For Immediate Release
January 11, 2012
Courtesy of the Worcester Telegram and Gazette, Written by Jennifer Toland
Nick DiAntonio (pictured) wasn’t
at the Superdome for the national championship showdown between
Alabama and LSU, but the Assumption College football captain was in
the next best place to watch and cheer on the Crimson Tide.
For the last week, DiAntonio and 12 other Assumption students, all
members of the college’s SEND (Students Exploring New
Destinations) program, have been in Tuscaloosa, Ala., working with
Habitat for Humanity and helping the area as it continues to
rebuild and recover from last April’s devastating
tornado.
During its visit, in addition to hammering nails, painting walls
and pouring concrete, the group has become fully immersed in
’Bama football fervor. It’s impossible, DiAntonio said,
not to be.
“It’s like a religion down here,” DiAntonio said
yesterday during a telephone interview from the Habitat work
site.
Assumption journalism professor Mike
Land, a Tuscaloosa native and proud University of
Alabama graduate, is overseeing the students’ relief work.
Assumption campus minister Vincent
Sullivan-Jacques and Paul
Belsito, Assumption’s executive assistant for
government and community relations, are also helping to coordinate
the effort.
On April 27, 2011, a tornado that produced 190 mile per hour winds
killed 43 people and destroyed thousands of homes in Tuscaloosa.
The Assumption group toured the storm’s violent 6-mile path,
which at one point was a mile wide, and resulting devastation.
“There are areas that are still storm-ravaged,”
DiAntonio said. “A lot of debris, piles of debris, cars
turned upside down. There are trees with no limbs, houses with no
roofs, and others just destroyed. It’s really
disturbing.”
On their first day in Tuscaloosa, DiAntonio stood on what he
thought was just a wide-open field across from the house they are
helping to build. That area, Land told him, was where 12 homes
stood before the tornado.
Through it all, DiAntonio has discovered, Tuscaloosa residents
have maintained positive, and a lot that has to do with Alabama
football.
“In all the trauma and tragedy, it’s something people
can connect to,” said Land, a former sportswriter who covered
Crimson Tide football in the late 1970s. His dad, Charlie, covered
the team in the 1950s and 1960s, and legendary coach Paul
“Bear” Bryant gave Charlie a national championship ring
after the 1961 season. “It gives them something to focus on
that’s passionate and joyful.”
DiAntonio said the group drove by a big stone building that was
pretty much destroyed. There was no roof, and some of the walls
were gone, but on one of the walls that was there was a simple,
spray-painted message — Roll Tide!
“Through all this, they’re still supporting Alabama
football,” DiAntonio said. “It’s awesome. The
people you talk to, they get their strength from the football team
doing so well.”
Jared Patterson, a project coordinator
for Habitat for Humanity Tuscaloosa and part-time employee in the
Alabama athletic department, gave the Assumption students a tour of
the Crimson Tide locker room and facilities and the opportunity to
run across the Bryant-Denny Stadium field. They posed for pictures
in front of the Bear Bryant statue and compared their hand and
footprints to those of former ’Bama greats Joe Namath and Ken
Stabler.
For a football fan like DiAntonio, it was the thrill of a
lifetime.
“It was absolutely incredible,” said DiAntonio, a
first-team All-Northeast-10 Conference linebacker. “Alabama
football is important to everyone down here, and as a football fan,
I think it’s the coolest thing ever. I think that’s why
it’s been so important for tornado victims and the community
as a whole that they have this to rally behind.”
The Assumption group scored seats for last night’s game at
Wings Sports Grill, home of the area’s best Buffalo style hot
wings and owned by former ’Bama All-American and Miami
Dolphins All-Pro defensive lineman Bob
Baumhower. James
Shackelford, a reserve defensive back on the 1992
Alabama national championship team that upset Miami in the Sugar
Bowl, helped get the Assumption party the coveted reservation at
one of the most popular places to watch ’Bama football.
Marissa Charles, senior captain of the
women’s tennis team, Margaux Finan,
Nicholas Finan, Danielle
Folkins, Caitlin Goodhile,
Nicole Kirkland, Erin
Lagasse, Katherine McIssac,
Marissa Reis,Courtney
Trahan, Kayla Vicino and
Brittany Wilson are also part of the
Assumption group.
They bought ribbons and face paint and T-shirts at the campus
store to wear last night.
“The fact that we’re here at this time is
incredible,” DiAntonio said.
