Thursday night lights...on Friday

Driving north out of Vernon, Texas on US 283, you can't help but be a bit surprised passing the Wilbarger County Airport amidst a sea of mesquite and wide-open plains. It's an airfield that supports the local crop dusters or air tractors as they are called in these parts. After passing that island of life, you drive back into the sea.

A full ten miles north of Vernon, you come to this little island (picture from Google):


Yes, that rectangle of green in the center is a football field of the six-man variety. Vernon fields a full-up eleven-man team. Folks on the ranches between Vernon and the Red River send their kids to Northside to attend school. They play six-man, and that's where we found ourselves last night.

I'll start out by telling you we lost. On the last play of the game. Crushing considering the kids had battled to a 19-19 tie until that point. Neither team dominated.

Here's what stirred my soul. Some of those kids played nearly every play of the game. Crunching hits you can hear in the stands. Heaving chests between plays as these young man attempt to cover the acres of turf. Heart. Sweat. Blood. Agony. They poured all they had into the game, battling the foe across the line.

And then...and then...this:


My son is in this picture, and I could not be more proud of what he gave of himself last night. More than that, I could not be more blessed that my son has a coach that seeks to honor God through football, that he plows the ferocity and passion of Christ into the boys as he trains boys to be men and not merely gridiron giants.

And then when all is said and done, Coach Tommy Sugg invites the other team to join them, win or lose, on the fifty yard line to honor and give glory to the God who has given us sport, the God who has given us life, and to thank Him for His protection of our sons on the field of friendly strife.

All of this, ten miles of Vernon, Texas, somewhere next to nowhere.

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(Full disclosure: The photo was taken the previous week after their battle against Denton Christian but the same scene took place last night in Northside, Texas, too.)