Editor’s note: This is the second of a three-part sereis that follows the fall sports that were canceled due to the university’s closing in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Imagine stepping up to the penalty spot with a conference matchup on the line and the expectations of your closest fans and teammates stomping on you.

Then the lights short out in the stadium, the game’s called off, and the outcome never unravels – who would have won, who would have lost and what would have happened in the middle?

Those sentiments will be on the minds of Loyola players after Hurricane Katrina not only threatened the existence of the Lady Wolfpack’s host city but also nullified the playing out of its fall season.

No one will ever know, thanks to that momentous tragedy, what results a team that impressed its first-year Coach David Poggi with its “commitment level and work ethic” would have turned in.

“That was the aspect that was most encouraging,” he said.

Midfielder/forward Heather Whitfield, international business freshman, had grown accustomed to two-a-day practices everyday in the August sun and regular weightlifting sessions in the sterile mugginess of the Recreational Sports Complex.

“I knew what I was getting into, it’s what I expected,” she said of Poggi’s strenuous preseason regimen.

She had taken part in two exhibition games – a tie against local club Carrollton and a 4-2 win against NCAA program Nicholls State in which she grabbed an assist.

“We had practiced Saturday when he told us to make plans because the storm was coming, and an hour later, I was on my way to Houston.”

August 29 came and went, and it washed the girls’ season away.

“I was sleeping in class (in the University of Alabama) instead of playing midfield on the day of our first game,” Whitfield said.

“We were excited about the season,” Poggi said of his preseason impressions as Wolfpack coach. “After our exhibitions, we were right there.”

Poggi was mostly unfamiliar with his slate of opponents – having coached only the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and a professional indoor soccer team.

“I couldn’t pick out most of these schools on a map,” he said.

“Rather than an outcome goal, we wanted performance goals,” Poggi said. “We definitely wanted to be competitive in every game.”

Poggi didn’t have enough time with his squad to determine what its strongest aspect was tactically – whether he could rely on a suffocating defensive backfield and counterattack economically or if offensive flare and firepower would allow the Wolfpack to field a more aggressive outlook.

For a while, he didn’t know if he’d have any time with his team again.

Both Whitfield and Poggi had expected the usual challenges a new coach with an unfamiliar squad in an unfamiliar league would face, but not what they eventually faced.

“Now it’s a matter of numbers, though,” Whitfield said. “No one had planned for a spring season, so when we wanted one, it didn’t come together.”

Coach Poggi unsuccessfully tried to scrounge together a spring menu of opponents and a sizeable rotation with which to play it with.

“In my twenty years of coaching, I’ve never not had a season happen,” he said. In terms of recruiting, 21 of 25 members returned to the squad. Poggi has been in contact with local New Orleans clubs that are participating in regional showcases for players interested in collegiate soccer.

The admissions office has aided Poggi in that regard as well, supplying him with information on prospective students who have expressed an interest in playing.

“A good-sized group of kids has expressed interest in both our school and program,” Poggi said. “We expect to sign six to eight players.”

The home venue still stands; a slew of returning members and future signees have expressed faith in the program and its scarred host city. And Poggi isn’t expecting to weaken the pace his girls had assumed in preparation for a season that never happened.

“Anytime you put work into something, and your rewards – playing the game at a high level – are delayed, it makes you recommit. Sometimes you get even more effort, and I think we’ll be stronger because of it,” he said.

Ramon Vargas can be reached at [email protected].