way to pull (costs) down further, then you can bet your boots we are going to do it."
Comparing averages
O'Neill of the Cowen Institute said she considers the national averages a "nice benchmark to begin to look at" cost issues in more detail. She pointed out that while the New Orleans figures might include costs not applicable in other parts of the country, other regions might have their own unusual expenses -- such as protecting buildings against earthquakes in California.
Cowen officials said they do not want to disrupt the timeline of the master plan. But they asked the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education to review the costs of individual construction and renovation projects, and compare them with national and regional averages, before signing off.
"We want all this information unpacked a little more, " said O'Neill. "How much are we spending per school, and what are we getting for that money?"
Howard said that while federal money will pay for the first phase, she is fairly confident that later phases would have to be financed with local tax money.
The prospect that New Orleans taxpayers would be able to afford spending more than $1 billion on later phases -- along with other major infrastructure needs in the city -- is "dim, " she said.
The first phase of the master plan calls for the new construction or renovation of 28 schools in the next few years. In total, the blueprint proposes 67 elementary school campuses and 17 high school campuses. Further, 52 campuses -- some vacant, some occupied -- will be "landbanked, " meaning they could be redeveloped for community use, sold to build housing, demolished or retained for future public use.
The public comment period for the plan ends Friday. The Orleans Parish School Board plans to vote on the plan Nov. 6, and the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education expects to vote in December.
. . . . . . .
Sarah Carr can be reached at scarr@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3497
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After being routed by Slidell in the opener, fledgling Carver realizes there's much work to be done
September 28, 2008
After being routed by Slidell in the opener, fledgling Carver realizes there's much work to be done
Sunday, September 28, 2008By Pierce W. Huff
Carver High School football coach Shyrone Carey was so livid after his team's 63-14 loss at Slidell on Sept. 19 that he could only yell a few sentences at his exhausted players before storming away.
This wasn't the way the proud Carver football program was supposed to resurrect itself after three dormant seasons. In one giant gesture, Carey made that obvious.
The stunned Carver players were silent and motionless as they listened to words from Carver assistants about how they had to improve their work before and during games. The entire team then walked over to Carey and listened to a postgame dissertation about its errors in the Rams' first game since 2004, before Hurricane Katrina forced the suspension of the program. After that dressing down, the team made the long bus ride back to the 9th Ward.
The anticipation and excitement about Carver's first game since its return to football increased every day leading up to the Slidell game.
There was a buzz among the students, teachers and players.
Rams linebacker Richard Davis said his classmates were talking about the game all week during lunch breaks.
Carver Athletic Director Brian Bordainick was stopped by people during his travels in the close-knit 9th Ward community and asked about the game and the team.
The excitement was even getting to Carey, who played football before packed crowds at Shaw and LSU.
During the summer workouts, with the first game weeks away, the coach went from player to player offering instruction and encouragement.
Before the game, players noticed that Carey had an extra bounce in his step and an edge in his voice.
"He was hyped," Carver receiver Johnell Davis said. "You could see it in his actions and his words."
Try as they might to be reserved and focused on their assignments, the Carver players also were excited. It's one thing to practice when there is no game in sight, but it's another to practice when you know that a game is just around the corner.
It was fun," Richard Davis said.
--- Getting focused on the action ---
There were plenty of distractions for Carver before the Slidell game, but the players were unfazed. Carey had a no-talking policy during the bus ride from Carver to Slidell, and none of the players uttered a word.
"Coach Carey was all about discipline," said Irvin Skinner, the bus driver.
Once at Slidell, Carey kept the players' minds focused on the task at hand -- defeating the Tigers.
There was no idle chatter before the game. The players either talked to Carey or his assistant coaches about the game plan, or they said nothing.
The players also kept their eyes on Carey whenever he yelled out instructions, and were focused on their pregame drills.
A trio of parachutists drifted into the stadium while the Carver players worked out on a field behind the visitor's stands, and no one budged. The helicopter and an airplane circled the stadium in the minutes before the game, and the players kept right on going, either listening to Carey or working out.
"We had a lot of guys with the deer-in-the-headlights look going into the game," Carey said. "We tried to calm them down and get their focus on football."
It worked.
Mentally, Carver was as ready for its first game as it could have been.
"We're Carver, and we've got pride in what we do on the field," Rams quarterback Nick Adams said.
--- A tough loss ---
In the minutes before the game, the announcer at Slidell welcomed Carver back to the football field after its three-year hiatus.
But Slidell spent the next few hours roughing up its guests.
Coming off a 28-7 loss to rival Salmen the previous week, Slidell was determined to get a win against a new program. The Tigers played intense football from the start, and the Rams couldn't handle their fury.
The bigger and faster Slidell offensive and defensive lines dominated the smaller Carver players from the opening drive.
Carver won the toss and started at its 21-yard line. In Carver's first three plays, Adams threw an incompletion, completed a 5-yard pass to Davis and was sacked for an 11-yard loss.
Slidell scored touchdowns on its first six possessions. The Tigers led 21-0 at the end of the first quarter and 42-0 at halftime.
"We had things open during the game, but up front we couldn't block them," Carver assistant coach Tirerell Bonner said. "We just got our weights in July, and the Slidell players had their weights since they've been in high school."
The lone bright spot for Carver was the play of Johnell Davis, a receiver who had 11 catches for 193 yards and two touchdowns. However, six of his catches and his two touchdown receptions came in the second half when Slidell's second- and third-string defenses took the field.
Some Carver players said the team didn't do the necessary fundamental things to win.
"We just didn't execute our plays right," Richard Davis said. "We didn't tackle on defense."
Some Carver players said the game was tougher than they thought it would be.
"I thought we could do better, but it didn't show on the field," Carver sophomore Jessie Bibbins said. "I didn't think we would lose like this."
--- A rough reality ---
When Carey briefly walked away from his team at the end of the Slidell game, he knew what Carver faced and what it had showed on the field, and he wasn't happy.
The loss to Slidell showed that the Carver players lack the experience needed to compete against established programs.
The Slidell game was scheduled to be Carver's second of the season, but Hurricane Gustav canceled the Rams' game in the Recovery School District Jamboree and their opener the next week against Hannan.
"We only had four players on our team in that game who had played in a varsity game before," Carey said.
The Slidell loss also showed Carey that he and his coaches might have to do some extra coaching.
"We didn't have guys ready to play (against Slidell)," he said.
Nevertheless, the Carver pride remains, and the Rams will continue working and fighting to win.
"We're taking our lumps as we go, but we'll get better," Carey said.
And no one has lost faith at Carver.
The Rams think they will be winners again -- it's just going to take some time.
"We've got to bring Carver back," Adams said.
. . . . . . .
Pierce W. Huff can be reached at phuff@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3809.
BACK IN THE GAME Under the guidance of Coach Shyrone Carey, Carver resumes football program
July 13, 2008
BACK IN THE GAME Under the guidance of Coach Shyrone Carey, Carver resumes football program
Posted by Pierce W. Huff The Times-Picayune July 12, 2008 10:01PM
The words are plastered in bold green letters on a gray T-shirt worn by Carver High School football coach Shyrone Carey: "REBUILDING THE COMMUNITY ONE VICTORY AT A TIME."
Carey wears the T-shirt to team workouts and occasional outings in the community so people can get the message that has become the mission and mantra of his players.
Carver reopened last year and has moved to a spot behind the hurricane-damaged buildings on its original Higgins Boulevard campus. And after two dormant football seasons, Carey and his players are conducting summer weight-lifting in a classroom and running on a vacant football field beside the school's boarded-up gym.
For Carey, 26, who is long on enthusiasm but short on experience, rebuilding Carver's football program was a challenge he had to take. He has always wanted to be a football coach like his mentors -- Nick Saban, who coached him at LSU, and Hank Tierney, who coached him at Shaw.
"I think it's going to be special to build a program from the ground up and know that you've created something good, " said Carey, who was the running backs coach at O. Perry Walker last season.
For the Carver football team, it isn't as much about keeping the history of the proud Rams program alive as it is the thrill of having the chance to win in the school's green-and-orange uniforms.
"I'm excited and can't wait to play our first season, " junior offensive/defensive tackle Everett Robertson said.
Since its first season in 1959, Carver football has been a way of life in the 9th Ward, and Carey and the players hope that football again will help further rejuvenate the battered community.
Jesuit assistant coach Ricky Williams, who coached Carver's last pre-Katrina football team, said people just don't understand what the Rams mean to the 9th Ward.
"Carver football is the heart of that community, " Williams said. "You've got generations of people two- and three-fold who attended school there. The team breathes life back into the community."
A slow process
During his playing career at Shaw and LSU, Carey was a scatback/returner who had a reputation of outrunning people and cutting his way in and out of trouble on the field.
Rebuilding Carver's football program is one situation Carey probably cannot succeed at quickly.
"Every day is a challenge, " he said.
The main obstacle for Carey has been finding players. Since he took over as coach last February, he has been surveying the campus, looking for boys who want to be a part of the Rams' first post-Katrina team.
An average of 18 players have been attending summer workouts. The team lifts weights in a modular building with football equipment scattered across the room.
"It's better than nothing, " Robertson said.
Carey said most of the 38 players on his roster have not been coming to summer workouts because they have jobs. But he isn't worried about the number of players at the sessions. Granted, he would like to have better participation, but he understands. He expects another 10 to 15 players to join when school starts Aug. 18.
There could be anywhere from 50 to 60 players on the roster by the time Carver plays its first game, Sept. 5 against Hannan.
"The players are slowly coming back, but I think it's going to take time, " Carey said.
A simple philosophy
Successful coaches work hard -- that's the main lesson Carey learned from Saban and Tierney.
Like his mentors, Carey rarely stops working. He always is trying to come up with ways to motivate his players during their workouts.
Carey takes pride in that he can call Saban at any time and get a helpful word.
"Coach Saban has taught me about the daily grind, " Carey said. "He said you have to work as hard as you ask the guys to work on your team."
Saban said he's proud of Carey for undertaking such a challenge.
"I'm sure (Shyrone) is going to be a wonderful coach, " Saban said. "We wish him nothing but the best at his new challenge at Carver High. We are happy for Shyrone, and there is really a lot of self-gratification for us to see guys like him who came up the hard way and have had success. Now he will have a chance to have an impact on other young people in his community."
Carey talks with Tierney twice a week and has learned from the former Shaw coach the importance of building close relationships with his players.
Sophomore quarterback Nathan Davis said he sees Carey as more of a big brother than a coach, and is thankful for the time Carey has put into making the players better.
But Carey says there is plenty more work to do before the season starts.
Carver, which is playing a non-district independent schedule, will play at least five games this season, including against Class 5A Slidell, but Carey has been calling teams with open dates and hopes to fill the schedule up to a standard 10 games in the next month or so.
"We're going to treat every game like it's a one-game season because we just have to get better, " Carey said. "We need all of the experience and game-time preparation that we can get in order to be a good team."
