Carver High AD to pitch ‘Field of Dreams’ at Super Bowl

NEW ORLEANS — Brian Bordainick will be in the throes of the media circus this week surrounding Super Bowl XLIII in Tampa, Fla., but he’s not one of the star athletes who will take the field Sunday or a reporter looking for a catchy quote. But he is hoping to grab some of the spotlight for his own cause.

Bordainick, athletics director at George Washington Carver High School, will be there starting Thursday to talk up his 9th Ward Field of Dreams on the campus where students and faculty are still working in temporary trailers while waiting for their old school building to be demolished and replaced.

“People might ask why are we building a football field before we even have a school building,” Bordainick said. “I just know that sports can help build a school’s identity and bring a community together.”

The Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation hooked up Bordainick with a Super Bowl media pass, and he plans to tell his story to anyone who will listen — the media, celebrities or any corporate sponsors who might want to lend their name to a recovery project.

The price for the Carver facility, including a synthetic turf football field, running track, bleachers and lighting, comes to $1.85 million. Through basically what’s been a grass-roots campaign of phone calls and introductions, Bordainick and Carver staff have raised nearly $855,000.

“I’ve just been asking people to give me 10 minutes of their time so I can tell them what we’re trying to do,” he said. “I think when people hear about it, they’re excited about it and want to get involved.”

Bordainick was working on a December deadline to receive a grant from the NFL when the designer providing renderings for the projects pulled out with just hours to go before deadline. The architecture firm Eskew+Dumez+Ripple stepped in to provide plans, keeping the project on course. In-kind contributions have also come from Brice Building Co. and Shrenk & Peterson.

Shoemaker Nike and the Recovery School District have each directed $100,000 toward the project, and City Councilman Arnie Fielkow has donated $25,000. Bordainick said he has received word that Carver alumnus Marshall Faulk, the former St. Louis Rams star, plans to contribute to the effort through his foundation.

At 23, Bordainick is the youngest athletics director at a Louisiana high school. After graduating from the University of Georgia, he entered the Teach for America program and specifically requested an assignment in New Orleans. He arrived at Carver for the 2007-08 school year, the school’s first session after Katrina, and became athletics director weeks later after a staff departure.

The school fielded boys and girls basketball teams that first year, and its football squad took the field in 2008 under head coach Shyrone Carey, the former Archbishop Shaw and LSU running back.

Although the Rams were winless on the gridiron, Bordainick said their return has been symbolic to the devastated community.

“The team has shirts that say ‘Carver’ on the front. On the back it reads ‘Rebuilding the community one victory at a time.’ Not all of those victories are going to come on the field,” he said. “You’re seeing what sports can do for a school. Students who were fighting when we first got back in school are now eating lunch together, bonding. They’re forming a sense of community.”

The goal is to break ground on the track portion of the facility by July and run the first meet in February 2010.

Originally Posted on NewOrleansCityBusiness.com by Greg LaRose.