Greetings from West Texas! Trevor and I arrived here mid-day on Sunday, after a long day of travel. Southern California was a blast, and it was awesome getting to see De La Salle at its finest. They pretty much played a flawless game. Very few incomplete passes, very few penalties, no turnovers. Kudos to Missiob Viejo, who definitely came out fired up and played with a lot of heart. But the Spartans were just overwhelming on offense and smothering on defense.
Today we left our hotel in Odessa, Texas, to head to Midland (about 15 minutes away) to check in with the Midland Lee Rebels. Odessa Permian is more familiar to the casual or non-Texas football fan, because of the book-turned-movie, Friday Night Lights (which I checked out from Blockbuster down here and have pledged to watch before the game). However, Midland Lee is quite the storied program itself. They won three consecutive Texas 5A State Championships in 1998-2000, a remarkable feat that was later duplicated by Southlake Carroll. They were led in those years by Cedric Benson, who achieved legendary status down here, which was only augmented by his time at UT.
At the Rebels practice, we got to interact with several of the old-time Lee fans. One in particular, Jim Carter, was extremely informative, and seemed to know the team top to bottom. They appear to have a very active fan base, and a very generous booster club. Jim was nice enough to give us his copy of "Rebel Illustrated", the pre-season team publication with a host of information that will save me and Trevor lots of time. We definitely look forward to spending more time around them this week.
The players we spoke to all seem extremely excited for the Permian game. Lee is the undeniably the underdog this week, but you could never guess it from talking to the players. They believe in themselves, and believe in what they do. Texas high school football authority Randy Rodgers told me that the Rebels are such bitter rivals with Permian, that they'll fight them like a wounded dog. Powerful words, for sure, but they certainly appeared true today. The Rebels were practicing hard, with alot of intensity, amid intense heat (at least for me...apparently 88 degrees heat in October is "cool" for Texas). I think Friday will be a battle between bitter rivals...and I can't wait.
Tomorrow, we're heading to Odessa Permian, so check back then. Thanks to all the lovely Texas people who have been extremely friendly to us!~SS