A big team
Robertson said half of his family moved to Texas and the other half to Baton Rouge after Katrina. Junior quarterback Nick Adams stayed in Atlanta for two years after the storm. Davis lived in Natchitoches at the time of Katrina, but moved to the 9th Ward because his father is a mortician and was able to find plenty of work in New Orleans.
Despite their different backgrounds, Robertson, Adams and Davis are part of a team now.
And in a larger sense, the Carver football team is a part of an even bigger team -- the 9th Ward.
"I've had a lot of situations where people in the community will come up to me and say 'good luck, ' and then give me some of their war stories about the old football teams, " Carey said. "When they talk about Carver football, they talk about their love for the team and their passion."
Williams said he thinks Carey is the right coach for Carver.
"He's young, energetic and played college ball, " Williams said. "This is his canvass to paint."
Ron Gearing, the athletic director for the Orleans Public School System, said it's good to have Carver football back.
"When Carver was in its heyday, it had a rich alumni base with players like Marshall Faulk, " Gearing said of the former NFL MVP running back. "It would have been a waste to see that tradition end. I'm glad Coach Carey picked it up."
Carey has told his players how much this season means to everyone.
After all, they can't help but see it every time Carey wears his gray T-shirt.
"REBUILDING THE COMMUNITY ONE VICTORY AT A TIME." . . . . .
Pierce W. Huff can be reached at phuff@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3809.
June 9, 2008
Class 3A
School Week Date Opponent Class District Home / Away Out of State Win/Loss Score
Carver Week 1 9/5/2008
Archbishop Hannan Class 1A 7 - 1A H -
Carver Week 2 9/13/2008
TO BE DETERMINED 0 -
Carver Week 3 9/19/2008
Rabouin, L.E. Class 3A 11 - 3A A 0 -
Carver Week 3 9/19/2008
Slidell Class 5A 6 - 5A A 0 -
Carver Week 4 9/26/2008
Cohen, W.L. Class 3A 11 - 3A H 0 -
Carver Week 5 10/3/2008
TO BE DETERMINED 0 -
Carver Week 6 10/10/2008
TO BE DETERMINED 0 -
Carver Week 8 10/24/2008
TO BE DETERMINED 0 -
Carver Week 9 10/31/2008
TO BE DETERMINED 0 -
Perry Pitre
Sports Correspondent
Published: Wednesday, May 28, 2008 at 3:00 p.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, May 28, 2008 at 1:17 p.m.
Matt Stamey/Staff Central Lafourche’s Byron Thomas hauls in a 23-yard touchdown pass against Carver during Tuesday night’s spring scrimmage in Mathews.
MATHEWS -- The Carver Rams face a long road back, fielding their first football team since Hurricane Katrina, but they had no idea that the road to Central Lafourche went through Houma.
The Rams, scheduled to scrimmage against the Trojans at 6 p.m. Tuesday, arrived in Matthews about 20 minutes late after their bus driver took them first to South Terrebonne.
"We trusted the driver. He said he knew where we were going," Carver athletic director Brian Bordainick said. "And if we had been going to South Terrebonne, he’d have been right."
Once the teams took the field, the road got even rougher as the Trojans pounded the undermanned Rams 30-12 in a 60-play controlled scrimmage.
Tuesday’s scrimmage was originally scheduled for Thursday, but it was postponed because of heavy rains.
Central dominated from the start, scoring their first touchdown in three plays, with running back Byron Thomas accounting for all 80 yards, including a 51-yard touchdown scamper.
The first drive set the tone, as Carver could find no answer for the outside/inside combination of Thomas and Chevell Shelby, who combined for 139 yards rushing in the first 10 plays.
Carver’s offense got off to a shaky start, with bobbled handoffs, and two snaps in shotgun that went over quarterback Nick Adams’ head.
Central’s second series went much as the first, with Shelby picking up yardage in 10- to 15-yard chunks before quarterback Cobie Savoie hit Thomas with a 23-yard touchdown pass.
"Byron Thomas had some big runs," Central coach Chad Callais said. "Chevell Shelby, he’s going to be one of our workhorses. Both of our quarterbacks, Cobie and Felix Girouard did a good job. Our offensive line looked real good."
Carver got on the board when Adams hit Johnell Davis with a 26-yard strike.
First-year Carver coach and former LSU standout Shyrone Carey said the biggest challenge facing his young team is learning how much work football involves.
"When our young guys see a touchdown in an NFL or college game, they just see a 60 yard bomb. They have no idea about footwork, the little details that make the play work. So right now, the biggest thing for us is teaching them the details, why a play works. It’s not just a 60 yard play, it’s what it takes to get the point where those plays work," Carey said.
Callais, running a resurgent Central Lafourche program, fielded almost 90 players, a number that required the school to purchase extra uniforms.
"We lost a lot of seniors last year," Callais said. "But we’ve got a lot of young kids, a lot of athletes we want to develop. So we’re extremely excited about our future. But the quicker we can get them to develop proper technique, the quicker we can get this program back where it needs to be."
Not shying away from work
Not shying away from work
Former Shaw, LSU standout Shyrone Carey takes over Carver football
02:17 PM CDT on Thursday, June 5, 2008
By Bradley Handwerger / WWL-TV.com Staff Writer bhandwerger@wwltv.com
Shyrone Carey has been on a football team that made the state championship game.
He has played on a team that won a Southeastern Conference and NCAA national title.
And now he hopes to coach a team to the pinnacle of Louisiana high school football.
By Bradley Handwerger / WWL-TV.com
Shyrone Carey, a former LSU and Shaw standout, became a first-time head coach when Carver hired him early in 2008 to lead its program back from Katrina. Carey is 26.
His history might just help him accomplish this as a first-time head coach trying to revive the football program at Carver High, a recovery school district school hit hard by Katrina in August 2005.
“I have a strong love for football and I know Carver football historically has been a program where they have a lot of tradition and a huge following and, so to speak as a city public school, Carver was upper echelon before Hurricane Katrina,” said Carey, who turned 26 in January.
“I thought with the ideas I have and the things I want to set, I think Carver would be a great foundation for me to start.”
Carey’s football career began on the playgrounds of New Orleans. It progressed to Archbishop Shaw on the Westbank, where earned Class 5A all-state honors as a senior. He threw for 2,218 yards and 22 touchdowns that year and was rated as the No. 1 prospect in Louisiana. Shaw made the state championship game in 1997, Carey’s sophomore season.
After originally signing with Tennessee, he changed his commitment to LSU and Nick Saban. Carey remembers being the first recruit visited by Saban when the then-LSU head coach took over in Baton Rouge.
Eight years after graduating from Shaw and two years after finishing his career at LSU, Carey remembers the lessons learned on the field from both Tierney and Saban.
“Paying attention to details. The little things is what I got from the two coaches,” Carey said. “They pay attention to the little bittiest things. That’s what I try to bring to the football thing. Not so much the big picture, but the daily grind it takes to be successful.
“Those guys struck me as always being on top of the details of not just the success off the play, but what made the play work, what made the play from the beginning to the end.”
Now at Alabama, Saban still is proud of his former players, even the ones from LSU. Count Carey in that group.
“Shyrone Carey is certainly a young man who has overcome a lot of adversity in becoming a college graduate,” Saban said. “He was a fine high school and college football player. I’m sure he is going to be a wonderful coach.”
He added, “We are happy for Shyrone and there is really a lot of self gratification for us to see guys like him who came up the hard way and have had success. Now he will have a chance to have an impact on other young people in his community.”
Having an impact won’t come easy. Carver was shut down after Katrina, the flood having decimated the community and ruined the school.
Twenty-nine players were on the team at the end of this spring, the first time the school has fielded a team since before Katrina.
The school began the year in trailers on the old Holy Cross campus in the lower 9th ward. It moved back to its Higgins Blvd. campus, where it finished the school year in modular trailers.
Carey realizes the tough task ahead, but he’s not shying away from it. Instead, he’s approaching it with intensity and passion.
“The hardest thing is just getting guys into football that normally we would have had already,” Carey said. “It’s kind of like we’re starting from scratch. We’ve got to always understand and never get frustrated with the kids because of a lot of the kids really don’t that knowledge of the game right now.”
By Bradley Handwerger / WWL-TV.com
Carver head coach Shyrone Carey knows he won't return the program to glory over night. He's committed to getting the school back on top the right way.
This is where his past comes into play. He can be seen with LSU knit shifts on around campus when he’s not wearing a Carver football T-shirt. At times, he sports his SEC and NCAA championship rings, one on each hand.
And he’s still young, still close enough to his players’ ages that he can understand what they’re going through.
“I think it’s a good situation for him,” O.P. Walker head coach Skip LaMothe said. “He’s an aggressive guy looking to get a first-class program. His personality will help him to connect with the people in that area. (He’ll) be able to relate to the kids in a positive manner. He’s a good role model.
“He basically can tell them where he came from and he can tell them where to go first-hand.”
LaMothe should know. Carey coached with him at Walker this past season, helping guide the Chargers to the 4A semifinals and a 9-5 record.
“I didn’t want to lose him, but I knew it was an opportunity,” LaMothe said. “One of his aspirations was to be a head coach.”
When Carey interviewed at Carver he spoke with Athletics Director Brian Bordainick. Right away Bordainick knew he had a match for the opening.
“The guy is an X’s and O’s genius,” Bordainick said. “The guy has a couple of rings. He has some weight. He’s from the community. He has had success in the community. The kids respect the hell out of him. And he knows what he’s talking about.”
But Carey said he isn’t going to let his past guide his future. Instead, he wants to begin crafting an identity as a head coach.
It all starts at Carver.
“What I do is always keep it professional, always let them understand that at the end of the day, all that doesn’t matter,” Carey said of his playing days. “It’s about here right now. You’re living history — the first team to come back after Hurricane Katrina at a school that has 50 years of tradition.”
Hal P. Winn, coach, educator
Monday, April 28, 2008From staff reports
Hal P. "Pancho" Winn, a retired New Orleans coach and educator whose undefeated Joseph S. Clark High School football team won the city championship in 1969, died Wednesday in New Orleans of complications from cancer. He was 74.
Mr. Winn, a Xavier University graduate, attended St. Peter Claver High School in San Antonio. Soon after he entered Xavier University in New Orleans in 1951, he enlisted in the Navy, serving in the Korean War.
After his discharge, he returned to Xavier and received a degree in physical education. He later attended Tuskegee Institute, where he was certified in corrective therapy.
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After working briefly at a Veterans Administration hospital in New York, Mr. Winn moved back Louisiana and became a teacher. His first assignment was at Elm Grove Elementary School.
In 1959 he moved to Carver Junior High School in New Orleans, where he coached football and baseball. In 1966 he was assigned to Clark High School and became the school's head football coach in 1968.
In 1969, his team had an 8-0 season, outscoring its opponents 244-99 and winning the city championship. Mr. Winn was named Coach of the Year.
