Enjoyed this. My grandad coached so high school football is part of our family. I love hearing about the different expressions of it. I’d love to hear more about Bulldogs games!
Thanks for sharing and commenting, Sam! Where did your granddad coach, Texas or elsewhere?
One day I will have to do a longer standalone essay on local high school football. I’ve had people visit from outside of Texas and tell us that it really resembled Friday Night Lights the TV show. Our fans don’t get everything right, but it is a point of pride to me, that, win, or lose, they show up for our team. That includes road trips. I have been to road games for mediocre Stamford teams and seen our fans outnumber the home fans handily.
He coached at Science Hill High School in Johnson City, Tennessee, where I also played. I've made some films with teams in the county where I live (I'm two hours down the road in Knoxville now). In smaller towns, the school, and the athletic teams connect the town in ways they don't in big towns and I love that. The connection and community are the beautiful parts, especially when the community's unique identity shows up in the songs, the colors, the cheers, and the traditions. Those things make me smile which is my selfish reason for wanting to hear a piece chock full of those details (and why I'm always going to games, even when I know no one on the team). Though you are absolutely right that there's powerful negativity there too. As with so many things: redeemable qualities and condemnable qualities.
Science Hill as in Steve Spurrier's alma mater? How cool! You hit on what I find so special. I'm admittedly biased when I compare Stamford football to a random game between large faceless suburban schools, but it is such a different experience. The football may be inferior in quality, but the stakes feel so much deeper and more lasting.
Yes! Spurrier! Outside of fans of the Universities of Tennessee and Florida who used to be rather contentious over him, you might be the first person who's known that! And I'll always take inferior football with a heart over athletic prowess.
Enjoyed this. My grandad coached so high school football is part of our family. I love hearing about the different expressions of it. I’d love to hear more about Bulldogs games!
Thanks for sharing and commenting, Sam! Where did your granddad coach, Texas or elsewhere?
One day I will have to do a longer standalone essay on local high school football. I’ve had people visit from outside of Texas and tell us that it really resembled Friday Night Lights the TV show. Our fans don’t get everything right, but it is a point of pride to me, that, win, or lose, they show up for our team. That includes road trips. I have been to road games for mediocre Stamford teams and seen our fans outnumber the home fans handily.
He coached at Science Hill High School in Johnson City, Tennessee, where I also played. I've made some films with teams in the county where I live (I'm two hours down the road in Knoxville now). In smaller towns, the school, and the athletic teams connect the town in ways they don't in big towns and I love that. The connection and community are the beautiful parts, especially when the community's unique identity shows up in the songs, the colors, the cheers, and the traditions. Those things make me smile which is my selfish reason for wanting to hear a piece chock full of those details (and why I'm always going to games, even when I know no one on the team). Though you are absolutely right that there's powerful negativity there too. As with so many things: redeemable qualities and condemnable qualities.
Science Hill as in Steve Spurrier's alma mater? How cool! You hit on what I find so special. I'm admittedly biased when I compare Stamford football to a random game between large faceless suburban schools, but it is such a different experience. The football may be inferior in quality, but the stakes feel so much deeper and more lasting.
Yes! Spurrier! Outside of fans of the Universities of Tennessee and Florida who used to be rather contentious over him, you might be the first person who's known that! And I'll always take inferior football with a heart over athletic prowess.