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It is easier to find a well-built canal levee in New Orleans
than an article about the city’s soccer team, the Shell Shockers,
in the sports pages of the local press. Louisiana is not a hotbed
of soccer fanaticism. Down here the papers call “sports”
hunting and shooting, Walmart’s Sports Department carries camouflage
jackets and ammunition but no shin guards (or it did before it was
looted), and the sports section of the magazine racks typically
feature a dozen fishing publications but none on soccer.
Sports coverage in the Big Easy is concentrated on the two professional
teams, the footballing Saints and the basketballing Hornets. The
owners have threatened to leave the city and experts have maintained
the population cannot support the fulltime franchises - and that
was before Katrina. Now speculation has reached a frenzy that at
least one - possibly both - will pack up their flood-damaged possessions
and abandon ship as soon as they can.
For Shell Shockers’ Head Coach Kenny Farrell it used to be
a fight to get coverage in the media. Today he fights to find a
pitch to play on.
The storm-battered city is struggling back to life and the weary
locals recently took a break from rebuilding their shattered lives
to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Mardi Gras. But now the tourists,
Spring Break-college kids and TV crews have left, Kenny, 42, has
returned to trying to prepare his Premier Development League side
for the upcoming season just weeks away.
The Dubliner was a center half with League of Ireland club Shelbourne
who crossed the Atlantic to play for Salem College in North Carolina
and wound up in Louisiana 10 years ago. He became Director of Coaching
of the city's Lafreniere Soccer Club and led them to 25 State Championships
before founding the Shell Shockers with local United Way President
Gary Ostroske in 2003. He won the PDL’s ‘Coach of the
Year’ title after a spectacular first season in which they
won more games than any other team in the country.
But Katrina flooded his house and his players were scattered around
the States. For weeks he had no idea what had happened to them or
even if they were all still alive.
Gary meanwhile rode out the storm for four days until five feet
of water in his home forced him and his family to wave down a passing
boat piloted by a Hollywood movie director. They ended up amongst
thousands of refugees at a rescue staging center and then hitch-hiked
to Baton Rouge.
Player/coach Steve McAnespie, the non-swimming former Bolton Wanderers
and Fulham defender, had an even more harrowing experience and was
lucky to escape with his life. In a one-story house the rising water
forced him to scramble onto the roof where he was trapped for two
days before getting heli-vaced to safety by the Coast Guard. When
he was picked up from a shelter by his friend Rob Nelson his feet
were so badly sunburned he couldn't wear shoes.
The Press box has been eaten by termites
The team’s home, Pan American Stadium in City Park, was drowned
under 10 feet of water, every maintenance vehicle and piece of park
equipment was swept away and the grass killed by the salt water
from the Gulf of Mexico.
Against this post-apocalyptic background of New Orleans spluttering
along with a population level not seen since the 1870s, Kenny is
working to get some soccer normalcy back to the city. But getting
a team prepared for the first game of the season last week was a
battle.
He explained: “Almost seven months after the hurricane our
home ground still has no electricity and so we can not train at
night. We did have a practice pitch in mind as a back-up, but then
that got commandeered by FEMA and was turned into a dump for demolished
homes and is under 20 feet of rubble.
“The floodwaters left behind a layer of mud, dirt and filth
and the area around the ground is littered with abandoned and flooded
vehicles. Next door is now a make-shift campsite for workers and
locals who have nowhere to live.”
Dilapidated Pan American Stadium is a sorry sight for any soccer
lover. The ramshackle facility has rusted and corroded risers, the
dressing rooms and bathrooms need to be gutted and the heavy-duty
fridges in the concession area have to be professionally cleaned
- and that’s just for starters. To add insult to injury the
back of the press box has been eaten away by termites.
But the city of New Orleans, teetering on the brink of bankruptcy
with its tax-paying base decimated, has neither the funds nor the
inclination to make the stadium’s clean-up a priority. In fact
City Park, at 1,300 acres one of the 10 largest urban parks in the
nation with more than 11 million annual visitors, does not receive
one cent from the council for day-to-day operations. After Katrina
the board was forced to slash the workforce by 96 per cent, from
260 employees to just 11.
