• printer friendly
• mail this article
• iPod format
• digg

Photo

Swimmer Cara Davidoff has bounced from school to school since Hurricane Katrina forced Tulane Uni

Cara Davidoff shrugs when talking about the last two-plus years. There’s nothing ordinary about that period of her life, except for her calm recollection of it.

Davidoff’s just starting her first quarter at UCLA, making this her third college in the last year.

She wound up at the second school because of an emergency, and she chose her third school because she couldn’t imagine her life without swimming.

It may not make sense to anyone who doesn’t know her, but those who do know Davidoff wouldn’t see it any other way.

Davidoff, originally from the L.A. area, had been swimming since she was 7 years old and became a decorated competitor by the sixth grade. She later attended Palisades Charter High School in Brentwood, where she set school records in the 50-meter and 100-meter freestyle and 200-meter freestyle relay. She also earned All-American honors in the 50m and 100m freestyle as a junior.

Just before the start of her senior year, Davidoff was drawing interest from swimming programs across the nation, including UCLA. She eventually decided to join the second recruiting class for the upstart Tulane swimming program.

She would be moving to a school in the heart of New Orleans – a completely different part of the country, where the people and food are of a distinct style. But that culture shock was exactly what intrigued her about Tulane.

“I wanted to go somewhere different, where I could really grow and experience something new,” she said.

In the pool, she helped Tulane win the Conference USA Title in just its second year of existence. As a student away from athletics, she was making friends and slowly getting immersed into southern hospitality.

Following her first summer back from school, Davidoff and her mother, Bonnie, drove back to New Orleans to mark the beginning of her sophomore year.

As they were arriving into town, there were warnings of a hurricane that would hit the Gulf Coast.

Not so bad, Davidoff thought. She had already been through one hurricane season as a freshman.

Davidoff knew the drill. She and her mother relocated to Baton Rouge, only 80 miles west of New Orleans.

As she, two of her friends and her mother were driving to Baton Rouge, it was reported that Hurricane Katrina was a Category Five hurricane, the sixth-strongest Atlantic Ocean hurricane in recorded history and third strongest to hit the United States.

OK, but not terrible, thought Davidoff.

“But when we got on the road, driving out of New Orleans, and we saw just cars and cars packed together waiting to get out, I knew it was really bad,” she said.

It was something of an “Independence Day” film scene with the tension starting to take its toll and the sense of chaos taking over the city.

When they got to Baton Rouge, they found out the levees had broken. Turning on the television, Davidoff saw too much of her adopted city now underwater.

Tulane University decided to close down indefinitely, with administrators scurrying to find temporary schools in the region that would take in, shelter and feed students for a semester while their old school was helping to piece its city back together.

“I got the call from my swimming coach that the entire team was being moved to Texas A&M for the fall semester,” she said.

“All these decisions were made so fast, nobody really had time to think. We just grabbed what we could and went in the next week,” she said.

Davidoff’s only semester in College Station, Texas, was one of conflicting emotions.

On the one hand, she was grateful to the students and faculty who welcomed so many Tulane student-athletes to their campus in the wake of a national tragedy. On the other hand, she knew that she would only be there for a matter of months, and it was hard to set down any roots when her mind would often drift back to New Orleans.

“I talked to her a lot (when she was at Texas A&M), and I could hear in her voice that she wasn’t really excited to be there,” Bonnie Davidoff said.

“We are all so thankful of the people there, but that school was the antithesis of the college experience she set out to have,” Bonnie Davidoff said.

Tulane soon reopened for its second semester, even while New Orleans was still in reconstruction. Upon returning to New Orleans, Davidoff visited the Ninth Ward and other parts of the city that were hit the hardest. Even now, the images of destruction make her shake her head in amazement.

“The place is still filled with debris and seems so desolate,” she said. “Some parts of the city, like where I was, weren’t hit that hard. But other parts don’t even look like New Orleans anymore.”

Just after settling back into school, Davidoff was told by her swimming coach that her sport was one of several that Tulane was going to have to eliminate because of the financial constraints facing the university.

She then had to make a tough decision: She could stay at Tulane and stop swimming, or she could transfer.

“It wasn’t a hard choice,” she said. “I just couldn’t stop swimming. I’ve done it for so long, and I wasn’t ready to give it up.”

It didn’t surprise Davidoff’s family in the slightest when she chose to transfer to UCLA. Nobody could imagine her not competitively swimming.

“When we heard that Tulane had closed the program, we knew she would leave,” Bonnie said.

During her spring semester, Davidoff looked at schools all across the country. Then she visited UCLA, stepping onto the campus for the first time even though she grew up only a half hour away.

She met with swimming coach Cyndi Gallagher, and told her friends and family that she would be going to UCLA, making it her third college within a year.

Now Davidoff is starting to get used to Southern California all over again, swimming for UCLA and trying to decide which major she’s going to end up pursuing.

She talks about the last year and a half with foresight, knowing that she lived through more stressful moments than most college students want or even need, but understanding that there’s some wisdom that comes with it.

“It’s something that made me mature, so that’s something I can take from it,” Davidoff said. “But I’m not looking to have another year like that anytime soon.”

Comments

Post a comment