This fall I was unexpectedly blessed when I was asked to cover the Hedley Owls Football Team. Actually, at the time I didn’t think covering the Owls would be such a blessing. Being a rookie sports writer, I didn’t quite realize how meaningful watching young men struggle through a football season, with its ups and downs and peaks and valleys, would become.
I’m sure that people following the Clarendon Broncos feel much the same way. In small town Texas, football serves as the town’s connective tissue. Following the team is similar to setting down at the dinner table for Sunday dinner, with a big platter of fried chicken and mashed potatoes. It’s almost a religious experience that is meant to be shared with everyone else in the community.
High school football also reflects the civic idea that the residents of Hedley (and Clarendon) should take care of their own and strive for excellence. The teams’ fans unconditionally support (sometimes a little too voraciously) their team through good times and bad.
Hedley’s coaches, head coach Darrell Wallace and assistant coach Garrett Bains, insisted that their players win and lose with dignity, and the players played with class. Coach Wallace, for his part, sometimes got a little carried away when he felt that his players were being unfairly treated, but his passion and the occasional “oops” that followed closely behind is more than justified. We must never forget that these are excellent young men who are putting their bodies on the line for each other, their school, and their community. Over zealously defending them is more a virtue than a fault.
Hedley is Donley County’s only six-man football team and ought to be supported by everyone in the county. They are, after all, our future. As many big city eastern newspapers like to point out, America’s young people are exceptional, clean-cut, and virtuous. I think that the young people from the rural, mostly empty parts of Texas are in many ways vastly superior to their city cousins.
As far as towns go, Hedley probably best aligns with the smaller communities. The Owls have fewer players to represent their school when they strap on their gear, and walk onto the grid iron and compete for football glory. Their hearts, on the other hand, are just as large, perhaps even larger in some instances, and they leave absolutely everything on the field.
As their season progressed, and as the Owls were slowly devastated by injuries to key players, it became apparent that they would not be able to compete as effectively as they could at full strength. Even though they were injured and unable to physically match up favorably with their opposition, they dug even deeper into themselves and exhibited the true grit that has come to define Texas and Texans. Watching these young men grow and compete was something to behold.
As they continue their journeys through life, they will experience joyous highs and terrible lows. The strength of character they exhibited this season will sustain and carry them successfully thorough life – in its fullness – with a little help from their friends and families, their communities, and their faith.
The Owl’s senior class: Nicco Bennett, Tanner Chambless, Andy Munoz Aizaga, Bryan Evans, Brandon Evans, Coltin Kingston, Austin Adams, and Caden Farris have played their last down for Hedley. They exhibited the character and determination that form the foundation of America’s future greatness. These Owls have no quit in them.
Next year’s team will be something to behold too, with the likes of Hedley’s own Lone Ranger, Klaiton Moore (better known as Rooster), carrying the pigskin for the Owls.
We (Donley County residents) are truly blessed to have two fine high school football teams to follow and root for. They represent the essence of much that is pure and good in our society. Let’s not lose sight to that while we count our blessings. Our young people, football players or not, are our strength. We can do better for them.
They do, after all, do us proud.
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