NEDERLAND — Matthew Buss has not left Jefferson County since Tropical Storm Harvey ravaged the area.

Friday’s visit to Dayton will be the first time since. But for him and the rest of the Nederland football team, getting back to football is a big thing in itself.

“It was definitely good to get back to football,” said Buss, a senior center. “It got a lot of people’s minds off the devastation and all that’s happened in their lives.”

Having a full game week of practice has been just what the doctor — or in this case, first-year Bulldogs head coach Monte Barrow — ordered. When practice resumed Monday, the Bulldogs had not worked out since the Aug. 24 scrimmage at Bulldogs Stadium against Crosby. (The season opener against West Orange-Stark last Friday was canceled.)

“The attitude that the players have come back with is tremendous,” Barrow said Wednesday. “It’s a been a great therapy, medicine, however you want to put it, not just for the players but also for the coaches being around these guys and the energy they have. It just brightens their day coming out here and seeing them move around, especially on a day when it’s cooler. [Tuesday] was a hot one, no doubt.”

While all of his players have been accounted for after Harvey, Barrow has allowed those who’ve been greatly affected time away from practice to deal with the storm’s aftermath.

“We’ve had kids here,” Barrow said. “We’ve had kids not be able to be here because they’re helping family. We’ve had kids leave early, and we’ve made sure they’ve known that’s the No. 1 priority. This is totally something that, if you can do it right now, it can help you in some way. That’s really why we’re out here.

“We’ve seen everyone at some point over the last three days, which is always a good thing. It puts your mind at ease.”

Many of the Bulldogs spent the days since Harvey’s impact helping evacuees fly out of Jack Brooks Regional Airport in town and helping their neighbors clean up. During the process, they’ve run across many of their friends and rivals from Port Arthur Memorial and Port Neches-Groves, Barrow said.

“It puts all the rivalry things in perspective and the sports part of it,” Barrow said. “It puts a different light on it. But at the same time, when the game comes around, there’s going to be the flair around it. It’s no different than trying to beat your brother or your best friends. We’ll still have that to look forward to.”

For now, Nederland has a non-district road game to play.

Dayton, like Nederland, finished last season 4-6 but was three games outside of the fourth and final playoff spot from District 21-5A. Nederland missed the playoffs from District 22-5A by one game.

On the field, the Bulldogs have grown from preseason camp, having scrimmaged against Sheldon C.E. King and Crosby.

“Just totally thinking of the football aspect of it, some of the improvements we made from the [Sheldon] C.E. King scrimmage to the Crosby scrimmage, we really didn’t get to focus on those things and the things we need to get better at because we didn’t get together after that,” Barrow said. “I think our offensive line having one senior grew up a little bit more in that Crosby scrimmage. We hope they’ll build on that going forward.”

Senior running back Sean Nguyen said Nederland still has more work to do on the field, but having the long break kept them fresh for the game they’ve longed to play.

“The team has come together even more, helping our community and helping each other out,” Nguyen said about how the Bulldogs reacted to Harvey. “When we came back together, it was like a reunion for us and it helped us come back together as a team.”
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I.C. Murrell: 549-8541. Twitter: @ICMurrellPANews