The club has spent months trying to reach an agreement with executives
to let them put money into the ground and begin to clean up the
facility. But with much of the city’s administration and infra-structure
still in tatters, and with things moving even slower than usual
in Louisiana, it seems the team will be forced into temporary exile.
At the time of writing it is likely they will relocate to a field
in the neighboring city of Kenner, 15 miles away and close to Louis
Armstrong International Airport.
“We had attractive offers from nearby cities to move,”
says Farrell, “ but even during the darkest days of the storm
I never thought for a minute that we wouldn’t be back. If we
have to move out of Orleans Parish for a year then so be it. Kenner
is a middle-class suburb bursting with soccer moms and a season
there won’t be the end of the world, but the partners are agreed
that now, more than ever, it is important we show commitment to
the Crescent City.”
Despite the daily obstacles of trying to run a set-up in a landscape
akin to a Mad Max movie, Kenny is upbeat about the upcoming campaign.
In fact in a bizarre twist - and not due to any Government-sponsored
initiative or help - the Shell Shockers could even be in line for
the most successful season in their four-year history.
Typically home games attract less than 300 spectators, but post-Katrina
there has been a huge influx of Hispanic workers brought in by contractors
to help with the rebuilding. With most from the soccer-crazy countries
of Central America it means there is a bumper untapped community
of potential fans, and it is a market the Shell Shockers are determined
to target. They have already launched a Spanish-speaking radio show
and plan to publish bi-lingual leaflets and set up a Spanish-language
website.
Before the storm Kenny and Gary had to work hard to attract sponsors,
but now big businesses are calling them, keen to be associated with
a side which is tied to the region at a time when the perception
is that the professional franchises can’t wait to leave.
The water mark left by the flood waters
But the biggest boost has been a large cash injection by 37-year-old
Louisiana businessman Michael Balluff who is now club President
and has introduced a full-time team of staff to raise the club’s
professionalism. He signed up within weeks of the hurricane while
a near-deserted New Orleans was under curfew and National Guard
troops patrolled the streets.
“Some people will think the timing strange, but ironically
Kenny and I first discussed this the day before Katrina hit and
arranged to meet the following week. Soccer has been woefully under-exploited
in Louisiana, and despite the TV images and destruction of huge
swathes of the city my resolve to get involved never waivered.”
Michael’s take-over of the business side has left Kenny free
to concentrate on trying to create a team ready to compete in the
strong Mid South Division of the Southern Conference. A league restructuring
has left them facing four Texas teams, a difficult enough task normally
but especially hard this year as the forced evacuation has handicapped
the squad’s fitness preparation.
“With a few experienced additions to the team centered on a
core of local talent I am confident we will be successful. This
year the Shell Shockers are not just representing soccer but are
a symbol of the rebirth of a whole city.”
Even now, with this year’s hurricane season little more than
two months away, life is anything but normal in New Orleans. The
zoo recently held free medical checkups, meaning dentists told you
to open up and say “Ah” above a cacophony of caged monkeys
screeching in the background. A 200-foot long barge sits in the
middle of the road. Only half the traffic lights work.
But the Shell Shockers just get on with it. Kenny added: “We
are dedicated to New Orleans and need to give the people something
they can be proud of. The beaten and battered soccer followers here
need a winning team to support now more than ever, and this year
we are determined to win the league not just for ourselves but for
the city and the community.
“If anything the myriad obstacles provided by Katrina have
only made us even more determined to win something for the success-starved
sports fans of New Orleans. There has been a lot of hardship over
the last few months, but there is no point wallowing in self-pity
- you just have to knuckle down and get stuck in.”
Before Saturday’s friendly against the University of West Florida
the squad met in an Irish pub called Finn McCool’s for their
team talk and pre-match meal. The bar is not yet up-and-running
as it is being rebuilt after it was flooded under seven feet of
water, and the Shell Shockers Administrative Director Jai-Anne Miller
cooked the chicken and pasta herself because their usual restaurant
has not reopened after Katrina.
In a low-key, unannounced game the Shell Shockers played out a scoreless
draw before a handful of friends and family. But at least the first
step has been taken on the long, hard road back to everyday soccer
life after the worst natural disaster the country has ever seen.
Kenny said he was satisfied with the performance and congratulated
the players. Then he took out his cell phone and started making
calls to track down somewhere for them to train next Tuesday night.
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