The town of Messina revolved their life around the football team, so they knew everything about anything that happened with the boys. Coach Eddie Rake was a thick headed individual who continuously pushed his players past their breaking point every day. Practices included the many players puking and the death of one after their daily bleacher run that the boys dreaded. Games included one breaking his hand, Rake becoming unconscious, and the team “just doing the impossible” of winning a State Championship with no coaches after being down 31-0 at halftime (Grisham 144). Like every person in Messina, Rake has two sides to him; the shrewd side and the compassionate side. Rake’s many personalities made each and every person in Messina have a different opinion of him. “The question is, ‘do I love Eddie Rake, or do I hate him (Grisham 223)?’” Coach Rake loved every one of his players, but he had a reputation to maintain which made people think differently about him. …show more content…
The first example that was provided in the book is when “the wrong kid died (Grisham 77).” His name was Scotty Reardon.
He was the wrong kid to die because his family was extremely wealthy. His family filed a lawsuit and afterwards, Rake was no longer the coach in the town of Messina. “An autopsy was done on Monday—a clear case of heatstroke. No preexisting conditions. No defects anywhere. A perfectly healthy fifteen-year-old leaves home at seven –thirty on a Sunday morning for a two hour torture secession, and he doesn’t come home(Grisham 77).” The town asked questions but Rake never had an answer. This shows his reputation that he thought he had to maintain. Nat said, “Rake suffered a lot from Scotty’s death and he had no one to turn to (Grisham 93).” The compassion that was shown during this event was when Rake “held Scotty’s head in his lap while they waited an eternity to hear a siren (Grisham
76).” The second example in the book was when Nat was “the first openly gay downtown merchant (Grisham 88).” The town thought they would catch AIDS if they went into his store. Rake showed his compassionate side by having his usual halftime talk with Nat. “He encouraged me to open this place, gave me the standard pep talk—have no fear, work harder than the other guy, never say die—(Grisham 91).” Rake was Nat’s first customer. In the mornings, he would come early because there wasn’t a crowd there to give him any grief. This is how Rake maintained his reputation and showed his shrewd side. The town of Messina started coming into Nat’s store when they heard that it was Rake’s favorite place to be. However, he showed his compassionate side again when Nat said, “my dad had less influence on me than Eddie Rake (Grisham 93).” Nat took it to heart when Rake told him, “Go live your life, son, some folks’ll hate you, some folks’ll love you, most folks haven’t make up their minds. It’s up to you (Grisham 95).” The third example in the book is when they “left it to Rake to have the final word (Grisham 217)” in the eulogy. In Rake’s eulogy, he apologized to Neely about the incident that happened in the locker room during the Championship game. “From the grave, Rake had apologized (Grisham 217)” and this is how he showed his compassionate side. The first time that Rake attempted to apologize was when Neely was in the hospital. That didn’t work because Neely didn’t accept the apology. Now, Rake waited until his death to announce the incident to the whole town and make an official apology to Neely. After he apologized in his eulogy and asked Neely to say one of his behalf, Neely “certainly couldn’t say anything bad about his Coach, not at this moment (Grisham 217).” He showed his shrewd side by keeping it from the town this long, but that is how Rake is. Rake, being the person he is, made people have many different opinions on him. He didn’t make some good choices, but he really did care about his football boys and he would do anything for them. Making the boys run bleachers for two hours on Sunday was not the right thing, but he did make the right decision for holding Scotty until help got there. He didn’t make the right decision with hiding from the town to be with Nat, but when the town found out, he didn’t stop coming. Hitting Neely wasn’t the right decision, but making the official apology was by far the right one. This book comes down to the decisions Rake made and how they effected the rest of his life. The decisions he made left everyone to think “do I live Eddie Rake, or do I hate him (Grisham 223)?”
He explains all his difficulties through his senior year in Cidal college, in South Carolina. His abusive parents, his teammates, his coach all which lead him to become a powerful person. His memoir about his basketball career and the affects he had amongst people caused him to have a magnificent book revealing the insides he had with his teammates. Don Conroy, his abusive father, wasn’t there to keep him going but only held him back from going too far. His coach and his father were people who brought him down into believing there is no good in the world. He had a rough time growing up , but he knew he had to keep proving them all wrong. Fighting through his troubles in life, Pat only did not become a great basketball player but a great writer. This memoir, remembering all the extravagant memories he had in college with his friends, yet he did have hard times but pushed through it. Not complaining he didn’t just push himself, but he also pushed his teammates into becoming something greater. In the end, he will forever remember all his fights and great memories he had with his special teammates at Cidal college, it led him into becoming a great leader at the end of
High school sports can have a tremendous effect on not only those who participate but the members of the community in which they participate. These effects can be positive, but they can also be negative. In the book Friday Night Lights, H.G. Bissinger shows that they are often negative in communities where high school sports “keep the town alive” due to the social pressure. In this way, Friday Night Lights gives insight into the effects of high school football being the backbone of a community, revealing that the fate of the individual football players are inadvertently determined by the actions of the townspeople.