Clark belonged to the Louisiana Interscholastic Athletic and Literary Organization.
In 1970, Mr. Winn transferred to O. Perry Walker High School and became a trainer and a driver education teacher.
He retired from the Orleans Parish school system in 1983 and entered private business.
He was a parishioner of Holy Name of Mary Catholic Church, a Man of Manresa and a member of the Mustangs Social and Pleasure Club, and the Louisiana Association of Retired Teachers.
Survivors include his wife, Lynn Davis Winn; a son, Jeffrey Jude Winn; a daughter, Julie Marie Winn; two brothers, George and Charles Winn; and a grandchild.
A Mass will be said Tuesday at 10 a.m. at Holy Name of Mary Church, 500 Eliza St., Algiers. Visitation will begin at 8 a.m. Burial will be private. Murray Henderson Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.
Hal P. "Pancho" Winn [xxxxxx]
Carver chooses Carey as coach
Ex-LSU, Shaw player will lead program Friday, February 01, 2008By Pierce W. Huff
Carver is turning to a local football hero to lead its football program.
Principal Vanessa Eugene said Thursday the school has hired former Shaw and LSU player Shyrone Carey as its football coach for its first season since Hurricane Katrina this fall.
Carey, 26, said he's excited about the chance to resurrect the Carver football program. The school is holding classes in modular buildings on its 9th Ward campus and plans to play an independent schedule.
Carver finished 6-4, won the District 8-5A title and lost to Fontainebleau 37-12 in a Class 5A bidistrict playoff game in 2004, its last season of competition.
"Carver has a great tradition with a lot of good players and has a strong following, and I'm honored to be its coach," Carey said. "I intend on turning Carver back into the powerhouse program that it once was."
This is the first head-coaching job for Carey, who has been a special education teacher at the Schwartz Alternative High School in the Recovery School District since graduating from LSU after the 2005 season.
Carey was running backs coach at Douglass last season during spring workouts under former coach Wayne Reese Jr., and went to O. Perry Walker after Reese resigned from Douglass before the start of the season.
Carey was a running back and kick returner for LSU from 2001 to 2005 under Nick Saban and Les Miles. He played at Shaw from 1995 to 1999 and finished with 4,159 yards rushing and accounted for 82 touchdowns.
Carey signed with Tennessee out of high school, but failed to qualify academically. He joined LSU one year later.
Carey said he plans to take a lot from the coaching styles of Saban and former Shaw coach Hank Tierney and implement them during his tenure at Carver.
"Coach Saban and Coach Tierney are two guys who are heavy on discipline and the process of doing things right," Carey said.
Eugene said Carey was one of six coaches who were interviewed for the position.
"First of all, I was impressed that he seemed to be able to relate to our students," Eugene said. "When we had our interview there was a student who was struggling with some issues, and I asked Mr. Carey if he would take a minute to talk to the student. He did, and when the student came out of their conference even he said he was impressed with Mr. Carey."
The following is a list of public schools in New Orleans, along with opening dates where a
Recovery District set to open more schools
Construction hurdles mean some shuffling Saturday, August 04, 2007By Darran Simon
The Recovery School District has finalized a list of up to 26 more New Orleans public schools that could open this year, nine of them charters managed by outside organizations.
Some schools, such as Schaumburg Elementary, will reopen for the first time since Hurricane Katrina in renovated buildings. Others will start the year at one campus and later move to another because of continuing construction issues, which also will leave some schools sharing space in the same building.
In one odd arrangement, the staff and students at Reed Elementary will move to the reopened Schaumburg campus -- and become the new Schaumburg -- while another new faculty and student body will move into modular buildings on the Reed High School campus, thus becoming the new Reed.
The dizzying variety of management, facility and governance arrangements underscores both the experimental nature of the city's public schools and the scramble that the Recovery District has had just to find enough space to house a school population that remains in flux. Indeed, seven of the nine schools designated for modular school buildings, paid for by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, might not be used immediately -- or at all, if enrollment falls short of projections. The state considers the schools available "as needed."
The state expects up to 6,000 new students to attend public schools this year. Although just 2,000 have enrolled for this year, more than 5,000 students last year trickled into public schools all year long as their families returned or moved to the city.
Despite continuing facilities issues, many schools are forging ahead with groundbreaking management arrangements. In one case that portends a hybrid of charter and traditional public schools, a new Recovery District-operated school, Gentilly Terrace Elementary, will be managed by the University of New Orleans through a partnership that mimics a charter without actually having chartered the school. The school will operate under a two-year agreement in which UNO will handle curriculum and teacher-hiring decisions while the Recovery District handles other administrative concerns.
"We want to actually put the school back into the hands of the community and get them involved," Principal Jonathan Williams said.
In addition, some charter and district-run schools will open with one or two grade levels, hoping to start small, forge a successful culture, then expand to serve additional grade levels in future years.
Some schools will no doubt enter less-than-ideal situations that will test the ability of faculties to improvise and, in some cases, work closely with other schools. For instance, two charters -- Langston Hughes Academy and Pierre Capdau-UNO Early College High -- will share the Thurgood Marshall Middle campus on Canal Street, meaning schools will work together to coordinate lunches and other activities. Another start-up charter, New Orleans College Prep Academy, will share space in Sylvanie Williams, a district-operated elementary school, on Martin Luther King Boulevard. New Orleans College Prep will start off with sixth-grade classes only.
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"For both schools we're going to be isolated to some extent," said Ben Kleban, director and founder of New Orleans College Prep. "We are going to create our space where there is a minimal amount of overlap. This makes the best sense for both schools, so we can really operate as individual schools and maintain our own cultures."
Under pressure to open
The rush to get schools ready hasn't ebbed since the Recovery District brought in several Louisiana National Guardsmen and hired firms to help get facilities ready for the school year. Restoration of facilities moved slowly because the skimpy staffs have had their hands full with opening and maintaining buildings and running the district.
Many buildings were either damaged in the 2005 storm season or suffered from years of neglect. Modular buildings -- though considered undesirable by state schools Superintendent Paul Pastorek and some community members because they're both temporary and expensive -- were the fastest way to get classrooms ready.
Recovery District officials and contractors will be working down to the wire to ready all campuses. Weather also will be a factor in completing the modular buildings, officials said.
The district has turned to some alternative methods for space. HC High, a ninth-grade academy, will operate in modular buildings last used by the private Holy Cross School, next to the Mississippi River on Dauphine Street in the Lower 9th Ward. Officials signed agreements to lease the space for the next two years. In return, the state-run district will provide portable classrooms authorized by FEMA to Holy Cross on its new Gentilly campus.
Students who enroll in HC High and OLL High, a high school housed in Our Lady of Lourdes School, also will have a chance to name their schools.
Abramson High School, a Recovery District school, will share space with the similarly named but separately managed Abramson Science and Technology Charter, a new school operated by the Cosmos Foundation, a nonprofit that runs several charter schools in Texas. Both schools will occupy the pre-Katrina site of Abramson High, at 5552 Read Blvd. in eastern New Orleans.
Carver Elementary and Carver High will share one campus in separate modular buildings at 3059 Higgins Blvd.
One school, Harney Elementary, will reopen in its original location on Willow Street now that a charter that occupied the building in 2006-07, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Charter School for Science and Technology, has returned to its Lower 9th Ward home.
Several charter schools now have a home -- after an extended wait on state officials to ready buildings and place schools -- but many of those placements will be temporary.
For instance, KIPP Central City Academy will share space in the former Ronald McNair School building on South Carrollton Avenue in Uptown New Orleans. Priestley School of Architecture and Construction, which occupied the building with KIPP Believe College Prep, will move to another location. Later in the year, KIPP Central City will move into William J. Guste Elementary School, 2625 Thalia St.
. . . . . . .
Darran Simon can be reached at dsimon@timespicayune.com or at (504) 826-3386.
Tyronne Jones
Austin also signed former Saints quarterback Adrian McPherson and released former VooDoo quarterback John Fitzgerald, who is now coaching in af2.
McPherson should give the Wranglers an added dimension behind center they did not have with Fitzgerald -- mobility. The Wranglers have a solid receiving corps, led by another former Saint -- Derrick Lewis, who was 10th in the league last season with 113 receptions for 1,411 yards and 23 touchdowns.
Games against the VooDoo: April 21 at the Erwin Center, and June 17 at the New Orleans Arena.
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Predicted finish: 10-6, second in the division, wild card
NEW ORLEANS VOODOO: The biggest difference between this team and Neu's previous two is experience at receiver.
Eight-year wideout Tyronne Jones, who prepped at Carver, will have to be a teacher to many of the newer players. Having Andy Kelly, the most prolific passer in the history of the AFL, should help.
Opposing quarterbacks won't have long to throw the ball with Mike Landry, Henry Bryant and Henry Taylor, who tied for the league lead in sacks last season, rushing hard and fast.
A quick start is key for the VooDoo, which began the 2004 season 7-1 and finished 11-5. Its first four opponents this season had a combined record of 25-39 in '06.
Predicted finish: 9-7, third in the division
TAMPA BAY STORM: Losing Stafford will be tough for Coach Tim Marcum and the Storm to overcome.
300 students turned away by N.O. schools
300 students turned away by N.O. schools
Buildings, teachers are in short supply
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
By Steve Ritea
In an exceedingly rare move for a public school system, hundreds of children seeking spots in the city's schools have been turned away -- "wait-listed" -- and told that the campuses have no room, school officials said Tuesday.
In the state-run Recovery School District, where 300 students have been placed on a waiting list since Jan. 8, officials are scrambling to open additional buildings and hire more teachers.
Meanwhile, an unknown number of students have been turned away from the various other types of public schools in the emerging system, including 31 independent charter schools and five still run by the Orleans Parish School Board.
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Those schools, unlike the Recovery School District, have set caps on their enrollments. The Recovery District attempts to take all comers -- as law requires of public systems -- but has simply run out of room, even with inflated class sizes, officials said.
The unprecedented situation underscores the continuing post-disaster difficulty public schools have experienced in planning for an unpredictable student body, renovating demolished campuses and hiring teachers from a shallow labor pool.
Recovery District Superintendent Robin Jarvis said officials expect that all 300 of those students will be in school by next month when they open a new elementary, McDonogh No. 42 in Treme, on Feb. 5 and Cohen High in Central City on Feb. 15. Still more schools are scheduled to open in the following weeks to keep up with steady demand.
In the days after returning from Christmas and New Year's, Recovery District staff registered up to 75 new students a day. More recently, that number has dropped off to 15 a day, officials said. The Recovery District owns up to its legal obligation to provide schools to all students -- and has asked the School Board to open up more slots -- but says harsh logistical realities prevent them from taking on more students.
More teachers needed
"According to our attorneys, there is no law that addresses wait-listing students," Jarvis said. "It is not an ideal situation in anyone's opinion, but it is also not ideal to not be able to find enough teachers or not have buildings available on time, but those are the circumstances. It's not an excuse, it's reality."
