Dolphins step up to help stranded high school team

Thanks to the Miami Dolphins, the members of a Miami high school football team are headed home nearly a week after scoring a big upset in Las Vegas.

Dolphins players stepped up Thursday, paying for lodging and transportation for the 69 Miami Central Rockets players, coaches and administrators forced by hurricane Irma to stay in Las Vegas after Friday’s 24-20 win over defending three-time national champ Bishop Gorman High School.

“I’m ecstatic because, any time you see an organization like the Dolphins think about and take care of a high school team like ourselves, that’s amazing,” Central Coach Roland Smith, a 1991 Dolphins draft pick, told the Miami Herald’s Armando Salguero.

The Dolphins know how it feels to be displaced. Their National Football League season opener was postponed until November and, with Irma bearing down, they headed for California, where they’ll play the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday. When players read about Central’s plight, they got involved. Members of the Rockets’ group will leave in parties of six to eight per flight, with the last expected to arrive home Friday. Dolphins players Kenny Stills, Ndamukong Suh, Reshad Jones, Lawrence Timmons and Jarvis Landry were among the first to kick in donations to help pay Central’s tab in Vegas.

The Rockets have tried their best to stick to a routine during their stay in Nevada. They did a walk-through on the parking lot of their SpringHill Suites Hotel near the Las Vegas Convention Center. “It’s just no nothing. No grass. No contact. No tackling. No nothing,” safety Davonta Wilson told Miami’s Fox affiliate. “It’s real hot down here. It’s a different type of hot from Florida.”

The Rockets, 3-0 and ranked 10th nationally, found compassion from the team they upset in a game shown on ESPN. Bishop Gorman, a Catholic school, offered to pay for the Rockets’ hotel and the Las Vegas Police Protective Association says it provided lunch.

“It’s just amazing how people all come together to help a team that’s stuck in Vegas. It’s just — it’s incredible,” right tackle Jalen Thelmas said. “If another team was in the same situation as us, I’m hoping that my team would come together and do the same thing for them.”

Team members say their families back home were lucky not to experience too much damage, except for a few downed trees — and one that fell on a car belonging to a player’s mom. A few family members made the trip to Las Vegas, but most did not, and the storm prevented most of the players from reaching relatives until Monday.

Central’s next game was originally scheduled for Thursday and, because it is a nondistrict game, it might not be rescheduled. That means that the Rockets next would face IMG Academy, ranked first by USA Today, on Sept. 22 in Bradenton, Fla. Maybe now their lives can begin to get back to normal.

“When you have an organization the kids look up to and they step forward,” Smith said, “it’s an awesome thing.”