Attacks hit home for Irving

Southeast Missouri State University starting linebacker Michael Irving has had a lot more than football on his mind this week.

Tuesday's terrorist attacks on the East Coast hit extremely close to home for the Indians' sophomore from St. Louis as his sister and a cousin both worked in New York's World Trade Center that was demolished when hijackers flew planes into the twin towers of the structure.

Irving's sister, who had just started working for a bank on the seventh floor of the World Trade Center about a week ago, wound up being fine, although the Irving family did not find that out until the next day. But Irving's cousin, who worked on the 95th floor, has not yet been heard from.

"It's been hard to get into football this week," said Irving prior to Thursday afternoon's practice. "It's taken time."

Irving said the worst time for him was from when the attacks took place Tuesday morning to when he finally found out his sister was OK Wednesday morning. He did not practice Tuesday as thoughts turned to his family.

"I was out there, but I didn't practice. It was just too hard to focus until I knew my sister was all right," he said. "I talked to her for the first time Wednesday morning. She's real shook up. She heard the first plane hit and she just left the building. She thought it was a bomb."

Although Irving is not especially close to his cousin, he said, "She's still family. We haven't heard anything and it doesn't look good."

Irving said he will try his best to focus totally on football Saturday night when the Indians host Southwest Missouri State. A visit from some family members, who are coming to Cape Girardeau from St. Louis for the game, should help.

"My father and brother are coming down," he said. "With their support, I should be OK."

Southeast has only two players from New York, starting wide receiver Tarik Simpson and backup linebacker Kelvin Jones. Both hail from Brooklyn and have parents who work in Manhattan, where the World Trade Center is located, but they were not affected by the attacks.