DIANA – An artificial fog drifted across Eagle Stadium a week ago.
The third quarter was under way — New Diana versus Sabine, Friday night football — and long passes and the smaller players were lost as the smoky haze settled on the field.
“It’s just hanging, but it’ll blow out,” said Tobie Turner, the Sabine athletic booster club president.
He grinned sheepishly. The smoke was his doing. Following halftime, he’d gotten a little carried away with the fog machine that he sprays when the players are running onto the field, and now the fans in the bleachers could barely follow the action.
“If we’d just get a little breeze, it would dissipate,” he said.
The best-laid plans
Even when they can’t see the playing field, East Texans are crazy about their high school football. Players, coaches and boosters devote countless hours in the pursuit of Friday night glory. They sweat and bleed and pray for wins.
But try as they might, sometimes a plan goes up in smoke.
For every team with a storied tradition of district titles and deep playoff runs, there is a high school with a less heralded history and a reputation for losing. For every Kilgore Bulldog, there is a Sabine Cardinal.
The Sabine team has posted three winning seasons in the past 30 years – once in the 1980s, once in the 1990s, and in 2002.
Twenty times in the past three decades – two out of every three seasons – the Cardinals have failed to win more than two games.
It makes for a long 10-game season, and it’s a history of losing that is unmatched in East Texas.
“Everybody loves a winner, and everyone wants to be a part of winning,” said Jerry Baker, in his first year as head coach. “Sabine’s kids over the course of a few years have learned, doggone, it’s not so much about winning as it is about surviving, because they’ve taken so many blows and been through so many coaches.”
And yet, hundreds of Liberty City residents made the 30-mile drive to support their Cardinals when the team played New Diana a week ago. Not everybody in the stands was kin to a player, band member or cheerleader. The fans were there because they wanted to be.
Remnants of glory
The old coach from Sabine’s glory days sat off to himself at the Friday game. He chewed on a toothpick as he watched “our little kids” from a lawn chair he had unfolded on the running track near the end zone.
“Of course, I can’t talk much about losing,” said Lonnie Fenton, who retired in 1979 and still lives in Liberty City. “I coached out there for 13 years and never had a losing season.”
Fenton, 78, said the crowds were bigger when the team was winning.
“They’ve still got a good following. They haven’t given up,” he said. “I still follow them, and they’re pretty competitive. It will just take a certain group of kids to overcome the idea that you can’t beat somebody.”
The announcer’s opinion
Keith Wilkerson leaned against the chainlink fence, not far from the old coach in his lawn chair.
Wilkerson, Sabine’s home game announcer for 16 years, said Cardinals fans focus more on community involvement than wins and losses.
“I think a lot of people in the community are interested in what a coach teaches the kids, more than his win-loss record,” he said. “At the end of the day, how many of these kids are going to play in college, much less at the next level? The life lessons are a whole lot more important than wins and losses. At the same time, I know coaches live by their win-loss record.”
Over the years, he said, the lack of success has discouraged participation in the football program.
“But the kids always come and play four quarters, and they play hard to the end of each season,” he said. “I don’t think you can say it’s the coaches or a lack of interest. The community offers its support. It’s all been there. It’s just an odd thing.”
Wilkerson’s neighbor, Bud Florence, offered his two cents: “A lot of kids don’t want to put in the effort to get hammered every week,” he said.
Sabine’s academic record is strong, Wilkerson noted, and the marching band is precise.
“A lot of times we’ll say, well, at least we won halftime,” he said.
The fog clears
The haze that blanketed the field in Diana came courtesy of a new, unexpectedly potent can of “fog juice.” Turner and other boosters run a fog machine at games with the hope that it will infuse school spirit and Cardinal pride in the team.
The players run through an inflatable tunnel shaped like a cardinal’s head, then burst through the fog on their way to the sideline before each half.
“We are trying to come out of the cellar and into the limelight, and I want to do what I can to help the program come forward and start doing things right,” Turner said.
The Cardinals started strong against the Eagles, with help from a couple of New Diana turnovers. But by the early fourth quarter, the fog had lifted and the Cardinals found themselves in a three-touchdown hole.
“This is the bad part of the game,” Turner said. “We should be knuckling down and getting after it. We just seem to get too afraid to make mistakes. Seems like a lot of (the other team’s) big plays take the wind out of your sails, but it’s not for a lack of effort. The kids are putting in everything they can.”
Sabine lost, 38-20, but the fans took it in stride. It’s a rebuilding year.
Since the Cardinals dropped to Class 2A, there have been fewer blowouts, they note.
The Cardinals face White Oak tonight in the final game of the season. Moving forward, Coach Baker has been drawing up plans for offseason workouts, and boosters are expressing high hopes for next year – and the years to come.
“The future’s looking very good,” Turner said. “The JV is on a four-game winning streak. The eighth grade is undefeated, and they’re beating people pretty handily.”
9,667 responses to “Despite 30 years of losses, Sabine stays optimistic”
mehmet emre dinç
hairneva
ni?anta??
kandulu
ni?ana??
doktorkbb
dr basat
güncel öztürk
crabs
murad çeltik
Hi there! I just would like to give you a huge thumbs up for your excellent information you have right here on this post. I will be coming back to your blog for more soon.
