The Start

I have been contracted this fall to follow the fortunes of three long time dominant small high school football programs: Canadian, TX, McCook, NE and Linton, ND; as they strive towards the ultimate goal of any high school athlete: a state championship. I will need no GPS to find my way, as US Highway 83 passes through each town, a common main street, linking all three. Call it the ultimate road trip for a high school football junkie. I will traverse, back and forth, this road, the only non-interstate highway left in our federal transportation system that runs unimpeded from the Canadian to the Mexican border. Along its’ route I expect to find the “true” America- one of real people whose solid but common everyday lives never make the national news. I intend to record the human drama that is so unique, and so American, to small town high school athletics. This story will form the second leg in a three part trilogy of books I will write on high school football. I expect a 180 degree difference in environment along rural Highway 83 from what I found at inner-city Roosevelt High School in St. Louis, MO, the team whose season I chronicled in 2008, the first book of this three part story. (http://www.stlhsfb.com/). What I expect to be no different in Linton, ND, McCook, NB and Canadian, TX, from what I found in St. Louis, MO, is the passion of teenagers to succeed, and the unqualified support of their family and community in that noble quest. So, if you are looking for me this fall, I can be found somewhere on US Highway 83 between Antler, North Dakota and Laredo, Texas. Follow my blog and come along for the ride. (www.rollingdownhighway83.blogspot.com)