Hope returns to ‘The Hole’

LAKE CHARLES -- The sounds that echoed from across the street of Cowboy Stadium after Saturday’s game were just as familiar as the ones which had reverberated from inside it a few hours earlier.
The sounds afterwards were not nearly as deafening as the hard-hitting tackles between Incarnate Word and McNeese, or the music over the public address system or the Touchdown Cannon blasting off after Cowboy scores.
No, these sounds were those of hammers nailing in pieces of plywood from Bienville Street and streets beyond. Those sounds are sadly more familiar to the residents of Lake Charles in the past six months since Hurricane Laura made its destructive landfall.
The blue tarps that began to cover the storm-ravaged town in the days after Laura are still there, as are the sheets of metal ripped off of buildings and piles of storm debris in lots and yards. Plywood is seen all around campus and athletic facilities -- from covering the track facility’s press box next door to the Gulf State Conference championships listed outside the Jack Doland Fieldhouse.
There was no better reminder of the Category 4 storm’s lasting impact than realizing that there are no stadium lights inside the stadium and that the three-story press box, with exposed slides uninhabited and set to be demolished after the spring season.
The Earl Miller Cowboy Club Room meanwhile has been transformed into a makeshift press box for this unprecedented spring season.
Yet, the pride of the McNeese football program could be seen everywhere under the overcast skies of Saturday’s game - from the yard signs supporting the Cowboys to one backyard on Bienville Street proudly displaying a homemade large metal wind chime painted in the familiar blue and yellow team colors.
Even with Saturday’s lopsided loss to Incarnate Word -- which was played on the six-month anniversary of the storm -- there was a greater sense of hope in the air inside and around Cowboy Stadium -- known lovingly by the Cowboy faithful as “The Hole.”
It was there when more than a dozen players took a knee and prayed in the end zone before the game. It was there when more than 2,000 fans cheered on Frank Wilson’s team and gladly sang along -- or at least nodded their heads along -- to Aerosmith’s “Back in the Saddle Again.”
There will be those who will lament the fact that the team didn’t win the game, and that it was disappointing to see them not write the final chapter of the comeback story.
The real storybook ending is the fact that a game was even played on Saturday.
This spring season is a miracle in itself with the team having lost more than 20 players to the NCAA Transfer Portal or quitting football all together, having the team entirely displaced due to Laura and being forced to live in a hotel and conduct spring camp at Barbe High School -- which itself was partially destroyed by the storm.  
The time to analyze whether or not this team will soon be a contender in the conference again is not appropriate for right now, or really even this spring or possibly even fall. It will likely take years for McNeese to truly return to the form that Cowboys have long expected -- even though you won’t hear any excuses made by Wilson or anyone else affiliated with the Cowboys.
What should be discussed right now is the fact that the community had a game to watch, had a team to root for and had something to do other than being reminded about their homes and lives destroyed by Laura.
There was hope in “The Hole” on Saturday -- a hope that you could see and feel. That hope is far more important and lasting than any victory.