Hurricane hits close to home for two football coaches

By Maurice O. Ndole
The Collegian

Two Fresno State football coaches, who have lived in New Orleans, said the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina is a nightmare that people feared and talked about but never thought would turn into reality.

Offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti and special teams coach John Baxter, who coached football for the New Orleans Saints and Tulane University respectively, said the disaster has changed the city forever.

“It’s a tragedy just to think that I know people over there who had to leave their home,” Cignetti said.

Cignetti, who coached the Saints for two years, said the effects of the disaster were hard to comprehend. He said he was saddened by the helplessness the disaster has caused in the nation.

“To think that there are people who need help and help can’t get to them. Your heart just goes to them,” Cignetti said.

Cignetti said he is now more appreciative about living in an area with nice weather without natural disasters.

Baxter, who coached the Tulane University football team from1994 to 1996, said he had not been able to get in touch with some of his friends or the players who played for him at Tulane. He said the disaster hit the city in more than one way.

“They had two disasters,” Baxter said. “They had the hurricane and then the floods.”

Baxter described New Orleans as a city that had been dodging bullets in the form of hurricanes for almost 300 years.

He said the devastation has changed the city, which has some of the highest percentages of poor people in America. Baxter also said he was not surprised by the angry reaction from the victims of the hurricane.

“When all the ‘haves’ leave town and all the have-nots are left, you get turmoil,” Baxter said.