SPORTS
Friday Night Lights lost me with the “Mud Bowl” episode
The “Friday Night Lights” television show is now remembered as one of the most beloved series from the mid 2000s.
An extension from the 2004 movie that was adapted from the 1990 book written by Buzz Bissinger, it dramatized the various storylines of people in the fictional Texas town of Dillon centered on the high school football team.
Head Coach Erick Taylor and his wife Tami led his Panthers players both on the field and off through their various life problems during five seasons.
Despite struggling with ratings while it was airing, it was one of those shows that everyone who did watch did not just like but love, including critics as it was nominated for every award show in existence.
As the 2010s saw streaming services revolutionize the way people watch television, many have now seen the show through one of these services years after its last season aired in 2011.
With the series centering around not just high school football, but specifically Texas high school football, I figured it was my obligation to give it a shot in high school since I had never heard a bad thing said about it.
I admit the first season wrapped me up in the ride of the Dillon Panthers and the various storylines, but some second season storylines had me rolling my eyes and put a stop to me wanting to continue to watch the series.
Only when thinking back at some of the earlier plot points in season one did I realize the show was just too dumbly unrealistic the whole time and I just never noticed.
I realize every great television show is full of unrealistic things people look past all the time. Only on television can a character go from one major plot line to the next and not have a mental breakdown.
While some real people live hard or eventful lives, go look up your favorite television character’s biography and wonder how they are so relatable after going through all that.
I can suspend my disbelief most of the time, but when it comes to sports I know too much to just turn off my brain sometimes.
The Dillon team needs to win one more game to make it to the state title game.
In real life, athletic directors at both schools negotiate the site of each playoff game. Usually both want the game be as equal a distance drive for each school as possible, but also taking into affect what school district stadiums will be open to hosting the game and how much they will cost.
“It is all about negotiation,” Bowie Athletic Director Cory Mandrell said. “Some coaches are real laid back about it and some are a pain in the butt about certain things.”
The only home field advantage is one that is agreed upon, but usually does not happen and certainly not in the state semifinals.
In the show, Coach Eric Taylor is determined to keep his home field advantage. A wrench is thrown into that at the beginning of the episode 20 called, “The Mud Bowl.” A train not only derails but explodes near the school. Get this, the train was carrying vaguely dangerous chemicals.
School officials say the school grounds will have to be empty for at least a week, which means the Panthers will not be able to play in their home stadium. No mention on how the kids will continue to have lessons that week though. That’s not important.
Playing the Brant Vikings, the fictional Brant must not be too far from Dillon because the coaches meet in person at a proposed stadium. While it is not Brant’s stadium, Coach Taylor accuses the other coach of having ties to the stadium that might give him an advantage somehow.
In desperation, he sees a plot of farm land with someone’s cows on it is available for lease in Dillon and gets to work with his team making it a football field. When Brant’s coach objects, Taylor gets officials to sign off by reading vague rules that it meets field expectations and goads him into agreeing by saying the field conditions will not matter.
I argue it apparently does if you went to the trouble of going through the logistical nightmare of constructing a makeshift field, stands and lights on a cow pasture.
The field factors in another way because all of a sudden it starts raining hard and does not let up until the end of the game. The grass field becomes a mudpit.
I think the whole reason for this episode was the camera crew really wanted to film one of these types of games in all of its glory. It delivers as the players uniforms turn brown and the players slip and slide all around.
The final score is predictably low as the Panthers win on the final play of the game as quarterback Saracen dives into the end zone to make it 14-8.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.
Prairie Valley
The Prairie Valley Bulldogs had a good final non-district warm-up on Friday at home against Ector.
The Eagles beat the Bulldogs 69-63 in a game where Prairie Valley was trying to play catch up all the way through.
The Bulldogs were coming off a tough tournament at Electra the previous week to try and knock the holiday rust off. Prairie Valley was familiar with Ector, having played the team to start its season back in early November and was hoping to compete better than it did in that first game.
The Eagles came out firing, splashing five 3-pointers, including several deep ones, to go out to a 21-8 lead in the first quarter. Even with the Bulldogs changing out of their preferred zone defense, the 3-pointers continued a bit and opened things up inside the arc.