Students should read this book in a high school English classroom because it demonstrates how relationships can be difficult, but teamwork can help to solve many issues. Hutch realized that it would not help his team to continue fighting with Darryl and by being mad at his father. He was able to take those difficult relationships and form them into positive outcomes and achieve his goal. After winning the championship game, “Hutch made his way through his teammates, and up through the stands and did something he had not done in a very long time: Hutch hugged his father. And his father hugged him back” (Lupica 243). This proves to students that if they continue to work hard and focus on a goal, they can achieve it by being a team player on and off the field.
The first personal traits that Coach Dale was forced to exhibit were his toughness and his assertiveness. On his first night in Hickory he met the men of town in the barbershop who were all willing to provide their experience and insight on the team and how to coach. Coach Dale had enough self confidence to know that none of these “insights” were going to help the Hickory team win basketball games and let them know they weren’t welcome by turning his back and walking out. Additionally, he was forced to demonstrate his toughness twice more on the first day of practice by telling the temporary coach, “Secondly, your days of coaching are over,” and then by standing up to the group of men after he dismissed Buddy from the team. These actions made no friends of the men; however, th...
“His mother, Dale, felt the same way, for football had become as important to her as it had to her son. She went to every practice, and on Thursday nights she always invited a bunch of the players over for lasagna. She had sobbed after the loss to Lee just as hard as Jerrod had, for she feared the season’s ending every bit as much as he did” (Bissinger 249). Bissinger is astounded by the need for the parents to push their children into sports. Bissinger also analyzes the theme of downfall through several characters.
Bissinger creates empathy in the reader by narrating the lives of once Permian heros. Charlie Billingsley, a Permian football player, “was somewhere at the top” while he was playing. It was hard for the football town of Odessa to forget “how that son of a bitch played the game in the late sixties”(80). While in Odessa, Permian players receive praise unmatched by even professional football. This unmatchable praise becomes something Permian players like Billingsley become accustomed to, and when he “found out that...you were a lot more expendable in college(80). This lack of appreciation that is equivalent to the one that they have received their whole life makes them go from “a hero one day to a broken down nobody the next”(81). With the realization of this reality, Billingsley becomes one of the many to spend life as a wastrel, living in his memory of playing for the Permian Panthers. The reader becomes empathetic towards how the once likely to succeed Billingsley, becomes another Odessan wastrel due to the over emphasis and extreme praise the Odessan football team receives. Bissinger does not stop with a classic riches to rags story to spur the reader’s empathy but talks about the effect the Odessan attitude toward football has on the health of its players. Just like in many parts of the world, in Odessa, sports equates to manliness and manliness equates to not showing signs of pain. Philip, an eighth grade boy aspiring to one day be a Permian Panther is lauded by his stepfather as he “broke his arm during the first demonstrative series of a game ...[but] managed to set it back in” and continued playing for the rest of the game. It is noted that Philip’s arm “swelled considerably, to the point the forearm pads...had to be cut off”(43). By adding details such as these, Bissinger
In Friday Night Lights we see the theory of functionalism not only in the team, but the town and its dream of solidarity through winning the state championship. In a small town, such as Odessa, Texas, high school football helps to keep the town together by keeping it alive. On Friday nights, when the flood lights turn on inside the Permian stadium the strength of Odessa seems dependent on what will occur in that football stadium. Businesses shut down; families and community come together within the constraints of this stadium to cheer their team onto victory. Thus during football season, litt...
In John Grisham’s, Bleachers, this fiction story takes us through a small town in Messina, Mississippi. Everyone who is anyone attends their local high school football games. Thousands of locals come to the Friday night football games to watch the Messina Spartans play each week. Bleachers takes place in a present time setting in which former players talk about past games. The legendary coach of the Messina Spartans is getting close to the end while the former players await his death. Former players from different years are sitting on the bleachers of Rake Field talking about past games and memories. Because this is a fiction story, none of the characters or events are real. There are characters in this book that could portray real people, because the things these characters go through are common in today's world. Characters like Neely Crenshaw, an all-American whose career ends up short with a career ending injury. Then there is Coach Eddie Rake, a coach that leaves a legacy in a small town by making an unbelievable winning streak during his prime years. Almost everyone who played for Coach Rake hated his guts. Fictional characters in this book are believable. Even events like a coach who hits their athlete, and starts a brawl seem believable. Although this book is fiction, the majority of the events and characters could exist and are believable.
