Daily News | Villanova’s Caleb Daniels came home for the Final Four, to the city and school that shaped him | Mike Sielski
NEW ORLEANS — Three miles from the Superdome, 30 minutes before Caleb Daniels and the rest of the Villanova Wildcats were scheduled to begin practice Thursday morning, Tyrone Payne straddled the doorway of his classroom, one foot in the room, one foot in the hallway. Payne has taught math at St. Augustine High School here for more than 40 years and was administering an exam, and as he paused to tell a quick Daniels story, his eyes flitted back to his students.
Daniels, a 6-foot-4 senior guard, has been and will be a focal point ahead of Villanova’s matchup against Kansas in the Final Four, such an obvious story that, in a press release Wednesday, the NCAA’s media-relations team called him a “HOMETOWN HERO” and encouraged reporters to interview and/orVillanova’s Chris Arcidiacono should play a key role as he gets his own Final Four experience
The threat of destructive weather is never far from anyone’s thoughts and fears here — an apprehension that everyone learns to accept as an intrinsic part of life until power poles start toppling and the family photo album has been swept away. Tornadoes knifed through the region just last week. Hurricane Ida’s arrival in August led to repairs at St. Augustine that led to an accidental electrical fire that damaged the school’s gymnasium. The restoration is continuing. The gym remains closed.
In the moment, though, Daniels rued the collective punishment that remains standard procedure at St. Augustine. A student showed up without a tie? That’s a $10 fine. The student didn’t have the money? Now he and his classmates might have Saturday cafeteria cleanup duty, which meant every plate, every bowl, every piece of silverware would have to be washed, dried, and color-coordinated. “It wasn’t just rinse-and-go,” Daniels said. “We spent more time cleaning than eating.
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