Thankfully, Prairie Valley’s offense came alive in the second quarter, scoring 18 points and cutting the lead down to 38-26 at halftime.
The third quarter was more of the same, though a different player for Ector started to get hot from beyond the arc. Even as the Bulldogs were able to keep up their offensive production from the second quarter, they could not break through and cut the game to single-digits, trailing 54-42 heading into the final period.
The fourth quarter saw Prairie Valley break through to cut it the lead to single-digits, but just not close enough. Every time the Bulldogs were on the cusp of making it a one or two basket game, the Eagles would make a shot to keep that distance.
In the end, the final score was the closest Prairie Valley got as Ector won 69-63.
Nocona
The Nocona Indians bounced back with a competitive district win at Petrolia on Friday.
The Indians won 60-53 against the Pirates in a game where the middle quarters took drastic swings in momentum.
Nocona was coming off its first district loss against Windthorst as the team sat a 1-1 district record.
Petrolia came into the game at 0-1, but had a bit more time to prepare for the game.
The first quarter was competitive, but the Indians were able to get to the free throw line at will and led 16-11.
Then Nocona’s pressure defense turned up its intensity in the second quarter.
“Our pressure seemed to disrupt them and we were able to get out in transition after forcing turnovers,” Coach Brody Wilson said.
Nocona scored 25 points and led 41-25 at halftime.
Unfortunately, that intensity did not keep up at the start of the third quarter for Nocona.
The Indians took their foot off the gas a little bit which allowed Petrolia’s offense to get back into the game and make up some of the deficit.
The Pirates outscored Nocona 15-7 and trailed only 48-40 heading into the final period.
Thankfully, the Indians bounced back and competed a bit better in the fourth quarter. Nocona was able to keep offensive pace to keep Petrolia at a bit of a distance instead of making it a one score game.
The Indians held on to win 60-53.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekly Bowie News.
For more pictures from the Prairie Valley game, click here https://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=bnews1&AID=6871971&T=1
Saint Jo vs Prairie Valley
The Saint Jo Lady Panthers opened up district play on Friday at Prairie Valley in their bid to repeat as district champs.
The Lady Panthers got off on the right start, beating an undermanned Lady Bulldogs team 60-6.
Saint Jo came into the game confident after a good run at the Caprock Classic tournament in Lubbock after the holiday break. With four starters back from last year’s team that went 11-1 on its way to a district title, nothing has deterred the Lady Panthers from being favorites to repeat this season.
For Prairie Valley, there was worry it might not have enough players to field a team following a successful volleyball season. Thankfully, the Lady Bulldogs have fielded seven players most of this season, but it has been tough during their pre-district schedule.
Prairie Valley was coming into the game off a win in its previous game against Christ Academy, but that was all the way back on Dec. 20 before the holidays.
Saint Jo came out in its full-court press and harassed the Lady Bulldogs from the jump. Every time Prairie Valley advanced the ball past halfcourt and got a shot up was a win with how voracious the Lady Panthers defense was.
It fed directly into Saint Jo’s offense, with the Lady Panthers trying quick hitting drives or post ups near the rim or jacking up 3-point shots.
The first quarter was the most competitive of the game with Saint Jo up 16-4. Even as Saint Jo eventually pulled its press defense back to halfcourt and eventually no press defense, the team is used to playing one way which is hard and physical on defense which leads to turnovers and pushing the ball in transition.
That wore on the Prairie Valley team as the game went on as few players got any rest besides during timeouts and quarter breaks.
That put an end to the Lady Bulldogs scoring after making two free throws in the second quarter. Even as Saint Jo emptied its bench, Prairie Valley players were just trying to survive by the end of the game.
The Lady Panthers won 60-6.
Nocona
The Nocona Lady Indians won another district game on Friday in blowout fashion against Petrolia.
The Lady Indians scored a season high, breaking the century mark as they won 104-26 against the Lady Pirates.
Nocona came into the game confident, having last lost a district game back in 2019 and having won its first four district games by an average of 53 points. This game proved to be the most one-sided so far.
The Lady Indians scored 33 points in both the first and second quarters. The second half saw Nocona cool down only to scoring 20 and 18 points in the third and fourth quarters.
