Tag Archives: friday night lights

Oklahoma Horizon TV

On the Horizon: On Being a Football Referree

As a sports mom, I’ve always had a tendency to either blame or yell at the refs on the field of play. But after doing this week’s story, I have a new found respect for those hard working men (and occasionally women). They are asked to make calls about things happening on the field that those of us in the stands can’t always see with a discerning eye and get upset about if the call is against our team. We get all uppity if we feel the call has been made wrong only we didn’t necessarily really see what happened. The refs on the other hand have a close up view of what is really going on. Now they might get a call wrong every now and then but they are much closer to getting it right than those of us in the stands and most of the time, don’t get upset back at us when we yell about something we didn’t like. So remember that the next time you get upset with a call made by a ref and maybe pause and think before you say something..

In this week’s video blog, I hope you will fall in love like I did with the two long-time friends who have been refs for many years and could possibly have even been a ref at one of your kids’ games.

Alisa Hines

Man Cave

Brighter Lights In A Small Town

3 Comments

The cast of characters in the hit TV drama, "Friday Night Lights." (courtesy popdose.com)

by Rob Loeber

Recently, I’ve developed an addiction to Friday Night Lights.

The TV drama is set in a small town in West Texas and centers on the life of the high school football coach, his family, and his players.  FNL has its share of soap opera moments and sometimes the storylines stretch the limits of believability, but the captivating thing about the show is how it truly captures life in a small town.  The entire community shuts down on Friday nights to watch its team take the field.  The players are celebrities and the coach is scrutinized for every single decision and play call he makes.  More than anything else, passion for the game of football and pride for the town, come pouring through the screen.

If you get away from the metropolitan areas and keep driving past the suburbs, you can still find the same kind of passion for high school football here in Oklahoma.  There are still sleepy little towns that come alive when the lights come on.

Beggs is one of those towns.  The community of 1,300 people features old houses, weathered trailers, and beat-up trucks driving down poorly paved roads that eventually lead you to the high school football stadium.

“We got a Dairy Queen, we got a stoplight, we got a convenience store, and we got football,” Beggs head coach Bob Craig told me as we stood in the middle of the football field.  “You should see this place on game days.”

Continue reading Brighter Lights In A Small Town →