Tropical Storm Harvey changed football in Southeast Texas before it ever began.

Once it did, the game meant that much more.

For at least a week at high schools across the area, a normal weekly celebration of community pride and athleticism was put on hold.

“When something big happens like Harvey, any normalcy you can get to is a good thing.” Nederland coach Monte Barrow said. “It couldn’t happen with just the coaches and players. The entire community wanted to embrace it and cheer on their team.”

Playing football so soon after a disaster — nine days after floodwater crested in the area — helped to get people back in a routine, Port Neches-Groves coach Brandon Faircloth said in September.

“I know me and our coaches and players, our houses are flooded, so it helps to get out here and [to] not think about that for a little while is nice.”

In Port Arthur, the fight for normalcy was a little more intense. Harvey caused much more destruction, and students in the Port Arthur ISD, including Memorial High, didn’t begin classes until Sept. 18. Players were unsure if a season would kick off.

It did. And Kenny Harrison, Barrow and Faircloth took their teams and fan bases on a ride like none other.

The leaders of the “Big Three” schools’ teams in Mid- and South County were named Super Team Coaches of the Year for 2017 because their teams rose from the impact Harvey left, endured a stretch of four games in 18 days to make up District 22-5A games and advanced in the playoffs.

Memorial played its first game Sept. 20 against Beaumont Central at the Thomas Center, 12 days after Nederland and PNG kicked off. Harrison at one point had four players displaced by the storm, including wide receiver and track standout Xavier Hull, but the Titans went unbeaten in the four-game compressed stretch, including a 13-7 win at Nederland, and eventually shared the district championship with PNG for the second year in a row.

The Titans took down Kingwood Park and Galveston Ball with relative ease to return to the 5A Division I Region III semifinal. They were less than a minute away from meeting eventual state finalist Manvel before Temple struck back to break their hearts.

Memorial ended its season 9-2, but produced The News’ and 22-5A’s offensive and defensive players of the year in running back Elijah Hines and linebacker Jomard Valsin.

When PNG got going, it seemed nothing could slow down Faircloth’s Indians, much less Super Team and district MVP Roschon Johnson, who totaled 63 touchdowns. They started the season 8-0 and beat each of their opponents up to that point except Memorial by double digits.

Nederland was determined to not let PNG have a crowning moment on its own field, though. Colton Beeson’s two-point conversion catch with 13 seconds left pushed the Bulldogs ahead for the 36-35 win.

It was a signature win for Barrow, an assistant under Larry Neumann for 24 years who was promoted to head coach last February.

“I’d be lying if I said that game didn’t mean anything to me,” Barrow said, “not for what it made me feel like, but seeing what it meant to our players, especially when people felt like they didn’t have a chance to win.”

Faircloth and Barrow eventually took their teams to NRG Stadium to take part in a tripleheader the day after Thanksgiving. While Manvel ended Nederland’s season at 8-3, PNG (10-2) would hold off Texas City before eventually bowing out to eventual 5A Division II champion College Station the next week.

But just three months earlier, players from all three teams were just volunteering to help others return to the normalcy that mattered away from football — life.

It was all Harrison could think about during his last postgame speech to his team in Prairie View, one filled with emotion.

“Our kids fought, played hard, man, coming back from the hurricane, coming back from everything they went through with the hurricane, living in shelters,” he said at the time after reminding his players how much he loved them.

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I.C. Murrell: 721-2435. Twitter: @ICMurrellPANews