Few teams could have kept up, let alone Petrolia as the Lady Indians won 104-26.
Bellevue
The Bellevue Lady Eagles started district on a good note with a win at Midway on Friday.
The Lady Eagles won 68-40 against the Lady Falcons thanks to a strong first quarter.
Bellevue comes into district play hoping to improve on last year’s fourth place finish. While a few expected starters are out, the team has had a full pre-district schedule playing with a stable lineup to get ready for it as well as getting used to new Coach Celsey Hoffman.
The first quarter saw the Lady Eagles come out swinging offensively. Mostly just from attacking the basket and using a team first approach, Bellevue put up 29 points in the first quarter, with seven different players contributing.
The Lady Eagles led 29-12.
Playing with a huge lead allowed Bellevue to survive some of the eventual lulls that came as few high school teams can continually score at a pace like that. Midway actually outscored the Lady Eagles in the second quarter, but only by one point as Bellevue led 42-26 at halftime.
The third quarter saw the Lady Eagles play their most complete stretch of the game, limiting the Lady Falcons to only five points while scoring 17 points to extend their lead.
The fourth quarter was low-scoring and even as Bellevue won 68-40.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekly edition of the Bowie News.
For more pictures from the Saint Jo versus Prairie Valley game, click here https://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=bnews1&AID=6871972&T=1
Bowie boys
The Bowie Jackrabbits can’t catch a break in district as they lost another close game, this time at Holliday on Friday.
The Eagles won 59-57 in overtime against the Jackrabbits as Bowie made a second half push that gave it a chance.
The Jackrabbits were coming into the game 0-2 in district, losing earlier in the week to City View by three points and to Jacksboro before the holiday break by two points.
The first half saw Bowie’s offense struggle, scoring six points in the first quarter and eight in the second quarter. Holliday scored in the double-digits in both quarters led 27-14 at halftime as the team looked in control of the game.
The Jackrabbits came alive offensively in the second half. Bowie scored 18 points in the third quarter, with six different players scoring and the team making three 3-pointers after only making one in the first half.
While defensively the Jackrabbits did not shut down the Eagles, the team cut the lead to single-digits, trailing 39-32 heading into the fourth quarter.
From there, Bowie grinded away at the lead, with Rayder Mann and Bradly Horton combining to score 15 of the team’s 17 points in the quarter.
It was just enough to tie the score up at the end of regulation 49-49 and send the game into overtime.
In the extra period, the Jackrabbits scored at a good pace in the shortened time, with three players scoring eight points. Unfortunately, Holliday saw Jayden Whitley, who had scored only six points during regulation, explode to score nine of his team’s 10 points during overtime.
It was just enough to give the Eagles the win 59-57.
Bowie girls
The Bowie Lady Rabbits lost a low-scoring, closely contested game at Holliday on Friday.
The Eagles won the game by one basket 31-28 in a game where every point mattered in the defensive struggle.
Bowie came into the game following its first district loss of the season against City View in which the team had struggled to score and lost by 11 points against the Lady Mustangs. Before that the Lady Rabbits had picked up solid wins against Iowa Park and Jacksboro.
Bowie did not start the game great on a good note. The Lady Rabbits continued to struggle to score, making only one basket in the first quarter. Thankfully, the defense had not allowed Holliday to run away with it as Bowie trailed 10-2.
The Lady Rabbits offense found some things that worked in the second quarter, with four different players scoring two points as they scored 10 points. Bowie trailed only 18-12 at halftime.
Neither team were able to find offensive answers in the third quarter. The Lady Rabbits again only scored on one made basket. Thankfully, their defense did not allow Holliday to grow its lead much. The Lady Eagles outscored Bowie only 6-3 as the score was 24-15 heading into the fourth quarter.
The Lady Rabbits easily had their best offensive quarter of the game, nearly outscoring their three quarter total with 13 points from four players scoring.
Bowie got some luck from Holliday not shooting well from the free throw line in the fourth quarter. The Lady Eagles went 3-12 from the free throw line which allowed the Lady Rabbits a chance.
Unfortunately, those three free throw makes proved to be all the difference as Holliday held on to win 31-28.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekly edition of the Bowie News.
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