[August 26, 2011] Area football coaches to keep tabs on players in Irene's wake Tweet Aug 27, 2011 (The Daily News - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- This isn't Swansboro football coach Tim Laspada's first hurricane. In fact, this will be his fourth. But this one has him full of anxiety for his family and his players as Hurricane Irene appears to ready to pound Swansboro. "I'm anxious for my kids right now. I'm anxious for my family," Laspada said shortly before noon Friday. "This one right here I've told a lot of the coaches scares me because it's so dadgone big, and we have become accustomed to it almost and we just say, 'No big deal. Stay home.' "I question myself. Am I making the right call? But where are you going to go? If you leave, pretty much everything is going to be taken. You're going to be on the road battling a ton of traffic and there's a chance you might not get in." Laspada said "a lot" of his players and their families were evacuating to Raleigh or elsewhere. "We're staying. We're just going to batten out the hatches and do the best we can and pray to God and hopefully everybody is safe and try to do the best we can. I hope I'm making the right call," he said. That decision, however, could change if Irene moves to a category four storm. "If it ever got that high, I would get out," he said. With Irene coming, high school football teams played Thursday night and won't practice again until Monday -- at the earliest. Laspada, like his coaching colleagues in the area, have all their players' cell phone numbers and plan to either check on their players themselves or have their assistants do so once the hurricane passes to make sure they're all right. "We will try to keep them up to date he best we can by calling them and checking on them to make sure everybody's families are doing OK," Jacksonville coach Beau Williams said. Richlands coach Mike Natoli and Lejeune coach Darryl Schwartz said they will text their players. "I call people on the cell phones, but I also do a lot of texting because that's what the kids like," Schwartz said. "I text them all the time and within seconds I get answers. I will also email or call parents." Dixon coach Ray Swaney, who's been through "several" hurricanes, said he'll rely on cell phones as well as Facebook -- with his seniors as his go-between on the popular social network. "My kids keep up with each other quite a bit on Facebook. That's actually a pretty good tool to communicate," Swaney said. "I personally don't get on there but some of my seniors they utilize that. So if we have practice times or something, I tell the seniors make sure you post it. "Last night at the end practice we told our kids if you have any issues, call one of the coaches, call me. Let somebody know, and we made them aware the school is a hurricane shelter and it's going to be open and if this thing comes in really strong don't wait it out, come on up here to the school." Swaney, who said he and his coaches also will be checking up on his players and their families, said he warned his players about not doing anything stupid during Irene. "You hope none of you kids go to the beach, lured by the big waves," said Swaney, who will ride out the storm at home while his family is in New Mexico visiting his wife's parents. "We've been warning them don't go over there. you don't want to be in that." Northside coach Bob Eason said he's got his players cell phone numbers and emails but will also rely on "word of mouth" to make sure his players and their families are OK. He also said his assistants will check up on their players. While he and his staff will do likewise, White Oak coach Bob Blick said he's stressed to his players now was the time to be with their families. "There's more important things than football, and this is one of them," Blick said. "Heaven forbid something happens and your home is destroyed. But you need to be at home with your family." Blick also wondered just when things would get back to normal once the hurricane passes, including whether the Vikings and the rest of the other Onslow County teams will be able to practice Monday. And not just because of whether their fields can be used. White Oak, Dixon, Swansboro and Richlands high schools are all serving as shelters, and if they're still open Monday that would mean school would not be in session and could result in teams not being allowed to practice. "We'll have to see what the school system does," Blick said. "A lot depends on how long the shelters will be open because a lot of the schools are shelters. If the shelters are still open on Monday, that'll impact directly what Onslow County schools does. "So we've got to wait and see. If school's not open, most of the time you're not allowed to practice. So you just go with the flow." Croatan coach David Perry and Jones Senior coach John Davis couldn't be reached for comment. (Prep sports writer Chris Miller contributed to this story.) ___ (c)2011 The Daily News (Jacksonville, N.C.) Visit The Daily News (Jacksonville, N.C.) at www.jdnews.com Distributed by MCT Information Services [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]