Hempstead's Pierre internalizes father's ordeal in Haiti

It was after basketball practice on the night of Jan. 12 that Ismael Pierre received a call on his cell phone that delivered bad news. His mother, Marie, informed him that his father, Joseph, who was in Haiti when the powerful earthquake struck only hours earlier, had not yet been heard from.

Pierre didn't tell a soul, not even his Hempstead High School teammates and coaches, and went home to be with his mom.

Unlike the protagonist Ishmael in "Moby-Dick," you can't call Ismael Pierre a storyteller. Many of his acquaintances will learn of his connection to the Haiti earthquake when they read this story.

He spoke about his experiences publicly for the first time before last Monday's practice, but even then, Pierre was reserved. He delivered short answers in a soft, polite monotone, smiling easily but supplying few specific details of his family's ordeal.

"Honestly? I guess I was a little bit scared at first. I just thought, 'Is everybody OK?' " said Pierre, who is the Tigers' second-leading scorer and rebounder, is tops in assists and steals, and also plays the bass drum and trombone in the school band.

Pierre's parents were born in Haiti and Joseph was visiting relatives there at the time of the massive earthquake. For more than two days, there was no word from Joseph. And no words from Ismael, either.

"I was thinking about it when I tried to get to sleep," he said. "I was a little nervous until I found out he was OK. I kind of had a feeling he'd be fine. I was a little worried that first day that somebody in school might ask me something."

Asked why he didn't seek solace by talking to friends, teachers or coaches, Pierre smiled, shrugged and said matter-of-factly: "I kept it to myself. It's just my personality. I don't talk about personal stuff."

So those trying to get a read on Pierre in the halls of the high school, where those who know him are aware of his heritage, couldn't tell that he was carrying around a secret.

He was his typical stoic self when he didn't know if his father was OK, and also after Joseph got through to Marie and said he was unhurt. But that was just on the outside. "I was relieved,'' Pierre said. "I thanked God."

Neither he nor his brother Tidell, who plays on the Hempstead junior varsity basketball team, spoke about their plight to friends or teammates. "Things don't bother him because he's younger," Ismael said.

Marie also shielded her children from many of the details. "She probably showed some emotion when I wasn't around, but not when I was there," Ismael said. "She wanted to show she was strong and she could handle it. I sensed she was worried. Everybody was."

With good reason. It took only a day or two for the good news about Joseph to surface, but Ismael has an aunt he has never met who, he discovered later, was buried under the rubble of a church but was rescued a week after the quake.

"I know my grandmother was happy when my aunt got pulled out. It was one of her children," said Pierre, who has never been to Haiti but says he'd like to go "just to help out."

His coach, Ted Adams, waited until two days after the earthquake before approaching his junior captain.

"He's very quiet and he didn't say anything. I knew his family was from there, so I just asked him," Adams said. "At that point, he didn't know anything. I didn't know how he'd take it. He keeps things internal."

So even when Pierre learned his dad was OK, Adams had to gently pry it out of his player. "You have to understand that he's under a lot of pressure and going through some turmoil," the coach said.

Adams could tell Pierre was being affected by the circumstances. "He probably wouldn't say that, but if you watched the kid, sometimes he'd come into the gym for practice and just sit by himself," Adams said. "You had to know that something was going Hempstead's Pierre stays stoic during Haiti ordealon in his mind."

Adams noticed a photo in the newspaper that showed a woman whose last name was Pierre being rescued. "I don't think that was his aunt. I think he would have said something," Adams said, appearing unsure of his last statement.

The coach was certain, however, that basketball has helped. "It was a place where he could come and seek relief," Adams said. "When you have situations in your life that are causing turmoil, you come in and play basketball and you become so involved that it just blots everything out for that given time."

Pierre acknowledged that basketball and schoolwork have been "a little bit of a diversion."

He called his music "just fun," but there was a serious note to it Friday night. After his basketball game at Uniondale, Pierre was driven to Freeport, where the Hempstead band performed at an event to raise money for the Haitian relief effort.

The playful side of Pierre, who is a leap-year baby and turns 17 at the end of the month, surfaced before Monday's practice. A Newsday photographer was posing Pierre for several pictures and a reporter wondered, "Aren't your teammates going to ask you why you're getting all this attention?''

To which a grinning Pierre replied - softly, of course - "They're gonna ask and I'm gonna have to tell 'em."