‘FAMILY COMES FIRST BEFORE ANYTHING’
Hurricane Irma hitting his hometown has full attention of Florida native Gavins
While the rain began to pelt onto the TD Place stadium turf with thunder cracking and lightning illuminating the darkened sky early Thursday afternoon, Jerrell Gavins’ mind was nearly 2,600 kilometres away, thinking about a newborn baby and a hurricane — yeah, the nasty storm that’s threatening to rip into his hometown later this week.
Following his team’s 32-4 win over the Alouettes a week ago in Montreal, Gavins, a Redblacks defensive back, left early the next morning on a flight to Miami to be with his longtime girlfriend Janelle. After going into Jackson South Hospital on Saturday, Janelle delivered a beautiful baby girl Zoe Bella (the middle name was lifted from a character on Twilight) on Tuesday via C-section. Zoe was 6 pounds, 13 ounces at birth.
“She has a head full of hair, she opens her eyes already, she can pick her head up, she kicks a lot and doesn’t cry much,” said the 28-year-old Gavins, who missed Redblacks practices Tuesday and Wednesday and arrived back in Ottawa early Thursday morning. “She’s a wonderful baby.”
While he didn’t get to spend a lot of time with his girl and their girl, he smiles when he thinks about being a daddy.
“She’ll be spoiled,” he said. “My girl ( breast) fed her, then gave her to me. While she got to nap, I burped (Zoe) real fast. I didn’t put her in the little sleeping thing they gave us. I held her the whole night. I only had about 30 hours to hang with her. My girl was all woozy so I got to change every diaper. I have younger sisters, so I’ve done this before.
“(When you have a child), you’re high on life, it’s something spiritual. I’m still super proud, I can’t stop thinking about them and all the exciting things we’re going to get to do.”
Then, there’s Hurricane Irma, a storm so vicious it’s earned a Category 5 designation. With Florida in its crosshairs, it could leave a path of destruction in Miami — when it hit Barbuda two days ago, it wiped out 90 per cent of the island’s buildings.
Baby Zoe doesn’t have a passport yet, so getting mother and daughter to Ottawa isn’t an option. Even getting them out of the city isn’t easy.
“When you try and evacuate before a hurricane, it’s tough to get out,” said Gavins. “You get stuck on the interstate, traffic doesn’t move. It looks like an episode of The Walking Dead, to tell you the truth. It’s not good. They raise the price of (airline) tickets. I had to pay $900 (US) to get back here.
“Family comes first before anything. We play the game Saturday, if I have go down there and get my family — no Superman stuff, but I’m going to go. If I have to buy a Jeep, I’ll buy a Jeep and get my family.”
If I have go down there and get my family — no Superman stuff, but I’m going to go. If I have to buy a Jeep, I’ll buy a Jeep and get my family.
Gavins and his girlfriend live in a home five minutes from the water, so flooding is a threat.
“If it rains, water’s running in your front yard,” he said.
It’s not like they haven’t been through this before, but Irma could be another story.
“I don’t even watch the news, they lie so much,” said Gavins. “But it scares you, you hear about the state of evacuation, you can’t buy gas, everything’s down. They raise the price of water, they double charge you. We have a big family, everybody takes care of everybody. If I didn’t think they were taken care of, I wouldn’t have left.
“We’ve been through many hurricanes. I’ve been through hurricanes where if you open the door, it’s going to get flung off — the winds are crazy. If you know you can ride out a big-ass storm, go through it for 12 hours and be all right, I have no problem with that. But during or after the situation, if there’s flooding or I can’t communicate with them, I’m out of here. If I can’t reach her on the phone, I’m gone.”
When asked about climate change and global warming and the skepticism of their existence by U.S. President Donald Trump, who has tweeted that the concepts were “created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive,” Gavins said: “These hurricanes are probably his fault.”
And when he says it, he’s not smiling or laughing. IN AND OUT: The Redblacks still have some decisions to make on their game day roster this week. Speaking about returner/ receiver Quincy McDuffie, Redblacks coach Rick Campbell said: “I’m hopeful he’ll play, he hasn’t practised yet this week. I’m going to let that play out until the end. We’ll have a plan either way, with or without him, and we’ll confirm it tomorrow.” Will William Powell or Mossis Madu Jr. start at running back? Campbell said: “William is healthy to go. We’ll decide on dressing one or both of them.” On receiver Jake Harty who left practice early Thursday, Campbell said: “He got nicked up, but it looks like he’s OK. I just sent him inside to get treatment right away. But it was literally just a bump and I think he’s going to be good to go.”
THE END AROUND: After all-star receiver Derel Walker, who was released by the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers, signed a deal to return to Edmonton, Eskimos GM Brock Sunderland said: “My understanding is every CFL team was throwing their hat in the ring. Which they should.” Of course. Walker did have 1,589 yards on 109 catches last season with the Eskimos. But turns out at least one team — the Redblacks — did not make an offer. It’s not exactly a position of weakness for Ottawa, even with the season-ending injury to Kenny Shaw ... So Henry Burris, who will be honoured during a halftime ceremony during Saturday night’s home game against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, was given the Key to the City on Thursday. Time for the country to step up and give Canadian citizenship to him and wife Nicole.