Essays From West of 98: Considering the Front Porch

Believing in Ted Lasso and Texas high school football

“Now, I’m gonna say this again just so you didn't think it was a mistake the first time I said it. For me, success is not about the wins and losses. It's about helping these young fellas be the best versions of themselves on and off the field. And it ain’t always easy, Trent, but neither is growing up without someone believing in you.”

--Ted Lasso, Episode 3 (“Trent Crimm: The Independent”)

There’s a saying that college football is a university’s “front porch.” Countless people drive by a house or business and see the front porch without knowing anything else about the place or the people inside. If you watch a random college football game, you know more about that random university than you did before. This can be an invitation to learn more. It can also become a problem: the high visibility gives people license to obsess over the front porch, adorning it majestically even as the rest of the structure collapses.

If college athletics are a front porch, then high school football is unquestionably the same for a town, perhaps moreso. The visibility and perils are quite similar, as put on display in H.G. Bissinger’s 1990 bestselling book “Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream,” along with the film and television series that it spawned. I have had a complex relationship with high school football for most of my life. I enjoy watching it. I was terrible at playing it. I would have loved to not be terrible. I am troubled by the pressures it can place on players and coaches but I appreciate the positive impact that it can have on them. I see the peril of emphasizing football when it minimizes the accomplishments of other students. I see the manner in which football can unify a community with a common purpose that can boost shared morale.

Like much of life, it is complicated.

Stamford is currently enjoying a memorable football season. Over the past 110 years, Bulldog football has had boom-bust cycles. There are some tough seasons on the ledger, but we also own six state championships and rank in the top 25 all-time in wins in Texas history (out of 1,500 schools playing football). Last Friday’s 42-6 thumping of the Forsan Buffaloes brought home the first playoff victory since 2018. One of our town’s most beloved coaches came out of retirement this summer to helm the program. He leads a coaching staff—some raised here, some new to town—that evokes memories of past state championships but is also creating a new and unique set of community memories. The team is talented and fun to watch. The roster is bursting with students who are admirable role models for younger students. You WANT to see these kids succeed now and for the rest of their lives.

My experience is colored by a kindergartener enjoying her first season of pep rallies and wearing cheerleading uniforms to school, alongside a two year-old who shouts “GO BULLGOGS” with an intensity that suggests she might be a future linebacker. I do not know how this season will end, but that is not the point. My Bulldog football memory dates to about 1989 and with my bias acknowledged, this has been one of the more enjoyable seasons of my memory.

Which brings me to that opening Ted Lasso quote. A hostile English soccer journalist has just told new soccer manager Ted how much the soccer team means to the community and how that should weigh on his conscience. Ted responds by outlining a shocking coaching philosophy that looks past wins and losses. English football (soccer) is often compared to American college football. I think high school football is a better analogy. In both, a community lives and dies through the neighborhood team, with all the positive and negative connotations that are implied by that. Good coaches can change lives in the manner that Ted Lasso describes. That influence can reverberate on the present and future of an entire community.

No spoilers, but throughout the tv show, the word “BELIEVE” has a particular importance. Ted believes in his players. He teaches the players to believe in themselves. As they do, they overcome some serious differences to uplift one another. In the same manner, a good high school football program can instill belief in and by the players, coaches, and community.

Football, like all human institutions, is flawed and subject to our own failings. When held with the proper perspective, it is a front porch that we can be proud to show to the world and encourage others to learn more about the place and its people. In doing so, it can also inspire that community to believe in themselves, in one another, and in the shared purpose of their place.

GO BULLGOGS!

James Decker is the Mayor of Stamford, Texas and the creator of the West of 98 website and the Rural Church and State and West of 98 podcasts. Contact James and subscribe to these essays at westof98.substack.com and subscribe to him wherever podcasts are found.