North Carolina State University Athletics
TIM PEELER: A Helping Hand
9/20/2005 12:00:00 AM | Pack Athletics
Sept. 20, 2005
RALEIGH -- A little Wolfpack help arrived in the mail the other day.
And, for New Orleans men's basketball coach Monte Towe, it didn't matter one bit that the red and white equipment and athletic gear that he received from his alma mater didn't come close to matching the blue and steel gray colors of his current school.
"I'm proud for my team to wear stuff with NC State written on it," said Towe, whose team has been moved from hurricane-ravaged New Orleans to Tyler, Texas, where the players are enrolled at the University of Texas at Tyler. "In fact, I really want them to wear it, because it lets people know who is helping us."
Towe, the point guard for the Wolfpack's 1974 NCAA Championship team, was taking his last few days of vacation in Florida when Hurricane Katrina hit the Crescent City, forcing just about everyone to evacuate. He eventually located all of his players and relocated them to the small Division III school in an attempt to start a normal season.
He wanted to begin individual work-outs with his team a few weeks ago - as most other schools are doing - but he had little equipment, no workout clothes, and precious few extra long pairs of blue jeans for his players to wear on a day-to-day basis.
NC State basketball equipment manager Kirk Brown put together 12 boxes of surplus basketball equipment to send to Tyler, including a case of deflated balls, adidas sneakers, practice gear, sweat pants and tops, most of the stuff necessary for Towe and his team to conduct a semi-normal workout session.
"It's all great stuff," Towe said. "Now, we feel like we are getting back to normal."
Meanwhile, Wolfpack women's soccer coach Laura Kerrigan found two sets of unused practice gear in the Weisiger-Brown equipment room to send to Anderson, a former All-ACC performer at NC State who is in her fifth year as the head women's soccer coach at Tulane.
Anderson and her team have relocated to College Station, Texas, where the players are enrolled at Texas A&M. After taking nearly two weeks off to relocate, the Green Wave (0-3) is set to restart practice on Wednesday.
"Our players are excited and anxious to get back on the playing field," Anderson said. "We've been the one sport (at Tulane) that's been fortunate enough to have been competing (since the hurricane) and we looking forward to our games here in College Station. Texas A&M has truly done everything to make the facilities feel like a place we can call home."
NC State women's soccer equipment manager Heidi Humphrey sent Tulane's team some old NC State game shorts for practice, as well as some blank shorts, shirts and sports bras.
"Betsy would do the same for us, if we ever had some kind of similar problems," Kerrigan said. "But it shows that so many people are willing to help out. Texas A&M is letting them use their facilities. Alabama-Birmingham arranged for transportation for them to get to College Station.
"Student athletes from around the country, including ours, have taken up collections to send to all the hurricane victims. It just shows that all coaches and all athletes are willing to help out when someone is in need."
In addition to what the school sent to New Orleans and to Tulane, Wolfpack athletes have helped raise money for other Hurricane Katrina victims by taking up donations at the NC State-Virginia Tech football game. The football team donated its per diem from that weekend to the American Red Cross. And the women's tennis team sent money and clothing to people affected by the hurricane.
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
