FOOTBALL BROTHERS: El Dorado football players and brothers Kane, left, and Trace Wilson take a break from their weight training. KEN STEINHARDT, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER |
El Dorado brothers come together after storm
Wilsons want to return to New Orleans, but home now is with Golden Hawks
Trace Wilson remembers rushing home from football practice at El Dorado High in the final days of August 2005, turning on the TV news and hoping for answers.
Where was his brother? His mother? Were they safe?
Trace's younger brother, Kane, and mother, Lori, were in Metairie, La., a suburb of New Orleans, when Hurricane Katrina ravaged the region Aug. 29, 2005.
Trace's calls to his mother and brother weren't going through. Communication was impossible.
"They are saying it's the worst hurricane in history, and I don't know where my family is," the 17-year-old recalls.
SOUTHERN BOYS
The Wilson family had lived in Sacramento when the parents separated in 1995. Lori moved with her two sons to her native New Orleans. The boys' father, Dave Wilson, a former NFL quarterback, relocated back to his native Orange County. (Wilson graduated from Katella High and Fullerton College, before playing at Illinois. He played for New Orleans from 1981-88.)
Kane and Trace, who were 5 and 4, respectively, when their parents split, spent their childhood in and around New Orleans.
In July 2005, the brothers separated when Trace, then 15, moved from Metairie to Yorba Linda to live with his father. Kane, then 14, was looking forward to his role as starting quarterback on the freshman team at Brother Martin High in New Orleans and stayed with his mother.
Trace joined the football team at El Dorado as a sophomore. By his junior season, he was starting at defensive end and played a key role on the Golden Hawks' team that captured the CIF Southwest Division title.
Kane had no plans to leave Metairie.
Then Katrina changed everything.
THE HURRICANE
In the days leading up to the hurricane, Kane and his mother knew they would have to evacuate Metairie, a town slightly below sea level.
Kane went to stay with his grandparents in a safer area, and Lori hunkered down on the third floor of an office building where she worked.
Then came Katrina, which devastated the region, especially Metairie.
"Trees were snapping and the winds were really loud," Kane, 16, said. "It sounded like a train, and you don't know where your mom is and there is 10 feet of water in the street."
Four days went by before Kane spoke to his mother, who survived a harrowing experience that including a short swim and a series of boat rides in water where roads once were. She wound up in a shelter, where she was able to connect with her family.
Virtually everything — Kane's home, the family car and any belongings they didn't take with them — was destroyed.
"All my stuff," Kane said. "Everything was gone … all my trophies and plaques and everything from when I was a kid and all my clothes."
Kane made it safely to his father's home in Yorba Linda while his mother wound up with a friend in Auburn, in Northern California, with no home to return to in Louisiana.
EL DORADO
Kane arrived at El Dorado in time for the 2005 football season. He played on the JV team but still wasn't thrilled about being in California. He concedes that he alienated himself from just about everyone.
"I was a punk," Kane said. "I wouldn't hang out with anybody. I wasn't really trying at football."
After much trial and error, and some conflict, Kane eventually assimilated into life in Yorba Linda and at El Dorado.
"Football helped a lot," he said. "I had friends from the team. It's better than starting with nobody."
As a sophomore, Kane backed up quarterback Michael Coulter and saw varsity action in nearly every game.
This season, Kane is the Golden Hawks' starting quarterback and has thrown for 11 touchdowns, including one to Trace, who plays tight end.
The brothers have connected off the field as well.
Kane and Trace said their relationship was a bit strained before Katrina, but they've gotten closer since.
"I appreciate (the relationship) more," Kane said. "Something could have happened, and I could have been done."
Both brothers say they likely will return to New Orleans.
"I'm more of a country boy," said Trace, who wants to return to New Orleans for college. "I'm a little homesick."
But before they go back, El Dorado coach Jeff Bailey hopes the Wilson brothers can contribute to another CIF title.
"They're both great kids, and we're happy to have them," Bailey said.
Contact the writer: lponsi@ocregister.com
| yes it was a pretty bad storm |
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| weather man - Nov 05, 2007 08:44:16 AM | Remove Comment |
