Hurricane Season: A Coach, His Team, and Their Triumph in the Time of Katrina

by Neal Thompson

Book Overview

"There's always a point in the season when you're faced with a challenge and you see what you're capable of. And you grow up." -- J.T. Curtis, head coach, John Curtis Christian School Patriots On... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1416540709
• ISBN13: 9781416540700
• Release Date: July 2007
• Publisher: Free Press
• Length: 308 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.4" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

A People Book

I can't say enough good things about this book!! This book is remarkable!! It tells the story about how people dealt with Hurrican Katrina and the aftermath and a remarkable man, J. T. Curtis, Head football coach and principal of the John Curtis Christian School. How he and his family brought together a school and the football team is an unbelievable story. Their story will make you cry, laugh and cheer!! I really enjoyed this book A LOT!!! Gerard Zemek Husband of author of "My Funny Dad, Harry"

THE EMOTIONAL SIDE OF THE STORY

Hurricane season is an excellent complement to Douglas Brinkley's " The Great Deluge." While Brinkley provides an excellent analytical and scholarly account of Hurricane Katrina that should set the standard for many years; Hurricane Season captures the powerful emotional dimensions. Though grounded in the story of a high school football team, it transcends normal sportswriting by speaking to the bigger panorama of life, suffering, loss, and inspiring tales of recovery and fortitude. With so many aspirations and dreams hanging in the balance, the J.T. Curtis School and football team regroup after enduring catastrophe and devastation and become a beacon of hope and solace for many of the victims. Replete with an abundance of anecdotes and personal accounts, Thompson weaves their stories into a gripping narrative that will find appeal among readers of all genres. This is a stirring and fast paced treatment of those perilous days that is both wrenching and redeeming.

A Season to Remember!

Lest we forgot the terrible tragedy that hurricane Katrina wrought, the two years of its aftermath magnifies still, the will to prevail. This is evident as thousands attempt to put their lives back together. Against all odds despite the hand of fate dealing a devastating blow to status quo, a group of courageous kids purposed not to allow angst to color the proverbial agony of defeat. Their story is typically told in author Neal Thompson's poignant book, HURRICANE SEASON. What a remarkable tale told amid the idea of overcoming the sheer force of a natural disaster. The author captures a truly extraordinary picture of boys and men doing what needs to be done with a sense of purpose that give new meaning to hope. This is the story of coach J.T. Curtis and a team that wouldn't quit when most would have simply thrown in the towel. John Curtis Christian School -- the Patriots, were a team of destiny that won you over once you read how they managed to allow rays of hope to illuminate sunshine on cloudy days eradicating the pervasive feeling of sadness...Let me tell you how they did it! They did it with moxie, determination and an unbelievable test of faith. The book is a story that tugs at your heart and compels you to want to read it hoping for an ending that is akin to a `happily ever after' effect. Neal Thompson wrote with a clear mission to bring clarity to a group of kids that had reason to play with reckless abandon. The book is based on a majority of interviews conducted with Coach J.T., faculty members, students of John Curtis, many of the 2005 school year Patriots and their families, et al. The amazing thing about the book, the storm, and aftermath is the fact that Hurricanes Katrina and Rita gave us a chance to witness their fury on television with countless newspaper stories, and survivor accounts in magazines and online blogs...but the sheer affect it had on the people who suffered, the places they destroyed, and the things that will forever be associated with them, nothing can top this outstanding book for significant meaning in a reflective way. The backdrop has a legendary football coach, albeit winning and charismatic looking at a rebuilding year in 2005. Despite losing his star quarterback to a rival school with a better chance at winning and the philosophy of team discipline, nothing could stop his drive for perfection - accept a lady on a mission! Katrina struck with impunity forcing players to abandon the city along with the multitude that called New Orleans home. However, John Curtis School survived with limited damage, allowing it to become one of the first schools to reopen. The book does a credible job of telling in graphic detail how Coach Curtis struggled to find games to resume the new season. His players battered and mentally beaten, were amazingly anxious to try to return to a sense of normality, and a ring of hope for their futures. All of this was based on a coaches' determination to spur his team to greater heights res

Very good book

If you enjoyed "Friday Night Lights" you will like this book, but it is about much more than just football. You can't imagine what these kids went through during and after Katrina, but this book tells the story very well. These kids came back home with their families to rebuild and in the process showed dedication to their city and school. This is easily one of the best stories to come out of Katrina. I hope this book can reach a wider audience, like FNL, because this is easily the best football/life books to come out since FNL hit the shelves. If you have any interest at all in high school football, Katrina, or New Orleans then you will not be disappointed.

Reviewed by Barb Radmore

The effects of Hurricane Katrina have been reported over and over, on TV, in newspapers, magazines and blogs. With modern technology many of us got to watch it live, bearing down in all its terror, from the comfort of our safe, intact homes. It would seem that we knew all there was to know, knew the effects of the storm on people, places and things. But none of the coverage, none of the follow up reports on the storm and its aftermath can top the book Hurricane Season for sheer impact, both on knowledge and emotions. Hurricane Season is the story of one football team in the Parish of New Orleans. The team, The Patriots, is from a private Christian school that prides itself on its diverse student population, its core Christian values and its football team. Coach JT Curtis has one of the best win records in the country. His players have gone on to play for top college teams, a few are even playing for the NFL. In 2005 he was looking at a rebuilding year. The quarterback they expected to lead the team has left to join a rival school, one that will allow him more chances to gain the valuable stats that colleges seek. Coach Curtis believes in team effort, not individual star making. His team, due to his no cut policy, numbers over 100 each year. In a school of only 650 students, that is a very large percentage of the student population. His players train all summer, work to stay in shape, to be physically and mentally prepared for the fall football season. Coach believes in practice too- not the common 2 practices a day of most schools but three a day, a relentless, high powered training plan. But after all the preparations the season is brought to a sudden halt by Katrina. For football coaches' wives everywhere, the scene where the town is evacuating and the coaches' spouses are calling, actually interrupting their usual after practice meeting to try to convince the men to come home and pack, will ring very true. For the coaches and players nothing, short of Hurricane Katrina, would interfere with football. But Katrina does interfere, sending players fleeing to other parts of the country, taking away their homes, their parents' jobs and all stability. John Curtis School survives with limited damage, allowing it to become one of the first schools to reopen. The Curtis family, the extended family of the original school founder John Curtis, works to locate and convince as many students as possible to return to the area. Coach Curtis struggles to locate other teams willing and able to resume the football season. His players begin to return, exhausted, scared and confused but anxious to try to return to a sense of normality, a sense of hope for their futures, based on the foundation of the football team they love. The book begins and ends with football. It will appeal to any football fan, player, coach or sports fanatic. But this book goes far beyond the field. It interweaves the story of the John Curtis School, its history and its football, with a