Troy Williams wasn’t just another new kid when he showed up at Auburn High last fall.

He was the new black kid, the Hurricane Katrina refugee from New Orleans.

“I came here; I’ve been myself,” said Williams, a 6-foot-3 junior split end. “For the most part, they’ve accepted me.”

High school football long has been a unifying force in small towns. In Auburn, Nebraska, where 97 percent of the 3,100 residents are white, football helped create a bond between the Williams family and its adopted town.

“We consider them true blue Auburnites,” coach Mark Oliver said.

Like many churches across the country, the New Hope Church of Auburn offered to sponsor a family after Katrina struck. The Williamses, who lost nearly everything when their home was destroyed, accepted. By September, Williams, his parents, Andrea and Troy Sr., and four siblings had moved into a four-bedroom, gray-and-white wood-frame rental on M Street.

“It really turned out to be a blessing, coming to Auburn,” Andrea Williams said.

This week, Williams and his teammates are carrying the town’s hopes as the unbeaten Bulldogs prepare to play Valentine on Saturday in a small-school division state championship game.

Williams, who has emerged as a major college prospect, has 20 catches and 12 touchdowns.

As they’ve done for every other away game, the Williams family will load up its 2000 Saab and follow the team bus to Lincoln for the championship game.

Troy Williams runs with the ball during football practice. His family was displaced to Auburn, Neb., after Hurricane Katrina.

Football gives the family members a respite from the rebuilding of their lives.

“It’s like a diversion,” said Troy’s father, Troy Williams Sr. “We’re slowly healing, but it will take some time. We look ahead, not back.”

After working as an accountant in New Orleans, Williams Sr. has started a home-based Internet sales business. His wife works part-time at the town hospital and in the high school cafeteria.

Predictably, it has not been an easy transition for the family.

Troy Jr., one of eight African-Americans out of 275 students in the high school, struggled academically and socially at first.

When cold weather set in last year, Williams wanted to wear a winter coat under his football pads.

“He had to struggle with the day-to-day things with the cultural transition and way of life here,” Oliver said.

People stared long and hard at Williams when he went to gyms in neighboring towns to watch Auburn’s basketball team play.

“I get the ‘N’ word dropped on me,” Williams said.

David Kibben, pastor at the New Life Church, said Troy Sr. talked to him about Troy Jr.’s difficulties.

“Sad to say, there are prejudiced people in the community,” Kibben said. “There was some graffiti, racial comments and other unfortunate things that happened.”

Williams said he tries to dwell instead on the support most of the community has given him and his family since they arrived with little more than the clothes they were wearing.

These days, Williams hangs out mostly with his teammates, including running back Luke Lundy, his best friend, who’s white. They go to his house, he goes to theirs. They while away hours playing EA Sports Madden NFL 2007.

Coach Oliver said Williams is a humble yet gregarious kid.

“He wears No. 1 on his jersey, and his nickname is ‘Flash,'” Oliver said, “and the community picked up on that. That was the first sign that the community accepted him.”

Football, Williams said, is his haven – one thing he has in common with lots of Nebraskans.

“Before I came here, all I had ever heard about Nebraska is that there are good football players there,” he said. “Now, maybe I’m one of them.”