We moved so many times. I went to a different school every year of middle school. – Troy McCormick
SALT LAKE CITY — When the fury of Hurricane Katrina forced Troy McCormick and his family to flee the only home he’d ever known, his mother chose to see the ordeal as an opportunity.
“It was crazy,” said McCormick of evacuating the day before one of the deadliest hurricanes in U.S. history hit the Gulf Coast in August 2005 and caused flooding that claimed the lives of more than 1,200 people, including his maternal grandmother. “For my mom, it was a way for her to leave,” McCormick said. “She wanted to leave, move to another state. She never wanted to go back. So this was a way for us to leave, and she took it. We all (followed her lead).”
McCormick was 9 when his family decided to evacuate before Hurricane Katrina hit. When they left, joining a line of thousands of cars, they had no idea it would be for good. But then, no one knew just how devastating the storm and subsequent floods would be, nor how long it would take the city to rebuild and recover.
“We evacuated, but we left right before,” he said. “We went to Houston to stay with a cousin. … We didn’t think it was going to be that bad.”
While the McCormicks watched helplessly from Houston, the hurricane hit with a ferocity that, coupled with neglect, compromised levies designed to hold back floodwaters, creating a series of tragedies that devastated a city known for its hospitality.
“The storm was bad, but the levies broke and that’s what made it so deadly,” he said. “The water was contaminated, too. People got sick. They drowned.”
His grandmother — Granny Dorothy as he referred to her — refused to leave with the family. Her body was recovered by a relative months later, and officials believe she drowned in her home, which flooded, McCormick said.
“My mom never wanted to think of it,” he said. So the family tried to keep their focus forward, and they decided very quickly that while they would always feel affection for New Orleans, they would make their home in Texas.
They stayed in hotels, and a local family sort of “adopted us,” he said.
“They helped us get familiar with the area, gave us tours, donated some clothes to us,” he said. “It was crazy.”
He readily admits that the experience shaped him in many ways, including how he approaches the game of football.
“We moved so many times,” he said. “I went to a different school every year of middle school.”
Some children resented the influx of Louisiana residents who sought refuge and then new homes in Texas. There were fights and sometimes those New Orleans natives were picked on. But McCormick avoided most of that because of his personality and his football skills.
Reserved and shy, he said football was his social constant.
“I had a lot of friends because of football,” he said. “Everybody knew you, especially because we were moving in the same general area.”
And he had another constant in his mother.
“My mom, she was the backbone,” he said. “She was always there for us. My parents divorced when I was a freshman, and my dad moved back to New Orleans.”
That split was tough on McCormick, but it also allowed him to claim two home towns. While he left New Orleans, the city never left his heart. He said he loves so much about the Big Easy — the friendly, easy nature of the locals, the food, and the music.
“It still feels like New Orleans is home,” he said. “Even kind of want to go back, but I have two little girls, and I don’t want them in that environment.”
McCormick said Houston welcomed him and his family in a completely different way. And while he feels an almost spiritual connection New Orleans, he feels a deep love and affection for the city that adopted him: Houston.
McCormick’s time at Utah has tested his patience and commitment. Injury stole his entire 2015 season and four games last year. The Mayde Creek High alum, who earned 2012 19-5A all-district co-offensive MVP honors, came to Utah as a running back, but he's trying a new position in his senior season as a slot receiver.
During spring football, he said the change has been challenging and exciting.
“I’m very excited,” he said, “I played some slot in high school, but nothing consistent. The coaches always wanted me to play in high school, but I never wanted to play.”
He’d always been told he was too small to play running back.
“I love running back,” he said. “But I had to make a business decision this year. I’m pretty small for a running back, but they say you can’t teach speed. … I want to play (slot) now because I have something to play for.”
That "something" is his growing family. He and his girlfriend, Amber Gilmore, welcomed his second daughter, Ava Rose McCormick, last winter. He has an older daughter, Kayia Russell, and McCormick said he hopes his dreams of playing in the NFL will offer them even more opportunities than he had.
“I just want an opportunity to play,” McCormick said.
The fact that he wants to make the move has meant an easier transition. He said he loves playing for receivers coach Guy Holliday, and Holliday, now entering his third season with Utah, is happy to have the athletic, speedy receiver.
“He’s progressing really well,” Holliday said during spring camp. “He’s making the adjustments; we still have some things to work on downfield, but some of the things are just natural to him. So it gives us a lot of versatility to play him out on the edge, in the slot, and even moving him back, not necessarily in the backfield, but positions where he can run running back-type routes. It’s been really good so far.”
McCormick said he loves the freedom of Troy Taylor’s new offense.
“I feel like it’s been a great change for us so far,” he said. “It gives the receivers multiple opportunities to catch the ball and do something with it. I think that’s what everybody is excited about.”
He also finds Holliday’s coaching style fits with his personality.
“He’s got a down-South attitude,” McCormick said of Holliday. “He talks to you like a man, like a father figure. It’s not just about me. I have a family and kids, and I think about them when I’m in school and on the field.”
Holliday said McCormick’s athleticism and "football IQ" have helped him make up ground in learning the new position. The coach relates to the hardships, and knows firsthand how they can be a launching pad for a young man with discipline and drive.
“I can probably understand a lot more than what some people do,” Holliday said. “They just look at the edge and they don’t really appreciate where a kid comes from. Your background doesn’t have to define you. It doesn’t mean you should forget where you come from, but that should just motivate you. … No question (it can motivate) because you understand what it is to fight through. You understand what it is not to quit.”
McCormick said he’s always just been grateful for the opportunity to play the game he loves.
“This has been just different, this spring,” he said at the time, acknowledging that he hasn’t really been able to prove what he’s capable of accomplishing on the football field yet. “I just want to showcase it to the world this season.”
And, he said, that’s where his team is as well.
“You could see the talent rising every year, with every recruiting class,” he said. “Every year it gets better. We’re so close, so why can’t it be us to get that ring this year? … That’s the plan. Now we’ve just got to prepare like a championship team."
And like his mother taught him, the most important decisions are ahead of him, not behind.
"I just want to focus on this year," he said, "and make some plays for the team.”