ESPN & Texas Football

ESPN has been touring the country, seeing different sporting events in different states every day. Today is ESPN's stop in Texas. And, of course, they must stop in the mecca of high school football- Odessa. That's right- my hometown.

Let me tell you about Odessa. I don't feel it's much different than Dallas. It feels faster in Dallas, but as for the people, very comparable. I think Odessa gets a bad rap because all that people see is from I-20. Explore the place- you'd be surprised! Odessa (at least the Odessa I grew up in) wasn't all hick and nowheresville like some people think. Then again, I have a different view of Odessa.

My parents both work in the school district- my dad was a football/basketball coach at Bonham Jr. High (feeder for Permian) for many years as well as a history teacher. He's been an assistant principal now for 12 years. My mom has been a biology teacher at Bowie Jr. High for 16 years. This made it easy for me as they got me into all the best schools. Even at Bowie, while the majority was hispanic, you couldn't tell from our advanced "AAP" classes. They tried to get all the rich white kids over to the west side of town. It was basically a Highland Park school inside an Irving. That was the environment I went to school in.

Not many of my friends (if any) were "west texas hicks" like you would think. Those are more up near Lubbock. Odessa didn't have all the ranchers/farmers etc. as it was oil land. Of course there were some, mainly in west west Odessa, but I lived on the east side, in a country club, along with others like me. Maybe that's why it feels so much like Dallas. Driving the streets in Lake Highlands, it reminds me a lot of home. This was my home since 5th grade. (No, it's not a ranch!)

So, back to the story. ESPN is in Odessa and it'll be on SportsCenter tonight and tomorrow morning. They'll be taping Permian's practice at Ratliff Stadium (which is probably the first time they've ever practiced there). So, even though I didn't go to Permian, I'll still be tuning in.

To satisfy your ratliff stadium fix - Try this, this, and this!

Also, next Saturday, the 27th of August, is the High School football kickoff!! In Abilene Midland Lee is facing all-world Southlake Carroll. We saw Abilene High almost vanquish the dragons (SLC) last year in the playoffs. Perhaps a very good Lee team can get it done. This game will be on UPN in Dallas I believe at 2 pm. It will also be shown across the state.

Let's get ready for some football!