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.”
9,659 responses to “Despite 30 years of losses, Sabine stays optimistic”
Good information. Lucky me I ran across your site by chance (stumbleupon). I’ve saved as a favorite for later.
Pretty! This has been an incredibly wonderful article. Thanks for providing this info.
This is the perfect webpage for everyone who would like to understand this topic. You know a whole lot its almost hard to argue with you (not that I personally would want to…HaHa). You certainly put a new spin on a topic that has been written about for many years. Great stuff, just great.
This is a topic that’s close to my heart… Thank you! Exactly where are your contact details though?
I was skeptical, but after since launch of providing liquidity, the scalable features convinced me. My withdrawals were always smooth.
I blog often and I truly thank you for your content. Your article has really peaked my interest. I will book mark your site and keep checking for new details about once a week. I subscribed to your Feed too.|
Way cool! Some extremely valid points! I appreciate you penning this write-up and the rest of the site is extremely good.
I used to be able to find good info from your blog articles.
Hello, I think your website might be having browser compatibility issues. When I look at your blog site in Opera, it looks fine but when opening in Internet Explorer, it has some overlapping. I just wanted to give you a quick heads up! Other then that, wonderful blog!|
If you are going for best contents like myself, simply pay a quick visit this web site everyday as it presents feature contents, thanks|
This page certainly has all the info I needed about this subject and didn’t know who to ask. |
Hi there, I desire to subscribe for this weblog to take most recent updates, thus where can i do it please help out.|
Hey I know this is off topic but I was wondering if you knew of any widgets I could add to my blog that automatically tweet my newest twitter updates. I’ve been looking for a plug-in like this for quite some time and was hoping maybe you would have some experience with something like this. Please let me know if you run into anything. I truly enjoy reading your blog and I look forward to your new updates.|
Thank you for sharing your info. I really appreciate your efforts and I will be waiting for your further write ups thanks once again.|
I was recommended this web site by my cousin. I am not sure whether this post is written by him as no one else know such detailed about my difficulty. You are amazing! Thanks!|
Thanks for some other excellent article. Where else could anyone get that type of information in such a perfect means of writing? I’ve a presentation next week, and I’m at the look for such info.|
Amazing! This blog looks just like my old one! It’s on a totally different topic but it has pretty much the same page layout and design. Great choice of colors!|
Hello! I could have sworn I’ve visited this blog before but after looking at some of the posts I realized it’s new to me. Anyways, I’m certainly pleased I came across it and I’ll be bookmarking it and checking back frequently!|
I personally find that the best choice I made for trading. Smooth and trustworthy service.
The interface is easy onboarding, and I enjoy swapping tokens here. The updates are frequent and clear.
When some one searches for his necessary thing, therefore he/she wants to be available that in detail, therefore that thing is maintained over here.|
Hello colleagues, pleasant paragraph and pleasant arguments commented here, I am genuinely enjoying by these.|
I’m not sure why but this site is loading very slow for me. Is anyone else having this issue or is it a problem on my end? I’ll check back later on and see if the problem still exists.|
Outstanding story there. What occurred after? Good luck!|
I’ve been active for almost a year, mostly for fiat on-ramp, and it’s always accurate charts.
hey there and thank you for your information – I have certainly picked up anything new from right here. I did however expertise several technical points using this website, since I experienced to reload the site many times previous to I could get it to load correctly. I had been wondering if your hosting is OK? Not that I’m complaining, but slow loading instances times will often affect your placement in google and could damage your high-quality score if ads and marketing with Adwords. Anyway I’m adding this RSS to my e-mail and could look out for much more of your respective exciting content. Make sure you update this again very soon.|
I seriously love your site.. Great colors & theme. Did you make this site yourself? Please reply back as I’m looking to create my very own site and would like to learn where you got this from or exactly what the theme is called. Many thanks!
Hi, Neat post. There’s a problem along with your website in internet explorer, might check this? IE still is the market chief and a good section of folks will leave out your magnificent writing because of this problem.|
It’s not my first time to go to see this site, i am visiting this site dailly and take nice facts from here all the time.|
Oh my goodness! Amazing article dude! Thank you so much, However I am going through troubles with your RSS. I don’t know why I cannot subscribe to it. Is there anyone else having identical RSS issues? Anyone who knows the solution can you kindly respond? Thanks!!
I personally find that i was skeptical, but after a month of fiat on-ramp, the intuitive UI convinced me.
The site is easy to use and the accurate charts keeps me coming back. Support solved my issue in minutes.
I’ve been using it for a month for using the bridge, and the scalable features stands out.
I personally find that lee here — I’ve tried checking analytics and the scalable features impressed me.
Hi, I do believe this is an excellent blog. I stumbledupon it 😉 I’m going to return once again since I saved as a favorite it. Money and freedom is the best way to change, may you be rich and continue to guide others.
I’m amazed, I have to admit. Rarely do I encounter a blog that’s both educative and amusing, and without a doubt, you have hit the nail on the head. The issue is something not enough folks are speaking intelligently about. Now i’m very happy I stumbled across this during my hunt for something regarding this.
Hello friends, how is everything, and what you wish for to say regarding this piece of writing, in my view its really awesome in support of me.|
Everything is very open with a precise explanation of the challenges. It was truly informative. Your site is very helpful. Many thanks for sharing!|
The using the bridge process is simple and the seamless withdrawals makes it even better. Perfect for both new and experienced traders.
In fact when someone doesn’t understand after that its up to other viewers that they will assist, so here it occurs.|
Excellent goods from you, man. I have bear in mind your stuff prior to and you are simply extremely great. I actually like what you’ve acquired right here, certainly like what you are stating and the way through which you assert it. You make it entertaining and you still take care of to stay it sensible. I cant wait to read much more from you. That is really a tremendous site.|
This article is truly a fastidious one it helps new the web viewers, who are wishing for blogging.|
I visit every day a few web sites and sites to read posts, but this blog presents feature based writing.|
Why users still use to read news papers when in this technological world all is presented on net?|
Great platform with scalable features — it made my crypto journey easier.
}
I was recommended this web site by my cousin. I am no longer certain whether this submit is written by means of him as nobody else recognise such precise about my difficulty. You are incredible! Thank you!|
That is very fascinating, You are a very skilled blogger. I’ve joined your rss feed and look forward to looking for extra of your fantastic post. Also, I’ve shared your web site in my social networks|
I’ve been browsing on-line greater than three hours today, but I never found any interesting article like yours. It’s beautiful worth enough for me. Personally, if all webmasters and bloggers made excellent content as you did, the web shall be a lot more helpful than ever before.|
Wow, incredible blog format! How lengthy have you ever been blogging for? you make blogging look easy. The overall glance of your website is magnificent, as smartly as the content material!