Saints family defeats Katrina

Hirings and firings are common in the fickle world of the National

Football League, so coaches’ families are used to moving from one

city to another at a moment’s notice.

“This was different,” said Cathie Sheppard, whose husband, Mike,

began this year as offensive coordinator of the New Orleans Saints.

Hurricane Katrina forced the family out of its New Orleans home of

more than three years.

After stops in Cleveland, Baltimore, San Diego, Seattle and

Buffalo, Cathie Sheppard said the family was enjoying a period of

normalcy.

“This [hurricane] came, and we didn’t have any time to pack,” she

said. “It’s been hard, because we’ve been in limbo.”

Cathie Sheppard, a native Californian, decided to move west with

her two daughters. For the last few weeks, they lived on air

mattresses and couches at the Newport Beach apartment of Cathie

Sheppard’s oldest child, Chrissi Jennings.

While Mike Sheppard was searching for a new apartment and sleeping

on a cot in his temporary office in San Antonio’s Alamodome, the rest

of his family -- except for son Brian, a college student -- were

settling into their new digs by the ocean.

There wasn’t much space in the apartment. Clothes nearly filled an

entire room. The bathroom sink was lined with lip gloss and hair

products.

Chrissi, her husband Chris and their 1-year-old child Christian,

lost any semblance of privacy.

But they were happy to help out.

“I was trying to take as much pressure off my parents as

possible,” said Chrissi Jennings, a personal trainer at Fitness

Patrol in Corona del Mar. “I was mostly stressed out that they felt

uncomfortable.”

Chrissi Jennings signed paperwork so her two younger sisters,

17-year-old Shelby and 14-year-old Macall, could enroll at Corona del

Mar High School.

While Shelby was idling in the main office, she met fellow senior

Andrea Dort. The two immediately hit it off.

“We had the same interests, like shopping and laying out at the

beach.” Dort said. “There was a bond between us.”

Macall made friends instantly, as well. A softball player back in

New Orleans, she found a connection with 15-year-old Rene Mycorn, a

freshman softball player at Corona del Mar High.

Shelby made the varsity cheer squad and Macall was set to play for

the school’s softball and soccer teams. Rene’s father, Barry Mycorn,

invited Macall to play on his daughter’s travel softball team in

Huntington Beach. He sponsored her fees and also offered to find the

family a place to live at a 50% discount.

“It struck home to me,” Barry Mycorn said. “She’s an athlete like

my daughter, and the girls formed an instant bond.”

Macall and Shelby’s new friends were disappointed to learn that

the sisters wouldn’t be staying at Corona del Mar High School.

Last week, the family learned that the girls’ Catholic school was

set to reopen, and their neighborhood was ready for returning

residents.

“It was sad,” Dort said. “I thought I had made a new friend that

would last for the entire year. We’re going to stay in touch.”

The daughters flew home earlier this week, and Cathie Sheppard was

scheduled to begin her 29-hour drive home this morning. She planned

to spend time with her husband before his football game this weekend.

Cathie Sheppard had returned to the family’s New Orleans home two

weeks after Hurricane Katrina to assess the damage and to pack more

into the car.

“It was horrible,” she said. “Armed guards were watching our

neighborhood. There were trees and bushes everywhere...It probably

looked like pictures from World War II.”

And they were among the lucky ones, because their house is likely

still inhabitable.

No one in the family has been back to see the house since

Hurricane Rita. Cathie Sheppard said she doesn’t expect many signs of

life in the neighborhood.

Her daughters will go to school and come right home, she said,

because there is little else to do.

Cathie Sheppard said while she is anxious to get home, it’s

comforting to know she has a place in Newport Beach.

“It’s amazing how a negative can be turned into a positive,”

Chrissi Jennings said. “The Lord made it so we could all spend time

together.”