Now imagine what it would mean for hundreds of people to suddenly believe in you." Imagine if everybody had pretty much given up on you.
One Faith player walked into Hogan's office and asked, "Coach, why are we doing this?"Īnd Hogan said, "Imagine if you didn't have a home life.
"You are just as valuable as any other person on planet Earth." "Here's the message I want you to send:" Hogan wrote. What if half of our fans-for one night only-cheered for the other team? He sent out an email asking the Faithful to do just that. Gainesville has a lot of kids with convictions for drugs, assault and robbery-many of whose families had disowned them-wearing seven-year-old shoulder pads and ancient helmets. Faith has 70 kids, 11 coaches, the latest equipment and involved parents. After all, Faith was 7-2 going into the game, Gainesville 0-8 with 2 TDs all year. Faith had never played Gainesville, but he already knew the score. This all started when Faith's head coach, Kris Hogan, wanted to do something kind for the Gainesville team. That's because Gainesville is a maximum-security correctional facility 75 miles north of Dallas. They lined the players up in groups of five-handcuffs ready in their back pockets-and marched them to the team bus. Gotta be the first Gatorade bath in history for an 0-9 coach.īut then you saw the 12 uniformed officers escorting the 14 Gainesville players off the field and two and two started to make four.
But they wanted us to!"Īnd even though Faith walloped them 33-14, the Gainesville kids were so happy that after the game they gave head coach Mark Williams a sideline squirt-bottle shower like he'd just won state. "I wouldn't expect another parent to tell somebody to hit their kids. "I never in my life thought I'd hear people cheering for us to hit their kids," recalls Gainesville's QB and middle linebacker, Isaiah. More than 200 Faith fans sat on the Gainesville side and kept cheering the Gainesville players on-by name. It was rivers running uphill and cats petting dogs. It said, "Go Tornadoes!" Which is also weird, because Faith is the Lions. They even made a banner for players to crash through at the end. For instance, when Gainesville came out to take the field, the Faith fans made a 40-yard spirit line for them to run through.ĭid you hear that? The other team's fans? Gainesville State School and everything about it was upside down. “Our depth was able to get out there and I’d say that’s huge for us tonight.They played the oddest game in high school football history last month down in Grapevine, Texas. “I feel really good about that portion of the evening,” Whittemore said.
With a comfortable lead over the Hurricanes, Whittemore looked to his reserves to polish off the game.īuchholz’s second-string offensive line played the entire second half, while a handful of other second-stringers rotated in and out of the game.Įach of the Bobcats’ pair of relief quarterbacks, sophomore Collins Dunmore and freshman Trace Johnson, piloted scoring drives with Dunmore tallying an 8-yard rushing touchdown and Johnson, who is the son of former Florida Gators quarterback Doug Johnson, firing an 11-yard touchdown. So we were able to play inside of the scheme, do what we do and not try to create something magical.” Young Bobcats get valuable snaps in blowout That means we’re playing outside of ourselves. “And really not get wrapped up in what we might be able to do. “We needed to stay focused and thorough and really be task oriented,” Whittemore said.
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