Texas scenes remind us that at CGA, our athletes are also our heroes
New London They were playing football here Thursday night, all the yes-sirs and the no-ma'ams of Coast Guard Academy. Just another opportunity for many of us to forget who they really are. And what they do. And whose lives they'll save.
They were football players Thursday night. But the same cadets who came before them, heroes every day, have been exponentially heroic this week, facing the devastating floodwaters of Texas. Where there's Cody Bain playing football now, there was once former Coast Guard athlete, Capt. Kevin Oditt, a member of the first conference championship basketball team of Pete Barry and Bob Bono, as the face of the rescue efforts in Houston.
Sometimes, we forget that the people we're seeing on television, navigating floodwaters and saving lives, once lived among us here in our corner of the world.
And so today, we remember. We salute. And we're thankful for the opportunity to know the men and women whose vocation in life will save lives. This is Coast Guard. Take, for example, the ironically named defensive lineman, Nate Harvey, a junior who hails from the Clear Lakes section of Houston. Harvey's mind and body ran around a football field Thursday night (he even sprinted onto the field waving a Texas state flag in tribute to his home state).
His heart was home. Harvey thinking about Harvey.
Happily, his family is safe. Their
house, though perilously close to flooding, was spared. The water receded in time.
“It rained for almost a week straight and it wasn't just sprinkling,” Harvey was saying. “Now, the sun's out and every time you take a step, it's mud. It's miserable. It's humid. Gross.”
And yet the devastation reinforced Nate Harvey's decision to spend four years in the 06320.
“I was watching a couple of videos on Facebook and they kept showing the Coast Guard helicopters. It really gave me a sense of ‘I'm at the right place,'” Harvey said. “Ten years down the road, if I'm helping out with a catastrophe, it might not be my hometown, but it's somebody's. It's amazing being here. Especially when my hometown is being affected. It makes me feel like I lined everything up properly and that I'm at the right place.”
Bain, a senior and a tight end who will be part of a potentially prolific passing game this season, was plenty happy to be playing football with his brothers Thursday night. But his heart, too, yearned for more.
“Most people here have the attitude of ‘why aren't we helping (in Houston) right now?'” Bain said. “A lot of us wish we were out there doing our job right now. Granted, we have to do the school part, but if something major like this is going on, you want to help.
“A few of my classmates are working on projects to coordinate response and pickup of people who are trapped in their homes. They're using social media information and GIS (Geographic Information System, a commonly used mapping system) to help coordinate hot spots where people are the most distressed. We're all ready to get out there and help.”
Once again: These people, for now, live among us. They dress uniformly on and off the field. Maybe we see them, as Dave Matthews once sang, as ants marching: They all do it the same way.
And yet there's so much more substance to them, intricate rhythms of courage pulsating through their veins. This is what they've signed for. Bring it on. Funny, too, how Harvey, Bain and their classmates point to sports as their first proving ground as cadets. How do they know if they have the chops to chase the bad guys and rescue the good ones? Easy. If they can follow the rules of the games they play and conquer the inherent chaos — all while honoring the teamwork required ...
“(Football) coach (Bill) George was talking about it earlier this week. He was talking about how there's a lot of chaos on the field,” Harvey said. “We're in a really controlled environment at the Academy. Play by the rules. A bunch of regulations and everything. But on the football field, there's a whole lot more stuff thrown at you in the middle of the game.
“Same idea when you're in the middle of something like a hurricane. You have all these rules and regulations to follow but then the storm is your opponent. Football helps because I'm practicing on the field how to maintain a level head.”
Bain said: “It's not just football. It's athletics here at the Academy in general. That's why we have them. Being on a team and operating in a team environment – that's what the Coast Guard is. It's what we're going to do. Involving ourselves in sports is really going to prepare us for our jobs in the future.”
And so perhaps this week, better than any other, illustrates the necessity and importance of sports at the Academy.
Their lessons serve the cadets long after they leave, running like a current between the fields and gyms of New London to the devastation of Houston.
We're lucky to know them when they're here.
And we appreciate their service. This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro