A year later, Cougars still ‘playing’ for city
Program grew closer as family in aftermath of Hurricane Harvey
As D.J. Small sat in a hotel room in Austin, he turned on the television to see the devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey.
“I don’t ever watch the news because I’m scared of the news for reasons like that,” Small, a sophomore defensive back for the University of Houston, said this week in advance of the one-year anniversary of one of the most destructive storms in the nation’s history.
“I turn on the TV, and (my hometown) Dickinson is on the news. You can just imagine how I felt just seeing it. Dickinson is a small town, and to see it on the news was scary.”
A few days earlier, the Cougars evacuated ahead of the storm to Central Texas, where they held practices on the University of Texas campus. As Harvey’s torrential rainfall left much of the Houston metropolitan area underwater, UH players struggled to get in touch with family back home. What was originally expected to only be a few days from Houston turned into a weeklong odyssey
that eventually forced the cancellation of the 2017 season opener at UTSA.
“Absolutely tragic,” senior cornerback Isaiah Johnson said. “It’s hard to forget something like that.”
Added senior safety Garrett Davis: “Seems like so long ago.”
As the storm’s projected path became clear, Small recalls asking his grandmother, Kathy Spells, to join his mother, Lakyisha, at the family’s home, which was located not far away on higher ground. Spells, whose house was damaged by Hurricane Ike in 2008, finally agreed.
“She wasn’t leaving,” Small said. “She was going to stay until finally going to our house. There was nothing I could do to help them. I just prayed as much as I could every day. When we didn’t have practice, I was thinking about them a lot. It was tough.”
When the Cougars returned home, they were accompanied by a convoy of seven 18-wheelers provided by the football programs from around the state: UH, Baylor, Texas Tech, Texas, Texas A&M, SMU, North Texas and Texas State. TCU raised more than $100,000 toward flood relief and hosted Rice.
As part of a fundraising effort, the trucks were filled with supplies, ranging from water, clothing, food and diapers. UH players volunteered to unload the trucks and helped distribute to hundreds of people waiting in line for hours outside Saint Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in north Houston.
“You could see in players’ eyes it was coming from a good place, it was coming from the heart,” UH coach Major Applewhite said.
In addition, UH men’s basketball coach Kelvin Sampson spearheaded a social media blitz that resulted in the donation of more than 200,000 T-shirts and more than 30,000 pairs of shoes from sports programs around the country.
Once back in Houston, UH players spent the next few days helping their families during the relief effort. A group of defensive backs went to Small’s grandmother’s house, which flooded during the storm, and tore out walls and carried dozens of garbage bags to the curb.
“We had to come together as a family,” Davis said.
Ed Oliver, UH’s All-America defensive tackle, was impressed with how the city “bounced back” from the storm.
“I don’t want to relive that,” Oliver said. “It’s amazing how the city bounced back, and there are so many good things going on in the city right now. Just the vibe of the whole city is different.
“I just pray that everybody is back to wherever they were before the storm and God took care of everybody and made sure everything came back the way it was.”
A year later, Johnson said the impact is a reminder of the city the Cougars represent.
“We play for the city that’s on our chest,” he said. “We’re playing for Houston.”