Tepper: In 2021, let's learn to fall in love with Texas high school football again

Photo by Tim Huchton

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Here’s a weird question: did the 2020 Texas high school football season happen?

I mean, of course it happened. Of course it happened. We crowned champions, after all — Austin Westlake and Katy and Denton Ryan and Aledo and Argyle and Carthage and Jim Ned and Canadian and Shiner and Windthorst and Sterling City and Balmorhea won’t and should not apologize for the trophies that sit in their cases. Of course it happened.

But I would bet that some — maybe many! — Texas high school football fans don’t feel that way. Perhaps you checked out last year, spending your time not on a strange, stilted and often uneasy football season but instead on The News. I don’t need to explain what “The News” is. You know.

And to be clear: I’m not here to shame you if you checked out last season. I get it. To be entirely honest, there were moments where I — me! Your favorite Texas high school football junkie! — felt like taking the off-ramp and focusing on what felt like more pressing matters.

But here we are, on the precipice of another Texas high school football season, ready to plunge into the sport that has come to define this state. In many ways, the 2021 season will be a lesson in how to re-fall in love with a sport.

Because here’s the dirty secret that everyone’s thinking and nobody’s saying: the 2020 Texas high school football season wasn’t very fun. We can sit here and pretend that it was all sunshine and daffodils, but the truth of the matter is that it was played under a dark cloud. Whether it was the staggered season or the consistent cancellations or the looming threat of an unseen menace, the season always felt off. We made it to the finish line, by hook or by crook, but with it in the rearview mirror, very few people will list 2020 as their all-time favorite season.

It’s a season that — for most — is better left forgotten. A strange footnote in the sport’s history. The kind of sepia-toned memory that, when resurrected, sparks the question: did that really happen?

So, what are we left with in the aftermath?

The 2021 Texas high school football season won’t be 2020, but it also won’t be 2019. There will be cancellations and the continued effects of the COVID-19 pandemic — an enemy whose departure we should all hasten by rolling up our sleeves — but it shouldn’t be as severe as it was in that did-it-happen 2020. There will be fewer crowd limitations, and there will be fewer masks, and there will be more cheers and less wringing of hands this season. Not back to normal, but closer to it.

That semblance of normalcy should provide us an opportunity to celebrate what makes Texas high school football so special. The crowds will be a little louder. The bands will be a little more boisterous. The cheerleaders will be a little cheerier. Texas high school football won’t be fully back because it can’t be until we fully stamp out this ghoul, but it’ll be a lot closer to back than it has been.

And just in time, too. There are players you have to see to believe, from Tavorus Jones in El Paso to DJ Allen in Gladewater, from Major Everhart in Amarillo to Isaac Gonzalez in Pharr. There’s teams that will absolutely blow you away, like the Carthages and Aledos and Katys and Brennans. There’s spectacular plays to be watched. There’s gutsy decisions to be made and debated in diners. There’s bands to be heard and by God, there’s football to be played.

Last year was a challenge; it’s OK to admit it. And there’s no guarantee that this year won’t have some residual challenges. But Texas high school football has stared down challenges before and grown stronger in their wake.

This season won’t be perfect, but it’ll be ours. And we’ll know damn well that it happened, because it'll be etched on our hearts.

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