Friday Night Lights

By Lew
October 4, 2004

'Friday Night Lights' has nothing on the real thing

By RON HOWELL/The Reporter Sports Editor


If you read this section of the newspaper regularly, you are probably aware of a movie called "Friday Night Lights" which is about to hit theaters.

The movie, for those who don't know, is based on the best-selling 1990 book by H.G. Bissinger about the mania which a small town (well, it's small to those big-city fellows in Hollywood) has for its high school football team. That town is Odessa, Texas; the team is the Permian High School Panthers; and the subject of the movie is the 1988 season and Odessa's obsession with the Panthers.

If the book is anything like the movie, and I have no doubt it will be, based on the one review I have read, this "obsession" will be portrayed in a very negative light.

And to be sure, any so-called obsession which causes fans to put "for sale" signs on the front lawn of the head football coach when his team loses is unheal-thy -- but only with the misguided souls who resort to such ridiculous and rather sickening antics to get their point across.

Before I go any further, you need to know that this movie is of more than passing interest to me, and not because my passion is writing about sports.

You see, I grew up in Odessa and I graduated from Permian High School. I didn't play football; I was a third-string basketball player. But I made it to every football game during that time in my life (the early 1970s) and I saw what an impact the Panthers' great success had on the community.

When I was at Permian, winning was certainly important to the fans in Odessa. But I never really regarded going to the games as an obsession -- it was just the thing that most people I knew did on Friday nights.

Back then, Permian was just starting to establish itself as the premier football program in the state -- not the entire country. The Panthers lost a total of just two games in the three years I was in high school (you started high school as a sophomore back then), and they were state champions my senior year.

I've only made a few trips back to Odessa since I graduated from high school all those years ago, but the impact high school football made on my life back then continues to this day.

And it's a positive impact. Few things are as exciting as seeing a town come together in support of a winning team -- in football or any other sport.

By the way -- yes, I read the book. And yes, I plan to see the movie -- it's on my "must see" list for the fall. That's really saying something, because it's rare that I ever look forward to seeing a movie.

But this is a chance to see my former high school and former hometown up on the big screen with Billy Bob Thornton as the head coach and country singer Tim McGraw as an abusive father of one of the athletes. Just how far will Hollywood go in its latest effort to make Texans appear to be a bunch of "Hee Haw" rejects and idiots?

I can't wait to find out. This is irresistible.

As interesting as the movie is sure to be, though, it just can't beat seeing the real thing. And this weekend, fans will be treated to several contests that have maximum appeal.

Friday marks the beginning of district play for three of the four Nolan County teams. And for Sweetwater and Highland, a win -- even at this early stage -- could go a long way toward a district championship.

Sweetwater (5-1) goes to Abilene Wylie (4-2) in a game between a pair of perennial play-off teams who have turned into fierce rivals since the Mustangs dropped to Class 3A a few years ago. Each won district titles in 2003 -- when they were in separate districts -- and made long postseason runs.

Sweetwater and Wylie have faced each other annually since 2000, with Wylie winning the first two meetings but the Mus-tangs capturing the last two.

In 2003, Sweetwater had lost two straight prior to facing Wylie, but won 21-7 in a non-district game to begin an eight-game winning streak that carried the Mustangs to the Division II regional finals. Wylie re-bounded from that defeat to go all the way to the Division I semifinals in 2003.

This year, Sweetwater enters the game with a five-game winning streak, while Wylie is coming off a 44-7 defeat by No. 2-ranked Decatur last Friday. But the Bulldogs will probably be at their best this week after suffering one of the worst defeats in memory by a Hugh Sandifer-coached squad.

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