The last week has been extremely difficult for much of the state of Texas. From several sporting events being relocated or completely cancelled due to Hurricane Harvey hitting several areas, including Houston and Beaumont.
Approximately 30 families were affected were staying at a Doubletree in Lafayette prior to Saturday’s game between the Louisiana Ragin Cajuns and the Southeastern Louisiana Lions. Some of the families inquired about going to the game inside the hotel lobby. So head coach Mark Hudspeth did what anyone would do and help give them a chance to not think about what’s been going on with their lives over the last seven days.
Hudspeth gave approximately 20 to 30 of his personal tickets to these families. “That’s the least we could do for people that’s displaced.” Hudspeth said after the 51-48 victory, “Just proud that we could add maybe two hours so that they can forget about the tremendous struggles they’re going through.”
This wasn’t the only thing that the Cajuns program did over the last week as they helped out McNeese State and let them practice inside the Cajuns indoor facility prior to their game on Thursday against Nicholls State. They even attempted to help out Lamar over the last week.
“We are all in this together and we’ve had so many issues here with hurricanes and storms and people always step up to help us.” Hudspeth said of helping out universities that were hit hard in the last week by Harvey, “That’s the least we could do and our team really wanted to do some things like that.”
Extra Points:
Repping Texas: When the Cajuns took the field for the first time this season, not only were there added gimmicks to it like fireworks, the Cajuns supported those in the Lone Star State with Ryheem Malone running out with the state of flag of Texas.
The Houston native and transfer out of SMU said that Hudspeth had talked to him prior to kickoff about doing this. “It meant a lot because I have family in Houston and Jasper and they were kind of affected by it” Malone said of the prestigious honor after the game. Malone went on to say that it had flooded a little bit near his family’s home in Texas, but they were okay/
His parents were unable to make the game due to their efforts in helping with relief. Malone tweeted out information a few days ago about his parents’ lounge being a donation drop-off point and for people to give stuff to the family so that they could get it out to the Beaumont and Port Arthur areas.
Pull up my parents open their club to donate things to the ones in need … please REPOST NEVER KNOW WHO MAY NEED SOMETHING ON YOU TL pic.twitter.com/LFQxOZS940
— Ryheem (@dreamteamh15) August 30, 2017
“They just asked if people could bring clothes, water, anything to help honestly. They were taking it down to Beaumont into places where they were sheltering at that could help.” Malone said of the tweet.
-Clint Domingue
-Clint Domingue