One thing I’d really like to reply to is that weightloss routine fast may be accomplished by the right diet and exercise. A person’s size not just affects the look, but also the overall quality of life. Self-esteem, depression, health risks, as well as physical capabilities are afflicted in weight gain. It is possible to just make everything right but still gain. In such a circumstance, a problem may be the reason. While an excessive amount of food instead of enough exercising are usually the culprit, common medical conditions and widespread prescriptions can easily greatly amplify size. Thx for your post here.
With every little thing which seems to be building within this subject matter, all your viewpoints are actually fairly refreshing. However, I appologize, but I can not subscribe to your whole suggestion, all be it stimulating none the less. It looks to everyone that your remarks are not entirely justified and in reality you are generally your self not totally confident of the assertion. In any case I did appreciate reading through it.
After I initially left a comment I seem to have clicked on the -Notify me when new comments are added- checkbox and from now on each time a comment is added I get four emails with the exact same comment. Perhaps there is an easy method you can remove me from that service? Many thanks.
Howdy! I simply want to give you a huge thumbs up for your excellent info you have here on this post. I will be returning to your website for more soon.
I couldn’t refrain from commenting. Very well written.
Good post but I was wondering if you could write a litte more on this subject? I’d be very grateful if you could elaborate a little bit more. Thank you!
I do agree with all the ideas you’ve presented in your post. They’re really convincing and will definitely work. Still, the posts are too short for starters. Could you please extend them a little from next time? Thanks for the post.
Hi! I just want to offer you a huge thumbs up for the excellent information you’ve got right here on this post. I’ll be returning to your site for more soon.
Heya i’m for the first time here. I found this board and I find It really useful & it helped me out much. I hope to give something back and help others like you aided me.|
I was able to find good information from your content.
deniz küçükkaya
hairneva
kandulu
I want to to thank you for this great read!! I definitely loved every little bit of it. I have got you bookmarked to check out new things you post…
ni?ana??
dr basat
güncel öztürk
crabs
murad çeltik
I’m truly enjoying the design and layout of your
site. It’s a very easy on the eyes which
makes it much more enjoyable for me to come here and
visit more often. Did you hire out a designer to create your theme?
Outstanding work!
The learning crypto basics tools are wide token selection and reliable uptime. The dashboard gives a complete view of my holdings.
Hi, I do believe this is a great site. I stumbledupon it 😉 I’m going to revisit yet again since i have bookmarked it. Money and freedom is the greatest way to change, may you be rich and continue to help other people.
I savor, result in I found exactly what I was having a look for. You’ve ended my 4 day long hunt! God Bless you man. Have a great day. Bye
Thanks for discussing your ideas. I’d personally also like to mention that video games have been at any time evolving. Today’s technology and innovative developments have made it simpler to create realistic and interactive games. These types of entertainment games were not really sensible when the concept was being attempted. Just like other areas of know-how, video games too have had to evolve via many years. This itself is testimony towards the fast growth and development of video games.
I like what you guys are up also. Such smart work and reporting! Carry on the superb works guys I have incorporated you guys to my blogroll. I think it will improve the value of my site 🙂
Thank you for the sensible critique. Me and my neighbor were just preparing to do a little research about this. We got a grab a book from our area library but I think I learned more clear from this post. I am very glad to see such magnificent info being shared freely out there.
Hi, I do think this is a great website. I stumbledupon it 😉 I’m going to return yet again since I saved as a favorite it. Money and freedom is the greatest way to change, may you be rich and continue to guide other people.
I switched from another service because of the reliable uptime and wide token selection.
Greetings! Very useful advice in this particular article! It is the little changes that make the largest changes. Thanks for sharing!
I’ve been surfing online more than 3 hours today, yet I never found any interesting article like yours. It’s pretty worth enough for me. In my view, if all website owners and bloggers made good content as you did, the web will be a lot more useful than ever before.|
I was skeptical, but after a year of staking, the useful analytics convinced me.
Good article! We are linking to this particularly great content on our website. Keep up the good writing.
Thank you for the auspicious writeup. It in reality used to be a amusement account it. Glance complicated to far introduced agreeable from you! However, how can we keep in touch?|
This site was… how do I say it? Relevant!! Finally I have found something that helped me. Cheers.
Hi, i read your blog from time to time and i own a similar one and i was just wondering if you get a lot of spam remarks? If so how do you reduce it, any plugin or anything you can suggest? I get so much lately it’s driving me insane so any help is very much appreciated.
I do agree with all of the ideas you’ve presented in your post. They are very convincing and will certainly work. Still, the posts are very short for beginners. Could you please extend them a little from next time? Thanks for the post.
Hi there, I think your site might be having browser compatibility problems. Whenever I take a look at your web site in Safari, it looks fine however, when opening in I.E., it’s got some overlapping issues. I simply wanted to give you a quick heads up! Other than that, fantastic site.
porn
Everything is very open with a clear explanation of the issues. It was really informative. Your site is very helpful. Thank you for sharing!