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Sports TwitterTom Archdeacon: Katrina refugee, LSU fan has fond feelings for Ohio
QB Mallett will transfer, and two receivers are entering the NFL draft.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
As we waited to board our Continental flight from New Orleans to Houston on Tuesday afternoon, 18-year-old Rageev Sabhwani — wearing a purple LSU shirt and baggy gold pants — approached Jim Tressel, who was in a scarlet polo shirt and charcoal gray slacks.
A day after his Ohio State team had lost the BCS championship game to Louisiana State 38-24, Tressel was headed to the national football coaches convention in California.
Extras
I was headed back to Dayton and Rageev was on his way to the University of Oregon where he's a freshman. He'd just spent a few days back home in New Orleans helping his parents run the string of gift shops they have in the French Quarter and enjoying the title game's party scene. In the process, he spent a little time with a girl who'd come down from Dayton, the town he was transplanted to after Hurricane Katrina.
One New Orleans devastation victim to another, Rageev approached Tressel in the boarding area and made a request.
"I'm an LSU fan, but I still respect what you did this year," he told the Buckeyes coach. "Would you sign my boarding pass?"
Just prior to this, a gracious-even-though-he-was-tired Tressel had accepted handshakes and given autographs to several OSU fans after passing through security, where, incidentally, he was singled out — not as a risk, but for recognition.
"OK, I want to see two things, a boarding pass and a smile," a security official told people in the line. "That goes for the fans and for you too, Coach."
After signing for Rageev, Tressel — carrying a bottle of Diet Coke, his favorite — boarded the flight and took a coach seat in the rear of the plane.
Rageev sat next to me and began talking about Ohio.
"I keep track of the Dayton Flyers now, they're really doing well," he said. " I went to a couple of UD games when I was there in Dayton. Boy, people sure are passionate about sports up there."
He knew about the Flyers' victories over Louisville and Pitt and then he talked about some of the players:
"Is (Desmond) Adedeji still there? I liked watching him when he got in. That was five fouls just ready to happen. I remember Jimmy Binnie, too, and, of course, Brian Roberts. And that guy (Willie Morris) who runs around at halftime, too."
It's always interesting to hear people from the outside talk about your town and their experiences there. And Rageev was a delight.
He'd ended up in Dayton — Centerville, actually — after his family had fled New Orleans two days before Katrina hit.
"We have 50, maybe 60 family members there and we left in a 10-car caravan for Houston," he said. Eventually, the family ended up living in a dozen apartments in Greenville, Miss.
Back in New Orleans, Rageev, a high school junior, had been going to the prestigious Isadore Newman School, where, he said with some pride, Peyton Manning and his brother Eli had gone.
"I contacted my old school and got a list of schools that were taking in people from Katrina, no questions asked," he said. "I saw the Miami Valley School on the list and I came to visit."
His aunt — Kajal Kishansand — lives in Centerville, so the transfer was easier. He spent four months in Ohio until his school reopened in New Orleans.
"I think I got the whole Ohio experience," he said with a laugh.
He went to an Ohio State game in the Horseshoe, got acquainted with Skyline chili and visited Yellow Springs, where he said his friends showed him where Dave Chappelle lives.
He also had his first encounter with snow:
"We had a snow day from school and I was like a kid in a candy store. We went to a golf course and tubed down the hills and I built my first snowman."
Living in Centerville, he also became an A.J. Hawk fan and added: "And (Kirk) Herbstreit's from there, too. Like I said, I got the Ohio experience. I like it up there."
And that's why he sought out Tressel.
Once we landed in Houston, Tressel headed to his San Diego flight and Rageev veered off to his Oregon gate, his autographed boarding pass in his hand.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2156 or tarchdeacon@DaytonDailyNews.com.
