St. Thomas helps out rival
Players and coaches clean up at Nova
Nova High was in need of some help after its baseball field and facilities suffered significant damage when Hurricane Irma swooped through South Florida more than a week ago.
The Titans got that help from an unexpected source.
With a number of Nova players, parents and alumni gathering Saturday morning to volunteer toward the clean-up effort, they were shocked to see their biggest rival — St. Thomas Aquinas — pull up in a bus of 37 players plus the coaching staff.
“Once that initial shock wore off, everyone just got to work,” St. Thomas coach Troy Cameron said. “I’m glad we were able to help them because it was a ton of work.”
Nova had four trees surrounding the field go down — some landing on top of the team’s batting cage, locker room and concession stands. Pat McQuaid Field also had portions of its scoreboard broken, ripped away along with nearby signage. The batting cage and locker room were not damaged terribly, with missing roof shingles over the locker room the worst of it in those areas. However, outdoor flooring slabs were lifted and a water line was broken by an uprooted tree.
Nova coach Pat McQuad estimated that the damage would cost about $60,000 to repair.
Now having about 100 bodies pitching in, the group spent the better part of three hours working. Players, for safety reasons, were kept primarily to cleaning up and throwing out fallen tree branches and debris. McQuaid’s son, Shawn, who teaches at Nova and used to play for the team, put in the chainsaw work, along with Aquinas assistant Scott Masucco, among others.
“One of the biggest rivalries in Broward County, maybe in the state, with how we’ve battled over the years — it shows that these schools have a lot of respect for each other, and that’s how it’s supposed to be,” McQuaid said. “Troy really has to be commended for getting his kids to come out and help.”
For Cameron and the Raiders, there was the benefit of self-improvement in addition to helping a neighbor.
“We didn’t have as much damage as they did,” Cameron said. “It was a good chance for my kids to learn some life lessons.”
The thought started with Cameron asking Aquinas if he could rally his troops to help at their school, but he was told damage was minimal and cleanup already completed. He then wanted to see if he could bring his boys to the Keys, but an assistant advised him US-1 would be closed in parts of the Keys. He then saw a social media post from Dan Rovetto, a Nova alum and ex-University School coach who is now an MLB scout with the Seattle Mariners, calling for help. He knew that’s what his team needed to do and checked in with Rovetto before surprising Nova.
The Titans also received help from Nova Southeastern baseball coach Greg Brown and his staff. Local firemen Chris Hauser, Stephan Majors and Mike Redmond (not the former Marlins manager) contributedd.