SUNO athletics holding on after Katrina

Despite the damper Hurricane Katrina may have put on other athletic programs in the New Orleans area, the athletic department at Southern University at New Orleans is still in operation. SUNO, a Division I member of the National Athletic Intercollegiate Association and the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference, will still participate in the sports of men’s basketball, along with men’s track and field.
“Well, I think it will be a challenging year,” said SUNO Athletic Director and men’s basketball coach Earl R. Hill. “We have faced adversity before, but never like this.
“But I think this will bring out the best of our young men. We will compete as hard as we ever did, but it will be a difficult task for us.”
The women’s basketball and track seasons have been cancelled. Since the hurricane, members of the schools athletic programs have been scattered across the country, making it difficult for Hill to find some of them. Some of them will return, Hill said, to pick up play in January 2006.
“The parents came and got the girls a week before the hurricane and took them home,” said women’s basketball head coach, Elston King. “The girls are spread all over the country, so we decided to go and cancel the season, because the parents decided to take their kids to other schools. They will be back next August.”
The only programs not cancelled at SUNO are the men’s track and basketball teams.
Last season, the men’s basketball team, the Black Knights, finished the season with a17-9 overall record and finished as GCAC champs for the second consecutive year in 2002. They also ranked third in the nation and became the only team in GCAC history to win back-to-back championships.
“The men’s basketball and track team are currently on the Baton Rouge campus,” Hill said. “We will have an abbreviated season this year, because (during) the first semester we won’t be able to play or put a team on the court. But (during) the second semester, our men’s basketball team will compete in our conference.
“Our men’s track team will compete for indoor (championship) and their first meet will probably be in January,” Hill said.
This week, the men’s basketball team is scheduled to begin practicing in Seymour Gym their new home, to prepare for their first scheduled home game against Tougaloo College on Jan. 7.
“Because of (Hurricane) Katrina the NAIA will allow us to play this year, this semester rather, without the girls,” said Hill. “We have a nucleus for the team on the campus right now; we have about six or seven on campus.”
According to the NAIA, student-athletes from four New Orleans area colleges will be given an extra year of eligibility because of the effects Katrina left on them. The only stipulation is that the returning student must remain a student at his respective college. He or she will not maintain eligibility if they transfer.