More than 300 students have registered for Recovery District schools since Jan. 8, tipping the system beyond capacity.
The shortage extends beyond buildings to teachers. The Recovery District has hired 536 teachers and still needs 73 more.
Jarvis said she is concerned about finding enough teachers, but can't operate without renovating buildings damaged by Hurricane Katrina or neglected for decades by the local system.
In November 2005, the state Legislature voted to take control of 107 New Orleans public schools performing below the state average. That legislation put those campuses under the control of the Recovery District, leaving just 16 of the city's highest-performing schools under the local School Board's control.
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The Recovery District currently operates 18 schools, including one alternative center, with 8,562 students. The state also oversees 19 charters, schools operated independently or in small groups by their own management boards and principals. The Orleans Parish School board operates five schools and oversees 12 more charters.
In all, the city's 55 public schools currently enroll about 28,000 children, about half the pre-Katrina enrollment of the New Orleans public school system.
All grades except 11th and 12th in Recovery District schools are full.
Delays in construction
Demographers' projections last year that 34,000 public school students could be in the city by now prompted the Recovery District to begin preparing nine more buildings for openings this month, but "construction delays have caused a problem," Jarvis said.
McDonogh No. 42 was originally slated to open Jan. 10, but problems with that school's renovation and a wait for clearance from the fire marshal has pushed its opening back.
Some 80 McDonogh No. 42 students are currently attending classes in a section of Frederick Douglass High. A principal and 13 teachers have been hired so far, Recovery District officials said.
Additional construction delays could exacerbate the problem. And more students are expected to enroll soon: Late last year, officials with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said they are considering opening additional public housing units in New Orleans by this spring.
Flozell Daniels, who is married to Orleans Parish School Board member Heidi Daniels, recalled trying to enroll a cousin's fourth-grade child in a Recovery District school and being told of the wait list.
"I intellectually understand how difficult this is, but it is morally criminal and it is illegal to keep a child from getting an education in America," he said. "It's unconscionable."
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Jarvis said wait-listing has been cleared by lawyers with the state Department of Education. Recovery District schools started Sept. 7, after most charters and New Orleans Public Schools opened their doors, in order to assure completed renovations and enough time to hire staff.
Looking elsewhere
She said most of the 300 wait-listed students completed their first semester of school elsewhere. With the Recovery District beginning its second semester Feb. 5, and additional schools opening by then, "they really won't have any lost instruction time."
The Recovery District's second semester ends June 15.
The law does not allow wait-listing for special education students, she said, and those students generally are placed within a day or two.
Jarvis said Recovery District staff have been working with local charter schools and New Orleans Public Schools to find spots. The local system is largely full, although there is some availability at a PM High School, which operates after hours, officials there said. Several charters have also tried to assist.
"We've had calls from the Department of Education multiple times in the last couple weeks seeking spots for kids, and we've been able to place them," said David Grubb, spokesman for the Algiers Charter Schools Association, a system of eight charters on the West Bank.
Algiers currently has 32 slots available at Tubman Elementary, although first grade is full, Grubb said.
More space is available at McDonogh No. 32 Elementary, he added, although that school is still awaiting classroom furniture and, as a result, has yet to open sixth, seventh and eighth grades.
At Green Charter School, Principal Tony Recasner said their school filled up last week when they admitted 11 new students, although those on its waiting list are called if any students leave the school.
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Jarvis said she hopes some charters and New Orleans Public Schools -- which have an enviable student-teacher ratio of 20-to-1, compared with 25-to-1 in the Recovery District -- will consider sharing the burden.
"We're all going to have to work together to meet the needs of these students who are returning," she said.
Asked if they'd consider increasing class sizes to help offset crowding in the Recovery District, Orleans Parish School Board President Phyllis Landrieu said it's too early to say.
"That's not something we can answer quickly," she said. "The board will have to talk about that."
. . . . . . .
Steve Ritea can be reached at sritea@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3396.
February 28, 2008
Contaminated homes denied funds
Posted by David Hammer, The Times-Picayune March 27, 2008 9:51PM
It was one thing for Leatrice Roberts to find out that the government had sold her a townhome built on top of a waste dump. But it was mindboggling to learn, at age 74, that the Road Home can't buy her out because the land is contaminated.
"You talk to this one at Road Home, you talk to that one, nobody can tell you if she'll get her money," said Roberts' daughter Patricia, who now lives in Lakeview with her disabled mother and serves as her caretaker.
The state's $10.3 billion Road Home program pays homeowners up to $150,000 to rebuild their homes or to buy them out and transfer the land to a New Orleans redevelopment authority. Financing for the program comes from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which currently runs HANO -- the same agency that decades ago built the Press Park complex where the Robertses' storm-damaged townhome is located.
In the past two weeks, state officials informed homeowners such as Leatrice Roberts who lived atop the old Agriculture Street landfill before Hurricane Katrina hit that their Road Home applications had been placed on hold indefinitely because they live on a Superfund cleanup site. The EPA in 1994 added the 9th Ward enclave to its Superfund list, but said the area could be made safe with mitigation steps such as the replacement of topsoil.
On Thursday, state spokeswoman Christina Stephens said state agencies were working with local leaders and the EPA to come up with a policy for using HUD financing to buy the properties on the Superfund site.
HUD said its money can't be used to purchase contaminated land, but that it would work with the state to come up with a solution.
Federal subsidies
Homeowners in the neighborhood argue that they are entitled to compensation when it was HANO and the city of New Orleans, backed by federal subsidies, that built the homes on an old city dump, placed public housing tenants there and sold the homes to poor residents in a rent-to-own initiative. The neighborhood included a subdivision development called Gordon Plaza.
HUD spokesman Brian Sullivan said the federal housing agency sympathizes, but doesn't consider itself a party to the dispute.
"We appreciate the fact that it must be a maddening situation for these homeowners," he said.
Late Thursday, Stephens said the state decided to put applications from former residents of the landfill neighborhood back into the Road Home pipeline. Blending elements of two Road Home options, the property owners would have their grants calculated based on a regular rebuilding grant, but they also would be allowed to use the money to relocate. She said the state was still working out details of the policy, including who would assume ownership of the properties.
"We can't keep these people in a holding pattern forever," Stephens said.
The land's hidden legacy
The Robertses believe they were the second family to move into the HANO Press Park complex when it opened in 1970. When HANO showed the widowed Leatrice Roberts the property, she recalls that nobody told her it was on top of the old 95-acre landfill, a city dump from 1909 to 1958 that briefly reopened after Hurricane Betsy in 1965.
Everyone in the neighborhood knew Roberts' Montegut Street townhome by the heavy door with "Roberts" in a gold-painted iron design in the middle. After Hurricane Katrina flooded the townhome and destroyed the roof, someone took that door.
Leatrice Roberts now uses a wheelchair because of heart problems, diabetes, high blood pressure and a blood clot in her lungs. She's been waiting for Road Home to buy her out since her first appointment in November 2006, and using her Social Security checks to pay $1,500 in monthly rent.
The property deed of Roberts, for many years a subsidized renter at Press Park, shows she purchased her townhome from HANO on Nov. 4, 1991, three years before the EPA found dangerous levels of lead in the ground and declared the area a Superfund site. A few years after that, Roberts and her other daughter, Gail Wells, were diagnosed with cancer, they said. Roberts lost a kidney and Wells had ovarian cancer, but both say they are now cancer-free.
During the same year that the site was added to the Superfund list, school officials shut down Moton Elementary School, across Abundance Street from the row of townhomes, citing fears of the health effects of buried waste. But local and federal officials at the time turned aside residents' pleas for a buyout of their homes.
Post-storm contamination
After Hurricane Katrina, when the EPA tested the ground in New Orleans and gave the city a clean bill of health, there was one glaring exception: In the old Ag Street landfill area, yards had 50 times the normal level of the cancer-causing petroleum byproduct benzo(a)pyrene.
Nevertheless, FEMA trailers were supplied for properties in the area. Road Home officially initially said the program would provide rebuilding grants, but not buyouts, in the area. And HANO told homeowners they could move back into their homes, even though a judge had called the neighborhood unfit for people.
Roberts is among hundreds of former Press Park and Gordon Plaza residents waiting for HANO and the city to pay a class-action judgment, in a suit sparked by pre-Katrina contamination issues. It took 13 years to win the lawsuit in Civil District Court, where Judge Nadine Ramsey declared the neighborhood "unreasonably dangerous" and "uninhabitable." She ordered HANO, the city and their insurers to pay fair-market value, plus amounts ranging from $4,000 to $50,000 for emotional distress, depending on how long a resident lived at the site before contamination was found in 1993.
On Jan. 30, the state's 4th Circuit Court of Appeals largely upheld Ramsey's ruling, although it cut the emotional distress awards in half. On Thursday, HANO appealed to the Louisiana Supreme Court and other defendants are expected to also press appeals, said plaintiffs' attorney Suzette Peychaud Bagneris.
Bagneris said she has asked the Road Home for more than a year to offer buyouts to the Ag Street landfill homeowners, just as the program has done for those affected by the Murphy Oil spill that occurred during Hurricane Katrina in St. Bernard Parish.
"Our requests fell upon deaf ears," Bagneris said.
Stephens said the Murphy Oil spill is not limited by federal rules governing Superfund sites. The Murphy Oil spill has its own section in Road Home policies. Until the state's decision Thursday, there had been no policy for Superfund sites.
David Hammer can be reached at dhammer@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3322.
Fight to save school waged
January 4, 2007
Fight to save school waged
Keeping Landry shut isn't fair, Algiers people say
Thursday, January 04, 2007
By Allen Powell II
Proudly clad in jackets and T-shirts bearing the school's name, about two dozen alumni and supporters of L.B. Landry High School in Algiers pleaded with the New Orleans City Council's Education Committee on Wednesday to help them reopen the historic, predominantly African-American school that has been closed since Hurricane Katrina.
Landry supporters came to the committee to lambaste the decision by the Louisiana Recovery School District not to open the school, and to seek support and guidelines from the council to aid in reopening the school. Many of them called the school a community touchstone that holds a special place in the hearts of many black Algiers residents. They questioned how their school could be left to languish in disrepair while others were rebuilt.
"I feel like they've dealt us a dirty deal," said Manuel Harrison, who graduated from Landry in 1967. "We've got to keep it open so that we can have a legacy."
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Landry, which opened in 1939, was the first African-American high school built in Algiers. Landry was damaged in Katrina and was used as a storage and staging area by Federal Emergency Management Agency. In an e-mail Wednesday, RSD Superintendent Robin Jarvis said that, "so far, there has not been a demonstrated need for another high school on the West Bank.
"However, the Recovery School District is currently reviewing the availability of buildings and determining what additional schools may be needed for the spring."
Jarvis also cited the condition of the building.
"Like many public school buildings in New Orleans, Landry has many deferred maintenance issues, including peeling paint, problems with windows, aging equipment such as boilers, electrical issues and roof problems," she wrote. "During Hurricane Katrina, Landry sustained damage from wind and rain, including roof damage and mold damage that had to be addressed."
