The Miami Dolphins have spent the week in California preparing for their upcoming game against the LA Chargers because of Hurricane Irma, but fortunately the team and its players have the financial means to be able to accommodate unexpected schedule changes. The same was not true for one local Florida high school team.
Central High School, which is a school in Miami, traveled to Las Vegas last week for a game against three-time national champion Bishop Gorman. The No. 16-ranked Rockets were able to pull the upset, but their flight back home was cancelled due to the powerful hurricane that ripped through The Sunshine State over the weekend. That meant extra hotel bills, meals and much more for 69 players, coaches and administrators. The cost for all of that was stretching into the thousands, but fortunately the Dolphins stepped up in a big way.
Ndamukong Suh, Kenny Stills, Jarvis Landry, Rashad Jones and Lawrence Timmons are among the players who have donated money to help Central High School’s football team.
“I’m ecstatic because anytime you see an organization like the Dolphins think about and take care of a high school team like ourselves, that’s amazing,” Central coach Roland Smith, who was drafted by the Dolphins in 1991, told Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald. “We don’t have a budget like the Dolphins. We don’t have a budget like a college. We don’t have a national budget to stay extra days after a game and stuff like that.”
Central’s players and staff members were supposed to leave Sunday, but they will instead remain at a hotel near the Las Vegas Convention Center until Friday. Fortunately, some of the financial burden of the trip has been lifted. The team will be traveling home in small groups of players and staff members on separate flights. The Dolphins have also arranged for transportation to bring them from the airport back to school in Miami.
“We don’t have big booster clubs like other schools have that can take care of things like this,” Smith said. “But when you have an organization the kids look up to and they step forward, it’s an awesome thing.”
We have already seen a number of changes across the sports world as a result of Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Harvey before it in Texas. But for every NFL player who has to practice in an unfamiliar place because of the storm, there are dozens of people whose lives have been negatively impacted in ways they cannot remedy. Kudos to the Dolphins for stepping up to provide help where it was needed.
