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Great story about High School teams with connections to SB 43
Goot
Posts: 3,496
in Sports Talk
I was reading the USA Today sports section and found this story. I was able to see Pahokee play this year. It was two weeks after Norman Griffith was gunned down and they were on the road playing at a school in a neighbor city and luckily for me we had a bye week and I was able to attend the game. There was a ceremony at Halftime (remember, it was a road game for Pahokee) honoring Norman. Pahokee fittingly won 42-6. Griffith had offers from Iowa State, Ball State, and Buffalo to play football at the time of his death. Who knows what an amazing senior year could've done for other offers...
STATE ROUTE 715, Fla. — This road leads to towns where high school football means life — and last season, also death.
Vast Lake Okeechobee on one side, trees and crops on the other. The bright lights of the Super Bowl are three hours away. But two receivers got there from here.
Travel north on 715 to Pahokee High School, which produced Anquan Boldin for the Arizona Cardinals. And buried its team captain this season when he was gunned down hours after his homecoming game.
Go south to Glades Central in Belle Glade, which gave Santonio Holmes to the Pittsburgh Steelers. And had a linebacker and cornerback shot in separate incidents within a month.
The schools are 11 miles apart and together they have sent nearly 50 players to professional football, their programs as fertile as the black earth that produces the sugar and corn fields which shelter their towns from the outside world.
But not, apparently, outside problems.
Muck is what they call the dirt. "Her Soil is Her Fortune," declares the welcome sign to Belle Glade. When Pahokee and Glades Central play, it is called the Muck Bowl — and two towns with a combined population of 22,000 had 10,000 show up at the game last November.
'Fishing, faith and football'
Pahokee football coach Blaze Thompson on his hometown: "Out in the middle of nowhere, without the amenities most towns have. We're 30 miles to the closest theater.
"Not much out here to be proud of. We have fishing, faith and football. That's about what we do. And farming."
Glades Central coach Jessie Hester on his native Belle Glade: "It's kind of caught in a slight time warp. It's country. A bunch of mom and pop stores. Everybody knows everyone else.
"When I was growing up, I didn't realize we didn't have much, because that's all we knew."
They are friendly, tight-knit spiritual places. You can't find many fancy restaurants, but there seems a church on every corner.
Tragedy can rock places like this.
Football had nothing to do with the autumn's bloodshed. They were separate incidents, born of a violent time, where even 30 miles from the nearest theater, teens turn to gangs and guns.
Pahokee captain Norman Griffith was leaving a dance when teen-age gunmen tried to steal a necklace he was wearing. He was killed not 11 blocks from city hall.
Glades Central cornerback Byron Blake was grazed in the hand a few days before. Three weeks later, linebacker Robert Hardnett was hit by bullets aimed for someone else, and nearly died.
Life is not easy for many of their students. Football can be an escape, and both schools have walls lined with names that speak of success stories. But this season showed it is not foolproof.
Hester: "TV kind of takes these kids out of Belle Glade. Now they see what other people have and they don't have. That tends to cause problems."
Thompson: "These kids witness on daily basis things the average Joe doesn't witness.
"It wakes you up to what reality is. What reality is, is these kids are the most important things."
Friday night fury
Hester on football in Belle Glade: "I can remember growing up, the whole deal was to get out there on Friday nights. You'd be peeking through the fences watching those guys play. The pinnacle is getting out there Friday night. Whatever happens after that happens."
Thompson on football in Pahokee: "It's tangible to them. They've seen their cousins and their uncles and family members who have made it."
The fury of their rivalry has been passed through generations, to this very star-crossed year, when wariness over violence forced it to daylight, and metal detectors were at the gate.
Hester: "The pressure is knowing you have to win this game, because there ain't no other solution."
Thompson: "I would rather win the Muck Bowl and lose the state championship, than vice versa. Without a doubt. That's not even a question. I would rather beat my brother and lose to my neighbor than beat my neighbor and lose to my brother any day."
Pahokee won the Class 2B state title this season. But lost the Muck Bowl 19-14.
Now the Super Bowl has the towns on opposite sides again. Pahokee with Boldin's Cardinals. Belle Glade with Holmes' Steelers.
"The Super Muck Bowl," Hester called it.
"It's drawn battle lines," Thompson said. "We will feel a little bit exonerated if the Cardinals win."
In some ways, it has been a tough year at Holmes' alma mater. Tougher still at Boldin's.
A board is kept at Pahokee for each season that includes scores, names, scripture messages and college destinations.
