High school wrestlers move from Louisiana to Oklahoma in wake of Hurricane Katrina
Kristin Janloo
Sports Writer
Hurricane Katrina put an end to Jeff Slaughter’s and Chad Ravannack’s senior year of wrestling at Archbishop Rummel High School, an all-boys Catholic school in the New Orleans suburb of Metairie, La.
Instead, the two 17-year-olds will be wrestling for Stillwater High School and living with Olympic silver medalist and former Oklahoma State wrestler Jamill Kelly, who volunteered to house the boys. He is now their legal guardian because both their families are staying in Baton Rouge, La.
It’s no surprise the boys ended up in Stillwater. Both Slaughter and Ravannack have ties to OSU wrestling, said Kelly, who was the first member of the national Gator Wrestling Club that was founded by Ravannack’s father. Also, the boys have participated in OSU wrestling camps since 2000, and Ravannack’s father is a friend of OSU wrestling coach John Smith.
Slaughter and Ravannack were among four students who made their way from New Orleans to Stillwater. It wasn’t a necessity for them to come here. But athletically, they wouldn’t have been able to wrestle if they stayed in Louisiana, Kelly said. Slaughter said the gymnasiums at his old school and the school in Baton Rouge were converted into classrooms for the many displaced students.
The boys, who have known each other since they were both 4 years old, won’t be making many trips to Baton Rouge to visit their families once wrestling season starts in November, Kelly said. However, he said, both families are making plans to visit Stillwater as much as they can.
In a phone interview from his new home in Baton Rouge, Ravannack’s father, Jim, said he didn’t have a problem with the boys going to Stillwater because he and his family came here “all the time.”
“It’s like (we have) an extended family in Stillwater,” Jim Ravannack said.
The older Ravannack said the damage to his home wasn’t severe, mainly just from wind and flying debris.
Slaughter’s home, however, had about a foot of water in it.
Jim considers his family “one of the lucky ones” given the number of people who were stranded in New Orleans and the number of homes destroyed by the storm.
For Slaughter and Ravannack, Hurricane Katrina was an end to wrestling for their hometown high school. It meant leaving their homes and families and traveling nearly 800 miles to continue a dream.
For Kelly, the hurricane was an end to life as he knew it ” at least until the boys go to college next year. It will mean moving from an apartment fit for one to a house being provided by the boys’ parents that’s big enough for all three. It also means being an instant guardian to two teenage boys just four years after Kelly graduated from college.
Kelly concedes that going from being by himself to being a father-like figure is weird.
“It didn’t really hit me when we were talking about it. Then they came, and we went to sign the papers. I was like, ‘Wow.’
Because Slaughter and Ravannack have aspirations of wrestling for a Division I college, perhaps even at OSU, Kelly said he had to make sure he was within NCAA guidelines while helping boys who are potential recruits.
“John (Smith) has been in close contact with the compliance officers, making sure we’re not doing anything wrong,” said Kelly, who helps with OSU wrestling.
Kelly said Slaughter and Ravannack are respectful boys at home and he hasn’t had to be a harsh disciplinarian during the few weeks they have lived with him. Kelly said he goes by the rules set by the boys’ parents, whom he is in daily contact.
Both Slaughter and Ravannack said the Stillwater community has welcomed them with “double open arms.”
“Yesterday, we went to go get a snowball, and the guy gave it to us for half price,” Slaughter said.
Slaughter said the high school has also shown hospitality. He said at a Stillwater football game he went to, the school was collecting donations for hurricane relief.
Ravannack’s father said the high school has been unbelievable in helping the boys enroll in classes and get caught up, saying the teachers “really stepped up” and made sure Slaughter and Ravannack were comfortable.
Jim also said he gives much thanks to the Stillwater community, OSU and Stillwater High School for “taking the boys in and giving them a chance.”
Slaughter and Ravannack both said the same generosity felt in Stillwater is the same back home in Louisiana, where people have been helping their families since the storm hit.
“It has reunited the city a lot,” Ravannack said. “Out of the chaos of New Orleans, the city’s united. That’s what it’s going to take to save the city.”
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