Tyler Roehl recently spent time in New Orleans on the ... 'Good Works Team'

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All-America Bison running back Tyler Roehl recently spent time in New Orleans on the ... 'Good Works Team'
His car window was punched out and his GPS was stolen, which wasn’t a good start to the day for Tyler Roehl. Instead of driving to the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, he had to find a ride.
By: By Jeff Kolpack  , The Forum

His car window was punched out and his GPS was stolen, which wasn’t a good start to the day for Tyler Roehl. Instead of driving to the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, he had to find a ride.

The destination, New Orleans, perhaps took some bitterness out of the theft. For a few hours on a winter day, the former North Dakota State running back saw first-hand that not all is healed from Hurricane Katrina.

It’s been three years and there are still images of a war zone.

“People just don’t understand how bad it is until you get down there,” Roehl said.

Roehl was one of 18 players who were named to the Allstate “Good Works Team” that spent the New Year’s holiday at the Sugar Bowl. The game was memorable; Utah surprised Alabama to finish the season unbeaten.

The “Good Works” part of the trip was also memorable. The players participated in a cleanup effort of the Oak Park neighborhood of New Orleans, which three years ago was under 12 feet of water.

Some of Roehl’s observations: boarded up houses, houses with rampant mold on the interior, a garage tipped over, houses abandoned with belongings still in them, un-mowed grass and branches and sticks everywhere.

“To have a city go from being a nice location to just having no one there … it’s just sad,” he said.

He talked with a woman who lived in a FEMA trailer for two years before moving back to her house in Oak Park.

“They all had an appreciation as to why they were there,” said NDSU running backs coach Tim Polasek. “It was not like, hey, we have a free trip and we’re going to Bourbon Street on New Year’s Eve. They’re a bunch of self-starter guys.”

Polasek accompanied Roehl on the trip. Each Good Works Team player got to bring either a family member or coach and Roehl, after his brother Ben Roehl couldn’t make it, asked Polasek.

Read on at http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/227588/