Tulane's Athletes Prepare for Next Move

Five Schools in Texas, La. Will Host Teams

DALLAS, Sept. 6 -- Tulane Coach Chris Scelfo was standing in the back billiards room of the Doubletree Hotel at Campbell Center here Tuesday afternoon, chalking up a cue stick as he prepared to play a game against his son.

"If we're going to talk, we've got to do it while I do this," Scelfo said to a reporter.

Scelfo, whose Green Wave football team fled New Orleans more than a week ago and probably won't be going back to its campus anytime soon because of damage caused by flooding from Hurricane Katrina, is getting used to juggling several things at once. Scelfo says he has slept nine hours since Aug. 28, the day his team evacuated New Orleans and fled for Jackson, Miss., and then Dallas.

"I'm getting by on adrenaline and coffee," Scelfo said. "You've got the rest of your eternal life to sleep."

For much of the past week, Scelfo has worked tirelessly to find a school, housing, practice facility and stadium for his players. Scelfo and his coaches have searched for necessities such as clothes, water and Gatorade and some luxuries that are now essential in college football -- video projectors to watch film of practice and to scout opponents, massage tables for the training room and more practice uniforms.

"We don't have a home stadium, so we don't need home jerseys," Scelfo said. "Hey, we ain't going back home this year. So we're on the road and that's all we have."

After spending more than a week in Dallas, the Green Wave learned Tuesday that it is getting a new home, albeit another temporary one. Next Monday, Tulane's football players, coaches and support staff will relocate to Louisiana Tech University in Ruston. Tulane's 88 players and a few student managers will enroll in classes there for at least fall semester, and the Green Wave will play many of its six home games at Independence Stadium in Shreveport, La., about 70 miles away.

"I'll play in the parking lot of a Popeye's Fried Chicken and so will my team," Scelfo said.

With most of its campus and athletic facilities under several feet of water from flooding, Tulane is sending student-athletes from its 11 intercollegiate sports teams to five schools in Louisiana and Texas. The football team is sending the largest contingency to Louisiana Tech; 78 student-athletes from the men's basketball, women's soccer, women's volleyball and women's swimming and diving teams are enrolling at Texas A&M in College Station.

Smaller groups of Tulane student-athletes also are going to Texas Tech in Lubbock, Rice University in Houston and Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

"I have shared with our coaches that Tulane athletics has been given a role and a mission," Tulane Athletics Director Rick Dickson said. "We have to carry the message, to Tulanians especially, but also to the whole country, that an institution as valuable as a 170-year-old university and a culture as rich and vibrant as ours in New Orleans, will not and cannot be erased by this disaster."

The Green Wave football team, whose season opener at Southern Mississippi scheduled for this past Sunday was canceled because of damage in Hattiesburg, Miss., will play its opening game against Mississippi State on Sept. 17. The game was scheduled to be played at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, but the dome's roof was damaged by hurricane winds and was used as a makeshift shelter until people were evacuated from the city late last week.