But, Landry supporters denied Jarvis' contention that there are not enough students interested in attending the school. The Rev. Arthur Wardsworth Jr., the pastor of Second Good Hope Baptist Church in Algiers, said that at a recent unofficial registration drive, school supporters were able to sign up 100 students and garner more than 1,000 signatures in support of reopening the school.
Wadsworth said the recovery district has limited the number of students allowed at Algiers' two other high schools and many students are being forced to go to the east bank or to Jefferson Parish to attend class. He also questioned how the school could be adequate for use by FEMA, but not up to par for use by students.
Bertha Martin, 93, said she is saddened that residents in Algiers still must fight for an equitable distribution of resources, and must justify reopening a school that is so important to the history of the city. Martin noted that graduates of Landry have been assets to the West Bank for decades, and she called on them to be persistent in their demand to see the school open.
"I have been fighting and we have been fighting," said Martin, whose children attended the school, and who served on the PTA for years. "Now I've got to go all over again and fight for Landry. It's just not fair."
Most of the council members on the committee supported the residents' desires and pledged to pass a resolution outlining that support. But, while they acknowledged the importance of Landry, Councilman Oliver Thomas and Councilwoman Cynthia Hedge-Morrell also said the first priority in reopening the school is ensuring that it can safely accommodate students.
Councilwoman Cynthia Willard-Lewis criticized the recovery district for not involving more residents in its decision-making process when it came to school reopening, and for not having more transparency in how those decisions are made. She and Hedge-Morrell are pushing for the recovery district to provide the committee with a detailed list of the conditions at all the schools under its control.
"If you do not respect and engage the community first you have another agenda," said Willard-Lewis, who encouraged the Landry supporters to stay focused. "You are fighting for your history and your future. Algiers is not Algiers without the historic L.B. Landry."
. . . . . . .
Allen Powell II can be reached at apowell@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3793.
Goal is to get N.O. schools back, Kilbert says
Goal is to get N.O. schools back, Kilbert says
N.O. schools superintendent named
Thursday, December 21, 2006
By Steve Ritea
The Orleans Parish School Board has named Darryl Kilbert district superintendent, six months after he was appointed to the role on an acting basis, at an annual salary of $160,000 to lead the slimmed-down system of just five schools.
Kilbert, 50, a 27-year veteran of the district and a New Orleans native, vowed Tuesday to continue working to repair the long-broken district -- academically, administratively and financially -- in hopes that the state will someday return many or all of the 107 schools they took over from the system last year.
"That's the main goal," he said. "The bottom line is we're going to come back and be on strong footing, so we can absorb this district back and move forward."
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Although the system operated 128 schools before Katrina, today they run five and oversee a dozen independently operated charter schools. The district's employee base has dropped from nearly 7,000 before Katrina to 400 today.
The district currently operates Ben Franklin Elementary, Bethune Elementary, McMain Secondary, McDonogh No. 35 High and the PM High School, which operates out of the McMain building after hours.
Board members approved Kilbert's hiring 6-0, with Una Anderson absent. The length of Kilbert's contract has yet to be determined.
Three of the schools operated by the district had selective admissions criteria before Katrina and, although officials suspended those policies last school year, they reinstated them in a softer form this year. Returning students were not subject to the requirements.
"He's an excellent, dignified and capable representative of our school district and he puts children first," School Board member Phyllis Landrieu said. "He has helped completely reorganize the administration, working cooperatively with Alvarez & Marsal."
Alvarez & Marsal, the New York firm hired for $19 million to turn around the system's troubled finances, has taken over many of the responsibilities previously left to the superintendent, including payroll, purchasing, information technology and budgeting.
Although company officials are beginning to leave their positions, anticipating the contract's end in March, a chief financial officer was hired earlier this year to take over those responsibilities from Alvarez & Marsal, leaving Kilbert more time to focus on academics.
Kilbert's $160,000 annual salary matches that of former interim Superintendent Ora Watson, who came into the role six months before Hurricane Katrina and left the district in June. Tony Amato, Watson's predecessor, made $224,000, including a housing allowance.
Recovery District Superintendent Robin Jarvis, who operates 18 state-run schools and oversees 19 charter schools, makes $125,000 a year.
A spokesman for the Algiers Charter Schools Association, which operates eight schools, refused to disclose the salary of CEO Brian Riedlinger, although he did call it "very comparable" to Kilbert's.
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The spokesman, David Grubb, said Riedlinger is paid out of a $200,000 contract the association has with the School Leadership Center of Greater New Orleans, a training center for educators headed by Riedlinger that includes other staff members and services beyond what Riedlinger provides. Grubb said Riedlinger's exact salary is paid by the nonprofit agency and thereby exempt from public records laws.
Orleans Parish School Board members said the district's shrunken empire should not translate into a shrunken salary for their superintendent.
"The number of schools doesn't signify where we are right now. It's the wrong standard," board member Jimmy Fahrenholtz said. "We still own all those buildings and we're trying to get (the state) to give them back."
"It's our job to build a whole system and make sure it's ready when those schools come back to us," Landrieu said. "We're laying the foundation for a successful system."
Kilbert's role extends beyond academics at the five district-run schools, and includes providing assistance to a dozen charter schools approved by the board last year and building an effective administration after years of mismanagement that plagued the bloated system.
The School Board, as the chartering authority for the dozen schools, retains ultimate oversight but stays out of day-to-day management of the schools. Kilbert does, however, provide assistance to the schools in such areas as transportation, food service and maintenance.
Even though the Recovery District assumed control of 107 buildings last year and technically has authority to do anything short of sell the buildings, including choosing which ones get rebuilt and where, state officials said they are consulting with the district on those decisions.
A graduate of McDonogh No. 35 High School, Kilbert went attended Dillard University and later earned a master's degree in education administration from Ohio State University. In September 2004, after working as principal at three New Orleans public schools, he was tapped by Amato to become one of three area superintendents.
Temporarily open at the Holy Cross site
Although the school is slated to open on Sept. 4, the Carver site. Instead, the school will temporarily open at the Holy Cross site.Will be back at 3059 Higgins hopefully in October.
Recovery School District officials say up to 27 new schools will open by fall,
Recovery District to add 27 as students return
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
By Steve Ritea
Recovery School District officials say up to 27 new schools will open by fall, with half a dozen more to be ready before the current school year ends in an effort to keep up with a continuous stream of students returning to the city.
Those additional campuses, assuming all of them open and open on time, should increase capacity in the current system to 43,000 by September. That's 77 percent of the system's prestorm student body of about 56,000, though the system may not need to open all the schools.
Although nine of the school buildings remain heavily damaged, up to a dozen modular schools could be constructed on their grounds. Three of those campuses -- Carver, Abramson and Kennedy high schools -- would become K-12 campuses with separate elementary and secondary schools in modular buildings.
About 28,000 students currently attend 56 public schools in the city today.
While many of the new schools would be operated by the state-run Recovery District, some of those buildings could also be occupied by charter schools. The state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education is scheduled to grant conditional approval today for up to 28 new charter schools that 17 groups have applied to operate in New Orleans during the next school year. Final approvals will be handed out in June.
The state-run Recovery District, which currently operates 20 schools, opened two of those just last week: McDonogh No. 42 Elementary in the Seventh Ward and Rosenwald Elementary in Algiers. Another, Cohen High in Central City, was tentatively scheduled to open Thursday, but Recovery District spokeswoman Siona LaFrance said renovation work will not be complete until Feb. 21. An official opening date has yet to be determined, she said.
McDonogh No. 7 Elementary in Uptown could also become available this month if Nelson Elementary, which has been occupying the building, is able to return to its original campus on St. Bernard Avenue.
Renovations are also scheduled to be complete at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Charter School for Science and Technology in the Lower 9th Ward next month, freeing up Harney Elementary in Central City, where King students have been attending school since September.
Sylvanie Williams Elementary in Central City is also scheduled to open in March, with Gentilly Terrace opening in April. Modular classrooms to house prekindergarten through fifth-grade students, currently attending classes at First Pilgrim Baptist Church School near Faubourg Marigny, should also be installed on the campus of Reed High School in eastern New Orleans by April.
With up to 300 new students enrolling in Recovery District schools each week, officials recently said enrollments could remain steady or even increase with additional public housing scheduled to reopen in New Orleans.
Donna White, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, said 1,200 public housing units are currently occupied in New Orleans and another 300 are open but not yet occupied.
White said up to 300 more could be open by April, with as many as 700 additional units available before 2008.
. . . . . . .
Steve Ritea can be reached at sritea@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3396.
school news
Stories echo through empty schools
Sunday, November 19, 2006
By Steve Ritea
Staff writer
Just inside one of the many unsecured doors at George Washington Carver High in the Desire neighborhood, I ascended the stairs, stepping over a large red-and-gold trophy -- 1993 SUNO Relays Champions -- lying on its side on the landing.
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Staring at it, there on the filthy floor, I couldn't help but picture a young student holding it aloft 13 years ago, smiling broadly.
An abandoned schoolhouse tells a powerful tale, particularly one stopped in time by a killer storm, the clocks on its wall showing the minute the power went out, its chalkboards still bearing the date of the last day it hosted children, Aug. 26, 2005, along with that day's assignments.
I wonder: Did anyone leave school that Friday even considering they might never return?
I set out on a tour of the system's abandoned buildings to get a sense of what the school system had done with these former havens for children, now corpses of idle real estate. I had expected to find decay; I hadn't expected to stumble into a series of time capsules, preserved by neglect, haphazardly enshrined with the artifacts of shattered young lives.
Today, of the more than 120 New Orleans public school campuses operating before the flood, school officials concede at least 52 school buildings sit vacant and rotting.
Frozen moments
Setting out on a eerie, unsettling journey, I peered around each corner cautiously, fearing I'd find a 50-pound varmint or a 200-pound vagrant around each one. Instead, I found only a haunting silence, punctuated occasionally by stray sounds from outside -- a door banging in the wind, construction off in the distance. Strolling through a graveyard of forever-changed lives -- books on desks, teachers' family pictures, inspirational messages that help people doing a tough job get through the day -- made me long to hear the sound of chattering children in the halls.
Still, peering in on a few classrooms gave a strong sense of what had happened there. A classroom with elaborate displays -- not the kind pre-ordered from a warehouse, but the kind a teacher would put together staying late after school -- seemed like a place where students would get as much attention as the displays on walls. Those with nearly bare walls often had little written on the boards, few if any books, and nothing a student would remember when they walked out the door.
At Carver, the city's largest public school campus, thousands of books, computers and other school supplies remain inside the wide-open building. At Carter G. Woodson Middle, vandals have destroyed, looted and scrawled graffiti in nearly every room.
