PORT SULPHUR, La., Nov. 14  A handshake seemed inadequate after such a startling turnaround for South Plaquemines High School, so fullback Keven Smith kissed Coach Cyril Crutchfield on the cheek. Then he kissed quarterback Ridge Turner. Other players poured a cooler of water over Crutchfields head, and fans hoisted him on their shoulders. Far from home, they staked claim to the victors territory by chanting: Whose field? Crutchfield!  Cheryl Gerber for The New York Times  Keven Smith switched from defensive end to fullback, and at 5 feet 6 and 210 pounds, he has been a key rusher for South Plaquemines High. More Photos »  Defeat seemed inevitable as the Class 2A playoffs opened last Friday night, with South Plaquemines trailing by 27-6 in the first quarter and by 34-12 in the third. But the team rallied in a downpour as Turner rushed for three touchdowns and threw for a pair. As lightning spidered across the sky ahead of a cold front, the Hurricanes stunned host Pickering High, 40-36, in the piney woods of central Louisiana.  It was a rousing victory for newly formed South Plaquemines and a testament to the resiliency of its students and supporters from the hurricane-shattered communities of Port Sulphur, Buras and Boothville-Venice in lower Plaquemines Parish.  Call everybody! screamed Andria Barthelemy, whose son, Lorne, is a seventh-grade lineman. Call the White House!  Yet nothing is uncomplicated these days for the residents of lower Plaquemines. On the six-hour ride home, the team stopped at a McDonalds to celebrate, only to discover that someone had apparently broken into the visitors locker room during the game and had stolen cash, a DVD player, even one players sneakers.  Fourteen months earlier, Hurricane Katrina had destroyed the players homes, their possessions, their former schools and their football seasons. Now someone had swiped their spending money. In what seemed a perverse joke, Smith said a $20 bill had been removed from his wallet and replaced with a single dollar.  With the baby coming, I need all the money I can get, said Smith, whose girlfriend is pregnant.  South Plaquemines (5-6) will play Clinton (9-2) on Friday in the Round of 16 here at home, for only the second time this season. Some fans have scheduled the day off from work. Tailgating will start in early afternoon. But sometime over the next four weeks, the season will end and playoff euphoria will be replaced anew by uncertainty in the halting recovery from Katrina.  More than a year after the storm, Smith still lives in a 7-by-27-foot FEMA trailer with seven other relatives. He sleeps in a bed with his father. His mother sleeps on a fold-out sofa, while his sister and her four children take the bunk beds and a mattress fashioned from cushions and the kitchen table.  When he needs privacy to study, Smith leaves the trailer to read by the dome lights of his fathers pickup truck.  Peace and quiet, thats something you dont really get in the house, Smith said.  Otherwise, he said, he does not venture outside much in the FEMA trailer park in Oakville, 30 miles from school.  Nothing but trouble outside, Smith said. Drugs. I dont get down with that.  Before the hurricane, his family lived in a trailer in rural Boothville, a hub of the fishing and oil and gas industries. His grandmother, an uncle and several aunts lived in the same enclave. School was a five-minute walk, and he could hunt rabbits in the backyard. His father, Norman, a crane operator, owned a trawler and shrimped in his spare time.  The boat was the wife; I was the girlfriend, Smiths mother, Veronia Jones-Smith, a custodian, said with a laugh.  The family has secured a loan from the Small Business Administration to buy a double-wide trailer and hopes to return to Boothville by January. Even so, Keven said he worried about his parents, who have high blood pressure. He worries especially about his mother and the stress of caring for grandchildren, ages 13, 11, 6 and 4, in such a cramped space.  I tell her to calm down; shes about to catch a heart attack, Smith said.  At 18, he will soon have his own child-rearing responsibilities. His girlfriend, Whitney Allen, 16, is due to give birth in January to a son he plans to name Keven Jr. He and Allen met after Katrina, having evacuated to Lafayette, La., two teenagers running from the storm into unintended consequence.  Sometimes I feel old, Smith said.  This is not how he expected to spend his senior season, putting baby beds and strollers on layaway, saving money that his mother gives him for football trips and hunting for dollar-store bargains on diapers and baby clothes.  I love my son and hes not even here yet, Smith said. And yet, he added: Sometimes, at home, Ill be thinking, What if I hadnt gotten her pregnant? I wonder how different it would be. Or would it be different?  His first response, he said, was shock: What am I going to do with a son? His parents were disappointed, he said, but not mad enough to put me out.  Instead, they told him, Its time to be a man and take care of your responsibility.
When they are not coming from behind to win high school playoff games, South Plaquemines football players are facing issues like fatherhood and job prospects in the wake of Katrina.