Walk by Faith, Not by Sight

Earlier in the season, after losing their first post-hurricane football game, Coach J.T. Curtis had met with his players in the locker room and reminded them that losing "will never be accepted here at any level or for any reason."

He knew, of course, that it was hard for the Patriots to stay focused on football while reminders of Katrina's destructive aftermath still surrounded them.

Katrina remained a constant presence, and J.T. realized that, while he treats his players like men, they're just

…. Just man-sized boys, some sleeping in 240-square-foot trailers or on relatives' floors or in temporary apartments. They lost the beds they'd slept in since childhood. They lost their favorite blankets and their bedroom slippers, their CD collections and framed pictures of their girlfriends. Some of them had still kept a few stuffed animals from childhood hidden away on a shelf or in the closet, and those were gone, too. Also missing were the friends who evacuated and never returned.

Still, J.T. told his players at the start of the season to look forward, not back—to walk by faith, not by sight. "We can't use the storm as an excuse," he said.

This season had started so badly that it's hard to believe how far they've now come. None of the players or parents necessarily expected a normal year, nor a great one. They just wanted a season. Any season. But now, the Patriots of John Curtis Christian School find themselves headed to Shreveport to compete for the state championship, a game that normally would be held in their home town but this year will be played far from their pocked and putrid city. Their war zone of a sorrowful city.

When the Louisiana Superdome opened in 1975 in downtown New Orleans, on a site that was once a cemetery, it was the largest domed structure in the world. In addition to hosting the annual college Sugar Bowl and more Super Bowls than any other stadium, the Louisiana high school championships have been played at the Dome since 1980. Reaching that stadium, home of the Saints, with its bright-green Astroturf and awesome klieg lights, has become the Patriots' annual goal.

But the Superdome is now a bulbous symbol of human suffering and chaotic failure, remembered as the "Terrordome," and nowhere near ready to host football. The 2005 high school football championship games will instead be played 300 miles away at in Shreveport. On their five-hour bus drive north, the Patriot players and coaches all have plenty of time to look back on the most improbable season of the lives.

On Friday morning, December 9, the team meets for breakfast at their hotel and then gathers in a banquet hall a few hours before their 1 p.m. kickoff. J.T. goes over some last minute instructions, reminding them to "Play hard, and play smart."

Thoughts of his father, the Baptist minister who'd founded John Curtis Christian School in 1962, are much on his mind; J.T. knows how much his dad, the Patriots' biggest fan, would have loved to be here. In the locker room at the Superdome before last year's championship game, Mr. Curtis had stopped in to visit with his son.

"Are you nervous?" he asked, and J.T. chuckled.

"No, sir. I'm not nervous," he said, though it wasn't entirely true. Memories of the heartbreaking loss in the previous year's championship game were still fresh.

As if reading his son's mind, Mr. Curtis said, "If you're prepared, you're not nervous." He then walked out to take his seat at the fifty yard line.

In that game, the Patriots broke a 14-14 fourth quarter tie with a long punt return by Joe McKnight and then a fifteen-yard quarterback sneak for a touchdown by Johnnie Thiel, who played brilliantly and was named the Most Outstanding Player.

"This is not about the prize, this is not about the trophy," J.T. told his team after the game. "It's what you do that separates you in later life. You have to find a way to get things done, to handle adversity like you did tonight. You must do things with a

."

J.T. has delivered hundreds of speeches to his team over the decades, becoming so skillful at motivating others that New Orleans area companies sometimes hire him to give inspirational talks to their employees. His style has always been business-like, focusing on his work-hard message, accepting hardship and set-back as the price of victory. He tried not to reach for loftier messages, his father's domain.

Now, many miles from home and with his father seven months gone, he decides to give a different kind of speech. He takes a moment, searching for just the right words.

Continued on page 2: 'You are our children, and you are loved...' »