Players, Coaches Try to Rise From the Ashes

He watched as the embers drifted down, falling like burning leaves from an orange-black sky. He heard the helicopters, the sirens, the shouts. He grabbed what he could and walked out his door one last time.

A day later, he was matter-of-fact. Maybe in shock. Yes, David Bower said, his family’s Laguna Beach home was destroyed in the fire Wednesday night. No, he wasn’t sure what they were going to do next. He had saved a few things--his CDs, some photos, a cross from his church. He still hoped to find his cat.

But what his thoughts centered on, he said, was this growing feeling that he wanted to run. Not from anything. Not to anything. Just an aching urge to get outside and run.

That might be expected, being a cross-country runner. But this time it was different. He wasn’t sure whether he could describe it, but he’d try.

“Even though there’s been a fire in the city, I feel . . . I don’t know,” he said. “Right now, I just want to run.”

Confusion, frustration, anger and loss. A day of chaos, a night of fear. A seaside town, a made-for-watercolors landscape, now scarred and charred and smoking.

Who knows what goes through a child’s mind while he watches his home go up in flames? When hills burn and blue skies turn to a sickening, charcoal gray.

Bower, a freshman, was evacuated with his family from their home Wednesday night. As he left, he tried to tell himself that the house--made of fire-resistant materials--would be OK. But reality was harsh: By midnight, what was left of his home was smoldering.

Thursday morning, Laguna Beach awoke under an ugly haze, a sad reminder that Wednesday wasn’t just a bad dream. Calls from the outside were more often than not answered by a recording:

We’re sorry, you have reached a number that is no longer in service . . .

Mike Roche, the school’s football coach, spent much of the morning trying to get in touch with friends, assistants and players. It was his players, he said, who made him most proud Wednesday. In the midst of chaos, players worked together, volunteering to direct traffic around Laguna Beach High, evacuation site for the city’s elementary and junior high school students.

Some football players, Roche says, took kindergartners by their hands and helped soothe their fears. They helped children find their parents, and parents find their children. Mostly, they tried to reassure folks that everything was going to be OK. All this despite the fact that several of the players--including wide receiver Gordon Orsborn--had learned that their homes had basically been reduced to dust.

Roche’s spirits were lifted further by a call Thursday morning from Century Coach Bill Brown. Laguna Beach was scheduled to play Century in a Pacific Coast League game Saturday night at Santa Ana Stadium, but because of the fire, Roche wasn’t sure if the game would be possible. Had the Artists’ uniforms and equipment been devoured in the flames? Roche didn’t know.

Brown didn’t care. He told Roche the first concern was for the athletes’ well-being. He offered to reschedule the game. He offered to help out with uniforms. He offered to find another opponent and donate the money from the ticket sales to Laguna Beach High. You name it, Brown said. We want to help.

(Hopefully, so will others. Although Laguna Beach High was basically unharmed in the fire, folks in and around the school are in need. A county-wide jog-a-thon, perhaps?)

Sandi Carter is confident her hometown will bounce back. As a kindergarten teacher in Laguna Beach, as the co-coach of the Artist cross-country team and as a mother, Carter has seen lots of hurting the last couple days. Kids in tears. Kids walking around in a daze. Tiny tots sitting on the Laguna Beach gym floor, oblivious to it all . . .

“Whatever it takes to get over this, it will happen,” Carter says. “It’s the Laguna way.”

And, in her own way, Carter intends to kick it off this morning. She spent most of Thursday trying to track down the Artist runners, encouraging them to meet at her oceanside home at 9 a.m. today for a long, easy run. Carter says it’ll be group therapy in motion.

“We don’t know how many will be able to get there, we don’t know how many we’ll be able to find,” she says. “But we’re a close group. Right now, we could use each other’s support.”

And David Bower could use a good run.

Barbie Ludovise’s column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers may reach Ludovise by writing her at The Times Orange County Edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, 92626, by calling (714) 966-5847 or by fax at 966-5663.