Inside Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School, which had just relocated to Armstrong Elementary in the Lower 9th Ward, I found a journal started by student Keyah Jones on Aug. 19, 2005: "I need to be very focused this year because I'm in the eighth grade and I have to take the LEAP. I have to be focused because my teachers are different. I am not in elementary school any more. I have to be focused, not play, not talk, but learn and just be prepared for whatever happens."
The last entry, made six days later, reads: "My academic goals are to be a hairdresser or a baby doctor . . . I want to be a baby doctor because I would love to bring a child into the world. My mom is seven months and I would like to bring my little sister into the world."
Seven months pregnant. My God. Did Keyah's mom get out of the city in time? Did she get stuck at the Convention Center, sitting on the ground in that sweltering heat during her third trimester? Did she survive? Did the baby? And if she did get out, did her family settle in a proper place to care for Keyah's little sister? I can only hope Keyah is back in school somewhere where the teachers will show her the path to become a baby doctor.
Eerily undamaged
Carver, built in 1955, sprawls over its massive site with boxy buildings and long hallways short on windows. While mold cakes much of the first floor, the second and third floors largely escaped major damage.
In the center of a second-floor hallway, I found a spray bottle of pale blue cleaning fluid. I would see these at other vacant schools all across the city -- a lonely little spray bottle -- just sitting there as if abandoned by someone overwhelmed by the task before them.
Farther down the hall, past the occasional upended desk, I hit the mother lode: a science lab filled with thousands of textbooks -- many new, still shrink-wrapped or in boxes -- stacked on the long black tables inside. Even many of the used books look new, with crisp white pages and glossy covers. But I'm told they'll be thrown in the garbage, because officials with FEMA and the school system fear they could be contaminated with mold spores. That leaves school children and parents to make sense of this paradox: empty, rotting campuses filled with millions of dollars in barely damaged supplies, while many other school buildings, the kind with actual children, opened this fall without enough books or other basics, not to mention teachers.
Carver had nearly reached its 50th anniversary when Katrina hit. The school had a strong football team. NFL great Marshall Faulk played here.
Will there ever be another Carver Rams football game? Doubtful, given that, I was told, just 80 of the 128 schools in existence before Katrina will return over the next few years. And Reed High in nearby eastern New Orleans has already reopened, filling the needs of a neighborhood school population now just a fraction of what it once was.
If the frozen-in-time scene at Carver reminded me of lost livelihoods, a history brought to an abrupt end, the scene at Carter G. Woodson Middle in Central City filled me with sadness.
Vandals take toll
While some schools seemed untouched by any human hand, at Woodson the vandals had run amok, seemingly bent on desecrating the place, one that carries a rich history in Central City's black community. Before Katrina, many activists and just regular folk had rallied around Woodson, a once-troubled school undergoing a rebirth under the leadership of Mary Laurie. The vibrant, hard-working principal, who had lost two of her own sons to gunshots, had gathered students together here every morning in song. She and her staff taught them to plant herb gardens here and to tend to white rabbits.
Today, the fenced-off herb gardens have become weed gardens. I couldn't find any of the rabbits' cages -- hopefully someone took them to safety before the storm -- but there are few signs of tenderness and care here anymore.
A pair of rusty razor blades beside an empty Budweiser bottle near a stairwell seemed a vile offense to what this place had become just before the storm hit. It takes so much determination and hard work to build something up, I thought, and so little time and effort to tear it all down.
What looked like miles of black wire lay in coils all over the ground. Pulled from steel conduits that ran it all over the building, the valuable copper had been stripped from its black rubber insulation.
In a downstairs hallway, someone smashed a glass trophy case with a fire extinguisher. What did they steal? Why? Who would value a trophy except the youngsters who won it? Apparently one awarded to the 1959 Junior Majorettes Champs didn't interest the thief.
Upstairs I found graffiti. "Calliope Man-Man (heart) ... Minnie," is emblazoned on one wall. "Woodson for Life," reads another.
Elsewhere, I find a whole classroom door, lovingly decorated with pink, yellow and baby-blue construction paper, pulled from its hinges and leaning awkwardly against a wall. Someone stole computers and God-knows-what from inside.
I walked into the library, which obviously had been sacked by looters. Storms don't leave shoe prints in the dirt on the floor.
In one corner, I find an easel from a pre-Katrina lesson. "Why is it important to follow rules and regulations?" a teacher had written.
I wonder if anyone knew the answer.
. . . . . . .
Steve Ritea can be reached at sritea@timespicayune.com or by calling (504) 826-3396.
2002 rams vs wm
Still work to do
Carver stunned West Monroe, the top-ranked team in Class 5A, last week, but Rams coach Jack Phillips now must get his players to put the upset behind them and focus on the remainder of the season
10/02/02
By Jim Rapier
Staff writer/The Times-Picayune
Carver football coach Jack Phillips has been fighting the euphoria since the clock ran out Friday night in Monroe.
Carver athletic director Danielle Foley, who has been at the school 29 years, said last week's 20-7 victory against West Monroe is the biggest in the school's football history. Phillips has been trying to bring his team back to earth since.
"Defeating Salmen last year was big; now this," Phillips said. "This means a lot to the school; there is an excitement. But I have to stay focused, and we have to put this behind us."
That has been a challenge.
Phillips said he has received more congratulatory phone calls than he can count. The school and community was still abuzz Monday, he said, in the wake of the victory. Some say Carver's win may rank as one of the biggest upsets in the state in some time, certainly one of the biggest locally.
Consider the facts:
West Monroe, a Class 5A power, has 94 players and has played in six consecutive 5A state championship games. West Monroe entered last week's game ranked No. 1 in the state in Class 5A and nationally ranked in two polls. The Rebels consistently sell out their stadium with 12,000 fans each game. The Rebels had not lost at home since 1996 before Friday.
Carver, a Class 4A Orleans Parish public school, plays in District 10-4A, long dominated by John Curtis. Carver has 50 players, and the $7,500 Carver received for playing the game helps finance the football team and athletic department for the year.
Last week, with Tropical Storm Isidore bearing down on New Orleans, Carver practiced only one day -- Monday -- and lifted weights and ran on stairs the other days. The team was supposed to leave Thursday morning for the game, but was told not to go by the Orleans Parish School Superintendent's Office. That decision was then reversed.
"It was really nerve-racking," Rams linebacker Wilbert Parker said. "We really wanted to play."
And play the Rams did.
"We were sort of like Tropical Storm Isidore, we shook up the state," said Brimmer Brown Sr., a former teacher at Carver who was present at Monday's practice.
Carver certainly shook the West Monroe faithful.
"It was so quiet, it was like listening to a priest read scripture," Brown said.
"We were picking it up on the Monroe radio, and you could hear the silence," said Curtis coach J.T. Curtis, who listened as he prepared for a local prep football television show. "The announcers were shocked; they kept waiting for West Monroe to make a big play, and it didn't happen."
The Carver players said the crowded stadium, hostile environment and West Monroe band stationed in the stands behind the Carver bench were a shock last season (West Monroe won 35-0), but things were different this year.
"Last year, we didn't know what to expect," defensive end/linebacker Jerome White said.
"When a place that big gets that quiet, you know you did something good," Parker said.
Carver went up 20-7 in the fourth quarter. "We knew we were going to make some history," defensive lineman Ronald Jones said
Count Curtis as one of those outside the Carver circle not surprised by what happened. "They are a very good team, and have been the last four or five years," Curtis said. "Our whole district is that way. Our district is one of the most underrated in the state, and has been in the last four or five years."
That is the reason Phillips is so adamant about not looking ahead. In the latest Class 4A power-rating poll Carver is ranked No. 1, and district foes Karr (No. 2), Curtis (No. 3) and O.P. Walker (No. 5) are ranked among the top five. The team ranked fourth, Salmen, is Carver's opponent this week, either Thursday or later in the week if postponed because of Hurricane Lili.
Phillips said he and his players will think about the West Monroe game again when the season is over. "We know what is ahead, and it doesn't get any easier," he said.
. . . . . . .
Jim Rapier can be reached at jrapier@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3377.
Coach's heart belongs to Carver
School a special place in special neighborhood
Thursday, October 12, 2006
Pierce Huff
Every time I see former Carver football coach Ricky Williams at Jesuit or a Blue Jays' football game or practice we always have a laugh.
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We never used to do that when we saw each other prior to Hurricane Katrina. Back then, Williams was the head of the Carver football program, and we used to have to talk about everything good or bad in regards to the Rams. It was a typical coach-reporter relationship.
But things have changed and changed a lot since Katrina. Carver hasn't opened since the storm, and there is no definite timetable as to when it will ever open again.
Williams and I both miss the good old days.
Williams will always be a football coach who will do a decent job wherever he is, but he looks out of place in Jesuit's blue and white. To me, there is a part of him that will always wear Carver's green and orange.
"I'll always miss Carver," Williams said.
Carver was the place where Williams had his first assistant coaching job and his first head coaching job. It also was the place where he had his first teaching job, instructing students in geometry, algebra II and ACT prep.
Carver has a lot of history. It was the home high school of pro running back Marshall Faulk. McDonogh 35 football coach Wayne Reese had some of his best seasons at Carver. And boys basketball coach Brian Simmons, one of the city's best, led Carver to the 2003 Class 4A state championship.
But because the school is so big and holds such a dear place in the hearts of so many, it's tough to describe what Carver means on and off the court.
Williams said he tells everybody that Carver is "home."
"Before I went there I heard about it, and it was a place where the teams fought hard and it was the top public school athletically," he said. "It felt like home as far as a school goes. We didn't have any fights, and basically the kids came to school and if there were no sports or practices going on they would just stick around."
I have to admit that the reporter in me was quite skeptical when Williams said there were no fights at Carver. After all, the school was in the crime-infested 9th Ward.
But Williams said there really weren't any fights.
"I heard that (the fighting) before I went there," he said. "I didn't see it."
Suddenly that's when it hit me that that's what Carver was -- a togetherness between student-athletes that often times transpired on and off the field for some tremendous triumphs.
And in the midst of that uniqueness was a special football program.
"We used to play anybody, anywhere, anytime," Williams said. "Those kids had to fight for what they had, and that was second nature."
Last year, Williams was an assistant coach at Istrouma in Baton Rouge while his wife and family lived on the West Bank. He said he used to come to Carver almost every weekend to check on the school and see what, if any, progress was being made to bring it back.
Williams wonders if Carver is ever going to come back.
"I don't know what's going to happen," he said.
I don't know what's going to happen to Carver either. Every now and then you here rumors, but nothing is substantiated. In reality, the school's fate rests with its neighborhood. It will never come back unless there is significant progress in the Ninth Ward, which took the brunt of the damage from the flooding after the storm.
And that's why Williams and I laugh when we see each other nowadays.
We want Carver back.
Here's hoping that the Ninth Ward returns and brings Carver with it. It was a special school in a special neighborhood with special people.
. . . . . . .
Pierce W. Huff can be reached at phuff@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3809.
