Crisis management/recovery should be considered a sport.

Seriously. There have been enough highlight reels of one-handed catches, tomahawk dunks and goalie saves. Put up some guys clearing storm debris for the 10th consecutive hour.Breaking down how one team didn't double cover the other team's All Pro? Please. Telestrate how an organization regroups after a Category 3.

Maybe it's the all ready established disdain of sports fandom and media, or I don't know, maybe it's the fact this entire region was a 10-mile wobble away from washing up in Bermuda that has me convinced.  

Before you assign props/blame to Terry Sims on whether or not he and his staff can manage to concoct a scheme to slow down North Carolina A&T running Tarik Cohen Saturday, show some appreciation of how he kept track of 75  players who had to evacuate the campus,  head home for five days THEN report back to temp housing even while their parents and siblings stayed behind to deal with damages.

What a task it was to gather, house and feed a team that has missed four days of practice and treatment, study hall and meetings. It was even tougher for the staff to game plan and study video without power in their offices and many athletic staffers were at work even while their own houses were damaged and without power.

Sims has had to be more than a football coach this week. He had to join Vice President of Athletic Lynn Thompson and the athletic administration as a part of the Emergency Operations Center team as they surveyed damage, developed contingency plans and answer questions from the parents, public and press.

Be amazed that there will even be a game Saturday at 1 p.m. and the university will use it to spring the campus back to life after we all avoided a doomsday scenario.    

(By the way, I'm all right. I live 20 feet from the river and somehow had minimal damage while a couple of homes 500 feet away were smashed. Getting the electricity back was slow, but, you know, sleeping in your car one night, as well as spending 25 minutes chasing your 90-year old dad's cat in a darkened motel room must have been the character building experiences I needed. Thanks for asking.)

With Matthew sputtered out, the texts from Thompson renewed Sunday afternoon and the thought is … we can get back to what we do. Well, sort of. We're all doing what we do in a situation we've never done before.

The first sign that things aren't completely normal is that even the athletics people need to check in with security and get another credential. You can't say, oh, "I'm so and so" anymore because security found looters in one of the dorms DURING THE STORM. You don't mind filling out that form after that.

First is a matter of getting the athletics house in order. The volleyball team's still in North Carolina and will remain there before heading up to Howard and Morgan State. They had a nice win Sunday at North Carolina Central, and Sodexo at NCCU helped kept them fed during their extended stay. Golf had a tournament cancelled, some tennis and football players are sheltered at the Performing Arts Center, Basketball teams started practice over at DME Sports Tuesday. And somehow, someway, there's gonna be a football game Saturday. That's three out of five games so far affected by the weather.  Imagine all of that happening to a team  that had already suffered injuries to half of its starters and was down to one quarterback. Doing what we do in a situation we've never done before.

That was the easy part. For the first few days, it's like Thompson has been in a bad R. Kelly song. First he has a meeting, then there's the after meeting. And then after that meeting is the post-meeting pow wow in the lobby. And then after the lobby, you have to meet somebody else to help somebody else. And no one's going "Toot Toot, Beep, Beep" because it's that serious campus-wide.

"This is someone else's child we're taking care of," Thompson says in each of his Monday meetings.  

The 4 p.m. EOC Monday meeting in the Performing Arts Center Green Room is when it hits. You see a bank of phones still being answered by people whose eyes easily give away the lack of sleep they've had since Friday. Department heads, Vice Presidents, Security all have the same look. 

Keeping everyone together is Jason Glenn, Vice President of Student Affairs. He hasn't slept in three days, but he's still an eyepatch away from replacing Samuel L. Jackson in the Avengers franchise the way he's leading this recovery team. Behind him is  Dr. Nan Fisher Williams, the Vice President of Human Resources giving off the same vibe you'd expect from Uhura if she were the captain of the Enterprise. Those are sincere compliments, actually. Both are providing the leadership this group needs, and 97 percent of it is by example. They're taking care of someone else's child. And they take it serious.

The reports come in.  And then Department of Campus Safety Administration Chief Gregory Elder tries to deliver his. It's gut wrenching.

"All I can say…I love you all," Elder gets out before having to leave to room in tears. He hasn't left the campus in four days even though there's a tree in his living room. He's taking care of someone else's child.

The PAC was the campus' Shelter in Place for the 100 or so students – most of them international - who had nowhere else togo during the storm. Staff at the PAC let in an additional 27 students who – with 100 MPH winds swirling about – came there because they were that freaked out. Somehow, that story about sheltering a football team in Pine Bluff, Arkansas back in 2004 doesn't seem that bad anymore.

Many of the internationals had been through a hurricane before, but Iris Quinn is trying to give comfort. A Haitian student learns her grandmother died in the storm back home. The Bahamian students haven't had any contact with their families.  Taking care of someone else's child.

The 4 p.m. winds down. Another is scheduled for 10 a.m. Tuesday and Wednesday. Judge Hubert Grimes concludes with one more bit of damage report – His fraternity's tree near White Hall toppled. The rival fraternity members chuckle, and then it's all out laughter that's good to hear. 

Everyone reconvenes the next morning. Some have finally had some sleep and a good meal. Progress has been made, and even some well-deserved satisfaction is enjoyed.

"This will be our best production of the year," says PAC Director Alicia Scott. "Everyone performed brilliantly, and our students were the stars."

"No encore, please." someone blurts. Everyone laughs. It's good to hear, especially after that Bahamas information was updated: Areas of Freeport were flattened.

There are so many clichés in sports, and so many have carried on to what's been described as the real world. "We came together as a team … we overcame the obstacles…we found a way … we did what we had to do…."

And that's what's been happening here the past few days. The fact I'm at my desk, that my basketball team is practicing and there were classes in session Thursday and a football game Saturday is the simplest reaffirmation of everyone coming together and doing what they do in a situation never done before.

But calling it a sport? Darn straight. 

Because this team won.

By taking care of someone else's child.