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.”