There's no excuse for schools' failure
There's no excuse for schools' failure
Friday, January 26, 2007
Jarvis DeBerry
The Recovery School District, which is supposed to be doing a job the Orleans Parish School Board was not, sounds a lot like one of those derelict parents who say of their children: "I can't do nothing with 'em."
Of course there's no excuse for any adult to give up on their children, but there's even less of an excuse for an adoptive parent. And that, in effect, is what the Recovery School District is. Its leaders saw children being neglected by the Orleans Parish School Board, declared themselves capable of doing much better and so took the kids for themselves.
Now they can't do nothing with 'em. And they ask that we understand.
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We'd be fools to extend them sympathy.
Without exception, public school students in New Orleans deserve a quality education. They deserve a full complement of textbooks before classes begin. They deserve teachers who know their subject matter. They deserve security personnel who are competent and professional. They deserve accurate report cards that show their progress in every class they are taking. And, yes, they deserve hot lunches, something school officials in St. Bernard Parish began serving their children a few months after the storm.
In short, the students deserve schools designed with their education, their nourishment, their advancement in mind. The schools being run by the RSD are not so designed.
Point out their flaws to them, and RSD officials will protest that such criticisms are unfair, that they inherited a badly flawed system, that it's difficult to operate in a post-Katrina environment. In fact, RSD officials could teach classes in how to protest accusations of incompetence -- even as they say they can't teach every student who has shown up to enroll.
Since Jan. 8, the recovery district has denied admission to 300 would-be students and instead placed them on a waiting list. To everybody else, a steady stream of people moving back into New Orleans is reason to celebrate. But at the Recovery School District, the increasing population exposes officials' failure to build elasticity into their system.
As homeowners continue to rebuild and more rental units become available, it should have occurred to somebody -- no, it should have occurred to everybody -- that the district would need more teachers, more books, more classrooms, more fish sticks, more everything at the end of the school year than it needed at the beginning. Instead district officials profess to be as surprised as Gomer Pyle that they've maxed out their provisions and their personnel.
There can only be two explanations for the mess system officials find themselves in: short-sightedness or stinginess. Either they lack the visionary leadership needed for the job or they decided that spending money on students who had yet to arrive would be wasteful. It doesn't matter if system officials are myopic or cheap, the end results are the same: Neither the students or their education are being properly valued.
In case you're asking, the answer is no, the students weren't valued any more highly by the Orleans Parish School Board. However, anybody who uses the School Board's failures as a defense of the Recovery School District's glaring ineptitude is also devaluing the students.
This isn't about which has been better, the School Board or the recovery district. Officials associated with both ought to be ashamed at their failure to do right by their students.
It's always easier to provide for those one cares about. The fact that RSD officials are not providing all their students' needs is an indication they don't care enough.
. . . . . . .
Jarvis DeBerry is an editorial writer. He can be reached at (504) 826-3355 or at jdeberry@timespicayune.com.
Band puts song back in his heart
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Sheila Stroup
In all the times I've talked to Wilbert Rawlins Jr., I heard doubt in his voice only once.
It was in late summer, when he was staying in a friend's FEMA trailer and waiting for the students to show up for band camp at O. Perry Walker High School. "I'm going to give it a year," he said.
He had sounded jubilant in June, after giving up a dream job at a high school in Beaumont, Texas, to become band director at Walker in Algiers.
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"I left everything behind and came here on faith," he told me. "I should be all right. I should be able to turn out good musicians."
By August, though, reality had sunk in. His possessions were gone, his house in eastern New Orleans had been gutted, and many of his former band students from Carver High School were still scattered around the country.
"Sometimes I think, 'Lord, why did you bring me back to this forsaken place?' " he said.
A unique opportunity
Now, he knows why: Because this is the only place he can do what he really wants to do.
"I get to help New Orleans kids," he said. "And there is nothing like a New Orleans band."
When I went to see him Tuesday afternoon, school was over for the day. A student came into his office and saw him polishing his desk.
"You clean your office, Mr. Rawlins?" he asked, surprised.
"I like it to look good," Wil said, smiling. He is back to sounding jubilant again.
"This place is gorgeous," he said. "This school bought me eight brand-new sousaphones."
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It was harder at Carver, where he had to raise every cent to buy uniforms, instruments, sheet music, reeds.
"I miss Carver. I miss that family," he said. "But the financial strain was real hard."
And at Walker, part of the Algiers Charter School Association, Wil has professional freedom.
"I just talk to my principal," he said. "She trusts what I'm trying to do."
Molding young lives
What's he's trying to do is turn kids into accomplished musicians, college students, productive citizens. He does it by pushing them to do their best and believing in them.
He tells me about a student whose world is a shambles.
"I have to make that kid understand that's not his life," he said. "I have to make him believe, 'You are the master of your fate and the captain of your soul.' "
This is Wil's favorite time of year: Carnival season.
"We have eight parades and eight conventions," he said, checking his desk calendar.
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In a few months he has molded those kids who showed up at band camp, including several Carver students who followed him to Walker, into an excellent New Orleans band.
And he doesn't talk about "giving it a year" anymore.
"You couldn't drag me away from here with a tow truck," he said.
That's the best kind of news for his band members. And for the rest of us, too.
. . . . . . .
Sheila Stroup can be reached at sstroup@timespicayune.com or (985) 898-4831.
The new principal of Carver High School, Ms. Vanessa Eugene, is interested in getting a celebration organized for an opening ceremony on September 4th. We know that this is short notice but anyone who can help get a band or second line band, motivational speakers, and/or organizations that can help to create a welcoming, get involved atmosphere for the opening of our school is welcomed. Please see Ms. Eugene letter attached and contact me at www.ram73@orangeandgreen.net or Ms. Eugene at (504) 232-9592 with your helpful ideas and suggestions.
Gilbert Ceasar
Ram '73
Greetings Mr. Ceasar:
Thanks for responding to my message on the orange and green website. As I
mentioned, Carver Elementary (combining Edwards and Carver Middle) and Carver
High is scheduled to open on September 4th. If you go to the school site, you
will see many modular buildings in the back. It is projected that 250 students
will attend Carver High School. The principal of the elementary school, Dedra
Baily, and I would love to have some type of celebration. She mentioned maybe
having a parade and I would love to have a Greet and Meet activity. We both
mentioned giving out school supplies and/or uniforms. These are only a few ideas
that we brainstormed. We need your ideas, help and resources. We are also
looking for mentors, tutors, hall monitors, guest speakers, and etc.
Additionally, we are working together to ensure that the Carver site is
something that all of you would be proud of once again.
Vanessa Eugene, Ph.D.
Carver High School
(504) 232-9592
Faulk announced his retirement
RB retires after 12 years Tuesday, March 27, 2007By Jimmy Smith
PHOENIX When he was a kid growing up in the Desire Housing Development, Marshall Faulk would sell popcorn at the Superdome during Saints home games just to gain entry into the building. He couldn't afford a ticket.
On Monday, Faulk announced his retirement from the NFL after a 12-year career, having accumulated 12,279 rushing yards, 19,154 yards from scrimmage, and 830 career points, numbers that likely will assure Faulk, who missed the 2006 season with a knee injury, of induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
"Once I got to the NFL and had success, then I could look back on where I came from, how tough it was, and how hard it is," Faulk said of his roots in what was one of New Orleans' toughest housing developments. "When you're in that type of environment and situation, you really don't know what the other half, or the other parts of the world live like.
"Getting to experience it, I try my best now to educate young kids on the opportunities that are out there, the dreams you ought to have, not just having money, having nice cars, but getting out of the situation you're in, making something out of yourself, making yourself a better person beyond your environment."
Faulk was hailed by NFL coaches who struggled to defend him, and those who coached him, as the type of player who changed the dynamic of professional football running backs into multidimensional players.
"He's one of the all-time greats," said Chicago Bears Coach Lovie Smith, who was a member of the St. Louis Rams staff from 2001-03 and saw Faulk perform up close each day. "Great guy, character guy off the field. Competed as hard as anyone. He was a running back with a defensive mentality. Smart player. I used to enjoy just sitting around talking football with him. He helped me learn what the offensive mind-set was from the running back position."
Saints Coach Sean Payton, who was Faulk's position coach at San Diego State during Faulk's sophomore season, called Faulk "one of the smartest players I've ever coached.
"He's very intelligent. And he knew not only offensive football, but also the defensive protections. He knew the quarterback play. He studied it hard. He brought versatility, because he was someone who could catch the ball out of the backfield. He could run with power. I think he's got very good hands. He was outstanding in protection. Those are the things that will probably put him in the Hall of Fame one day."
Faulk, an analyst for the NFL Network, began his 30-minute press conference in Phoenix announcing his retirement by lauding former Carver High School coach Wayne Reese as the individual most responsible for his NFL career.
"Wayne Reese pulled me aside and presented football to me in a way that it had never been presented to me," said Faulk, who admitted basketball was his first love. "The opportunities I had in the game, I'd have to say, I owe to him, because the passion and the hard work and all the things I've done throughout my career that allow me to be where I am right now, to stand up here before you all, is all possible because of Wayne Reese. If it wasn't for him, I can honestly say I wouldn't be here."
Reese, now the head football and track coach at McDonogh 35, said Faulk's God-given ability made him a natural.
"Coaches are just lucky to have them," Reese said of athletes such as Faulk. "Kids gifted like that with the kind of talent they have, the idea as a coach is just to help the kids do the right things."
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Staff writer Pierce W. Huff contributed to this report. Jimmy Smith can be reached at jsmith@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3814.
RICHARD WILLIAMS
Rank #3 for most yard in one game in receiving. In 1985 he broke the record.
Bob Conlin took the occasion of his Brother Martin team's 23-0 victory over St. Augustine for the 1971 Class 4A championship to thank the faculty, alumni, boosters and players' parents for their support.
(photo by Ron Brocato)
By RON BROCATO
In the 72 years Louisiana high schools have played for a formal state football championship, only three times have two opponents from New Orleans been paired in the finals.
And on all three occasions the adversaries were Catholic schools.
The first came in 1963 when Holy Cross met Jesuit before a crowd of 27,500 in Tulane Stadium on a Tuesday night. The game was twice postponed because of incessant rain and cold weather.
Rain also played a part in the 1971 clash between Brother Martin and St. Augustine at Tad Gormley Stadium. The Purple Knights had the superior speed, but the slippery and muddy turf helped a strong Crusaders’ defense stop their Gentilly rival cold.
In 1978, St. Augustine and Jesuit met in the Superdome before a prep record crowd of 42,000 ardent fans.
The Golden Era of prep football was long over, but interest in Catholic school football had not diminished. The three games collectively drew more than 93,500 prep fans to three separate stadiums. The Superdome crowd in 1978 helped convince the Louisiana High School Athletic Association to play every championship game in the Dome.
The “Superdome Classic” came to fruition in 1981.