For 2008, you can already read that one Blue Devil is destined for Michigan, another for Florida, another for North Carolina State.
Norman Griffith is included, and his future is written in one word.
Heaven.
LINK
STATE ROUTE 715, Fla. — This road leads to towns where high school football means life — and last season, also death.
Vast Lake Okeechobee on one side, trees and crops on the other. The bright lights of the Super Bowl are three hours away. But two receivers got there from here.
Travel north on 715 to Pahokee High School, which produced Anquan Boldin for the Arizona Cardinals. And buried its team captain this season when he was gunned down hours after his homecoming game.
Go south to Glades Central in Belle Glade, which gave Santonio Holmes to the Pittsburgh Steelers. And had a linebacker and cornerback shot in separate incidents within a month.
The schools are 11 miles apart and together they have sent nearly 50 players to professional football, their programs as fertile as the black earth that produces the sugar and corn fields which shelter their towns from the outside world.
But not, apparently, outside problems.
Muck is what they call the dirt. "Her Soil is Her Fortune," declares the welcome sign to Belle Glade. When Pahokee and Glades Central play, it is called the Muck Bowl — and two towns with a combined population of 22,000 had 10,000 show up at the game last November.
'Fishing, faith and football'
Pahokee football coach Blaze Thompson on his hometown: "Out in the middle of nowhere, without the amenities most towns have. We're 30 miles to the closest theater.
"Not much out here to be proud of. We have fishing, faith and football. That's about what we do. And farming."
Glades Central coach Jessie Hester on his native Belle Glade: "It's kind of caught in a slight time warp. It's country. A bunch of mom and pop stores. Everybody knows everyone else.
"When I was growing up, I didn't realize we didn't have much, because that's all we knew."
They are friendly, tight-knit spiritual places. You can't find many fancy restaurants, but there seems a church on every corner.
Tragedy can rock places like this.
Football had nothing to do with the autumn's bloodshed. They were separate incidents, born of a violent time, where even 30 miles from the nearest theater, teens turn to gangs and guns.
Pahokee captain Norman Griffith was leaving a dance when teen-age gunmen tried to steal a necklace he was wearing. He was killed not 11 blocks from city hall.
Glades Central cornerback Byron Blake was grazed in the hand a few days before. Three weeks later, linebacker Robert Hardnett was hit by bullets aimed for someone else, and nearly died.
Life is not easy for many of their students. Football can be an escape, and both schools have walls lined with names that speak of success stories. But this season showed it is not foolproof.
Hester: "TV kind of takes these kids out of Belle Glade. Now they see what other people have and they don't have. That tends to cause problems."
Thompson: "These kids witness on daily basis things the average Joe doesn't witness.
"It wakes you up to what reality is. What reality is, is these kids are the most important things."
Friday night fury
Hester on football in Belle Glade: "I can remember growing up, the whole deal was to get out there on Friday nights. You'd be peeking through the fences watching those guys play. The pinnacle is getting out there Friday night. Whatever happens after that happens."
Thompson on football in Pahokee: "It's tangible to them. They've seen their cousins and their uncles and family members who have made it."
The fury of their rivalry has been passed through generations, to this very star-crossed year, when wariness over violence forced it to daylight, and metal detectors were at the gate.
Hester: "The pressure is knowing you have to win this game, because there ain't no other solution."
Thompson: "I would rather win the Muck Bowl and lose the state championship, than vice versa. Without a doubt. That's not even a question. I would rather beat my brother and lose to my neighbor than beat my neighbor and lose to my brother any day."
Pahokee won the Class 2B state title this season. But lost the Muck Bowl 19-14.
Now the Super Bowl has the towns on opposite sides again. Pahokee with Boldin's Cardinals. Belle Glade with Holmes' Steelers.
"The Super Muck Bowl," Hester called it.
"It's drawn battle lines," Thompson said. "We will feel a little bit exonerated if the Cardinals win."
In some ways, it has been a tough year at Holmes' alma mater. Tougher still at Boldin's.
A board is kept at Pahokee for each season that includes scores, names, scripture messages and college destinations.
For 2008, you can already read that one Blue Devil is destined for Michigan, another for Florida, another for North Carolina State.
Norman Griffith is included, and his future is written in one word.
Heaven.
LINK
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Comments
final score,but I know there was a running clock in the 2nd half
J.R.
Needs'
1972 Football-9's high#'s
1965 Football-8's
1958 Topps FB-7-8