Prairie Blitz: High School Football on America's 50 Yard Line

THE ULTIMATE ROAD TRIP FOR A HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL JUNKIE

You know you are coaching football at small high school IF you measure the quality of your victories against fast food franchises. Dan Imdieke, coach of the Linton, North Dakota Lions has compiled a 33 year record of 288-67. Last fall (2010), Linton traveled south to play the squad representing the much larger town of Mobridge, SD. Overcoming a two touchdown deficit in the 4th quarter, the Lions rallied for a 34-28 win. One excited Lion player informed the coach after the game that "they (Mobridge) have a McDonald's AND a Pizza Hut. We have beaten a lot of Dairy Queen towns, but never a McDonald's or a Pizza Hut, and they have both!!"



In 2011 I followed the fortunes of three long time dominant small high school football programs: Canadian, TX, McCook, NE and Linton, ND; as they strove towards the ultimate goal of any high school athlete: a state championship.



I wanted a random choice of towns, so I chose Highway 83 as my anchor. I will need no GPS to find my way on this journey, 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. Highway 83 is the last 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. This edition of small town highway school football should be on the book shelves by June 2012. 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. (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. 

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THREE SMALL TOWNS, THREE BIG DREAMS

Almany spent the 2011 fall following the fortunes of three long time small town high school football powers: Linton, North Dakota; McCook, Nebraska and Canadian, Texas. All three towns are located on US Highway 83, America’s 50 yard line. The book chronicles not only the season’s wins and losses on the scoreboard, but also the joys and the heartbreak of each of the three schools, highlighting the drama involved in this unique slice of Americana: the love affair small towns have with their teenage football heroes.

Along the trail Almany chronicled characters with “backbones as strong as a North Dakota winter prairie wind, enough courage to fill a Nebraska bushel basket of corn and loyalty as straight and true as the spine of a Texas Panhandle cowboy.”

Come along for this 25,000 mile wandering on the back roads of the heartland to see the pure side of the game that still exists in the small burgs on the High Plains. You will find none of the toxic mercenariest behavior that has soiled any last pretense that big time college football is a noble activity for true student-athletes. It is refreshing to see that this negativity has yet to infest the small town football worlds of Linton, ND, McCook, NE or Canadian, TX. That alone, makes this a spirit lifting story that needs to be told. 

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In the Most Unexpected Places


Traveling the back roads of America, as I like to do, I have seen some head turning, out of place commercial establishments that defy all business logic. I once saw a store front sign for deep sea diving outfitter in the desert town of Ely, NV. Another time I did a double take as

I drove past a Quonset Hutt in the absolute middle of nowhere, not a house for miles around, in the South Dakota Badlands, where a large sign announced that the rusting military surplus building before me hosted a “Gymnastics Academy.”


In many ways I applaud the individuals who opened and operated these businesses. I doubt they were making any money, but I suspect both were run by strong minded individuals who didn’t care what conventional business wisdom said. I wish now I would have taken the time to stop and meet them. Independent entrepreneur risk takers are what have made the USA the envy of the capitalistic world.

To contact the Author, please call 636-232-4688