Holy Cross 14, Jesuit 6
Dec. 17, 1963
Ken Tarzetti and John Kalbacher were brothers-in-law. In fact, when Tarzetti left Holy Cross to take the head coaching position at Jesuit in 1958, he recommended Kalbacher as his replacement. It was a great move for Holy Cross, but a request that came back to haunt Tarzetti in 1963.
Holy Cross completed the regular season with a 9-0-1 record, which included a 7-7 tie with East Jefferson and a hard-fought 7-0 victory over the Blue Jays.
But Jesuit’s road to the finals was a rough one. The Jays finished the season with a 5-4 record, and the only reason they were in the playoffs at all was the LHSAA’s recent ruling to admit both district champions and runners-up into the playoffs.
Despite the mediocre record, which included a 15-0 loss to Redemptorist in the district opener, Jesuit finished tied for second with De La Salle. But the Jays earned the No. 2 playoff position by virtue of a win over the Cavaliers.
Holy Cross eliminated Istrouma 33-6 and barely got past LaGrange 14-6 in its two playoff encounters. Meanwhile, the Cinderella Blue Jays avenged an earlier 12-0 loss to Baton Rouge High by eliminating the Bulldogs 22-6, then knocked off Lafayette, 6-0.
So the stage was set for the historic first meeting of championship contenders from the same city. But the weather didn’t cooperate.
During the week of the game, it was announced that Holy Cross had placed five players on the All-Catholic district team: tailback Glenn Smith, end Bob Borison, tackle Joe Zimmerman, guard Vic Eumont and center Barry Wilson. Jesuit’s quarterback Pete Schweigert and end Dennis Eigenbrod were also named, and Tarzetti edged Kalbacher out for Coach of the Year.
While this game was getting all the accolades, a little publicized championship game was being played.
On Dec. 8, St. Augustine, behind All-City fullback Wayne Reese, defeated Xavier Prep for the Louisiana Interscholastic Athletic and Literary Organization (LIALO) state title. This was also a game played between two New Orleans teams, but it hardly went noticed despite a crowd of 12,000 to witness the game in City Park Stadium.
But that was not a first, either. In 1959, L.B. Landry, whose marquee players were Rich “Tombstone” Jackson and Alvin Haymond, defeated Booker T. Washington 28-9, in the first actual game matching two city schools in a state championship game.
As interest built for the Tigers vs. Jays rematch, storm clouds from the north began to move over the metro area. On the original gameday, Dec. 13, the front hit and a deluge made playing conditions impossible, dashing the prospects of a big gate.
Principals of the two schools and LHSAA Commissioner “Muddy” Waters agreed to play the game a day later on a Saturday night. Again, there was no let-up in the weather, and the game was re-set again for a Tuesday night.
The third date was the charm. Advance tickets at $1.25, which had been scooped up at the three local outlets -- Andy Douglass’ Sportco, D.H. Holmes and Werlein’s Music on Canal Street -- were finally going to be used.
The Jays outweighed the Tigers on offense 179 pounds to 178, but the Holy Cross defense enjoyed the weight edge 185 to 180, rather large in that era.
The game was a fine display of defense by both teams. Jesuit held Smith to 65 yards on 14 carries and limited the Tigers to 195 total yards and seven first downs. Schweigert completed 11-of-21 passes for 56 of the Jays’ 209 total yards. But both teams had trouble sustaining long drives.
They each scored in the second period and the difference was Richard Gronto’s PAT that gave the Tigers a 7-6 edge. Then quarterback Ray Culotta’s 1-yard plunge that culminated an 88-yard drive in the fourth period gave Holy Cross its first state championship in 19 years.
Brother Martin 23, St. Augustine 0
Dec. 10, 1971
Two young, promising coaches who became heralded among the city’s elite made their championship debuts in the “Battle for Gentilly II.”
Rookie Bobby Conlin, a basketball and baseball standout in high school at De La Salle, was thrown into the head football coaching position at Brother Martin when Andy Bourgeois left. Conlin would have preferred to coach the basketball team, but that job already belonged to Andy Russo, who had great success at St. Aloysius before it and Cor Jesu combined to create the new Brother Martin school in 1969.
With a solid staff and a large area from which to draw students, it didn’t take long for Martin to become a power.
Four years earlier, St. Augustine, located less than three miles from Martin, gained entrance into the Catholic district by virtue of a victory in court. After a few years of growing pains, mostly caused by eligibility problems, the Purple Knights became a force with which to be reckoned.
And the young coach who moved the Knights to a higher level was Otis Washington. He had replaced the capable Eddie Flint, architect of the LIALO’s most formidable team in the early 1960s.
Although Conlin and Washington hardly cavorted in the same circles, it didn’t take long for the two to find a common ground. Their friendship in the years to come was rivaled only by their desire to beat each other.
This year it would be Conlin’s turn.
St. Augustine was the district leader until the final game of the regular season. It had dominated its Catholic school opponents, while Martin had dropped a 16-0 decision to Jesuit in the second game of the season.
After that defeat, Conlin ditched his T-formation offensive package and installed a Wishbone attack that would become the Crusaders’ calling card for the next two decades.
Bolstered by a defense that included future New Orleans Saints linebacker Kenny Bordelon at an end, linebackers Darryl Brue and Henry Nuss and safety Pat Dearie, Martin won its next 12 games by a combined score of 177-32. Eight victories were by shutout.
In the regular-season finale, Brother Martin edged St. Augustine 7-0 for a share of the district crown, and Martin received the No. 6 ranking in the final state prep poll. The Purple Knights finished at No. 7.
St. Augustine’s defense was also impressive. It had also shut out seven opponents and surrendered only 57 points in 14 games, 30 of which were to Brother Martin. Tackles Brian Norwood and Donald Tibbs, linebacker Gerald Davis, ends Donald Lemon and young Terry Sherman and safety Jerry Reese were the main hitters.
Brother Martin defeated Kennedy 7-0, South Terrebonne 14-0, and Neville 7-6, to get to the finals. St. Augustine edged O. Perry Walker 14-7, then knocked off No. 1 Bogalusa 16-0, and Capt. Shreve 6-0, to set up the rematch.
An overnight deluge, which continued into late morning of the game, soaked the Gormley gras, turning the earth into a gooey sea of mud.
Although the Knights had the offensive speed with quarterback Keith Pete and his two quick backs Ray Lation and Gregory Washington motoring with 4.5 speed, the playing conditions favored the Crusaders.
And when quarterback Joe Mattingly called the first play, it was all Martin. The wishbone, which featured powerful backs like Marc Robert, Owen Reimers and Steve Treuting, slashed through holes made by Bordelon, Paul Lanoux, Keith Crawford, Gary Oser, Dan Angie and Tommy Wichser.
The mud and hard hitting caused the Knights to turn the ball over five times, three on fumbles. And the ‘Saders made them pay. Able to contain St. Aug between the 20-yard lines, Martin controlled the clock and the scoreboard.
The defense held St. Aug to 58 total yards. The running game produced only 18 yards. Meanwhile, the Wishbone didn’t snap against the Knights’ talented defense. Treuting scored twice, including once in the 13-point final period that sealed the victory.
St. Augustine 13, Jesuit 7
Dec. 15, 1978
During his stay at St. Augustine, Washington coached three Purple Knights teams to state championships. His 1975 team was unbeaten in 15 games, and his 1979 victory over New Iberia signaled the end of his head coaching career.
But no win was as important to the coach as the triumph over Jesuit.
In an extremely tight district, St. Augustine had three chances to not qualify for the playoffs.
It took a 7-6 overtime victory over nemesis Brother Martin to stave off a defeat in the district opener. Then three weeks later, Rummel scored a 21-18 upset of the Knights. And in the 10th week of the season and tied with Jesuit for the lead, the Knights barely hung on to nip one of Chalmette’s finest teams, 7-6.
Meanwhile, Jesuit’s well-schooled team under coach Billy Murphy lost only one game, 28-7 to St. Augustine, to set up a tie for the district title with both finishing with 6-1 records. It was a close finish with Chalmette at 5-2 and Martin and Rummel at 4-3. In many scenarios, any combination of the five might have made the playoffs.
Led by quarterback Darren Dixon, running backs Alvin Martin and Irvin Hadley, behind a talented line, St. Aug breezed in the playoffs past East Jefferson 39-0, Landry 27-6, South Lafourche 28-0, and Lafayette, 30-0.
Jesuit was sparked by tailback Lon McCloskey, who rushed for 191 yards in a 35-7 semifinal round win over Woodlawn of Shreveport. Dyrus Charles and Lenny Quick also combined for 16 rushing touchdowns during the regular season.
Jesuit had a bit tougher time in the playoffs. The Jays defeated West Jefferson 28-14 and McDonogh 35 by a 35-13 score, but they had to outlast the razzle dazzle offense of Carver.
In the many years the late Johnny Harris coached Carver, the Rams were anything but dull. And this year he had the lanky twin terminals, Wayne and DeWayne Smith, to complete a wild aerial circus offense.
St. Augustine survived a 15-12 decision encounter against the Rams in the season-opener, but now it was the Jays’ turn.
The two combined for 713 yards in total offense with Carver’s Hollis Brent completing 17 of 26 passes for 279 yards and two touchdowns, and Jesuit’s quarterback Timmy Parenton passing for one TD and running for two more. DeWayne Smith set a school record 10 receptions for 199 yards.
Jesuit took a 21-8 lead into halftime, but with Brent running and gunning, the Rams were back in contention late in the game. The difference was a two-point conversion run by McCloskey.
In the game’s final moments, Carver scored to cut the Jays’ lead to 28-26. But the tying conversion try was spoiled when Jesuit’s Kevin Smith pressured Brent and forced an errant pass that Jays back Bobby Lewis batted away in the end zone.
On Dec. 9 following the semifinal victories by the two Catholic schools, Jesuit officials were able to secure the Superdome for the finals. It would be the first state championship game played under the big top.
Both teams entered the game with 13-1 records. Like any head coach, Washington was wary of having to play a team he had already beaten in the same season, especially a school with the football tradition that dated back nearly to the turn of the century.
On the other hand, the Blue Jays were ecstatic. A victory over the Knights would not only mark the school’s eighth state football title and first since 1960, it would also avenge the earlier defeat.
The game was a classic. For 48 minutes the battle on the Superdome floor was worthy of the price of admission.
Two long touchdown passes from Dixon to Gregory Hobbs provided the Knights with the winning margin. And on both occasions, key receptions by All-City tight end Malcolm Scott with a defender draped over his back set up the 53 and 30-yard tosses to Hobbs.
McCloskey also provided a thrill when he raced 76 yards for a touchdown in the third period to tie the score at 7-7.
The outcome was St. Augustine’s finest hour, Washington said.
“This championship definitely means more (than winning in 1975). Simply because this team was not supposed to do anything, I am real happy for the players, the coaches, everyone.”
Two years later, Washington would step down to take a position at Southern University. When that brief tenure ended, Washington quietly left the coaching ranks. His St. Augustine teams won 80 percent of their games.
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