The movie I decided to analyze was Remember the Titans. I examined the dilemmas and ethical choices that were displayed throughout the story. In the early 1970s, two schools in Alexandria Virginia integrate forming T.C. Williams High School. The Caucasian head coach of the Titans is replaced by an African American coach (Denzel Washington) from North Carolina, which causes a fury among white parents and students. Tensions arise quickly among the players and throughout the community when players of different races are forced together on the same football team. Coach Boone is a great example of a leader. He knows he faces a tough year of teaching his hated team. But, instead of listening to the hating town or administrators, Boone pushes his team to their limits and forces good relationships between players, regardless of race. His vision for the team involves getting the players concerned in what the team needs to become, and not what it is supposed to be; a waste. Boone is a convincing leader with a brutal, boot camp approach to coaching. He believes in making the players re-build themselves as a team. When Boone says, You will wear a jacket, shirt, and tie. If you don't have one buy one, can't afford one then borrow one from your old man, if you don't have an old man, then find a drunk, trade him for his. It showed that he was a handy Craftsman and wanted done what he wanted done no matter what it took.During training camp, Boone pairs black players with white players and instructs them to learn about each other. This idea is met with a lot of fighting, but black linebacker Julius Campbell and stubborn white All-American Gerry Bertier. It was difficult for the players to cope with the fact they had to play with and compete with ...
As a child, Almond was so in love with football until the accident that took place in 1978, doing the pre-season game, when the wide receiver for the New England Patriots name Stingley lost his balance, while lunging for a pass and got hit by Tatum, an Oakland Raiders. After getting hit really hard Stingley fell on the field. This whole scene was sad and it causes the audience to respond emotionally. For Example, when the team doctors rush on the field to rescue Darryl Stingley, he was not able to shake or move his body. Those who came to his rescue, begin to use reflex hammers on his knees while he lying down on the field. The longer Stingley lay on the ground the more embarrassed and guilty shame Tatum fan made of him. Even the fan knew that the interest or pleasure of American football was all about the feeling and excited of such hurt, damage transactions of football. On the other hand, Jack Tatum and his fan were happy and satisfy that he had caused damage and harm to Stingley while protecting the area or space to central his mystique position. His feeling and commitment to such played was flashy with
Abstract: High school football in the state of Texas has become out of control. The sport is no longer played for the sake of the school but rather has become a Friday night ritual to these small towns in Texas. The players are no longer just high school kids inter acting in school sports but have now become heroes to these small town communities. Communities simply no longer support their local high school team but rally in pride of their hometown rivalry against another team. School administrators and coaches no longer are teachers and mentors for the kids but are the equivalent to what in professional football are team owners and "real coaches". Parents have become agents and sacrifice their jobs and homes so that their child may play for the right team. Finally the fans, the fans have lost the sense that it is just a high school sport and changed the game to a level of professional sports. I plan to prove and show that for all these reasons Texas high school football has become out of control. It is no longer the game that it was originally meant to be.
Kouzes and Posner explain that to achieve the extraordinary, you have to be willing to do things that have never been done before (Kouzes & Posner, 2003). Demonstrating Practice 3, Challenge the Process, Coach Boone accepted the extraordinary task of being the first black football coach to integrate the coaching staff at formally all-white T.C. Williams High School. Coach Boone’s arrival and appointment to head coach was not well received and was rebuffed by several staff and team members. The white coaches threatened to quit and white players threatened to boycott the season. Both Coach Boone and Yoast knew that every decision that they made navigating their current situation would influence the constituents and communities they unofficially represented. They were either going to challenge the process and initiate change or they were going to fall back into the status quo of segregation. Throughout the season unique relationships emerged between the coaches and between Campbell and Bertier. Trust between the coaches grew with every win. Coach Yoast confronted unfair referees ensuring fair games and Coach Boone utilized Yoast’s strategy during crucial plays. The more games the team won, the more tolerate the community became to integration and social change.
Boone faces the challenge of being accepted by the community, encouraging them to work together rather than judging and persecuting one another. At that time in Alexandria, Virginia there was an active atmosphere of racial tension within the community between both the African American and Caucasian population. Boone, a black coach, faces the challenge of taking on a new position as head coach of the T.C Williams High School football team. This is fraught with conflict and peril however due to the opposition of those that do not and will not accept the integration of black and white students into mixed race schools. In a move by the school board coach Boone is now unknowingly threatened by the loss of his job if The Titans loose a match. If The Titans are to loose a match Coach Boone will not only loose his job, both himself and the community will loose the hope of ever having this system of integration work. Boone in an effort to be accepted by the community uses his work with the football team to support the system of integration by emphasizing that he is in fact a valued ...
The men in the town had set up a meeting in a barber shop to have a discussion about basketball with the new Coach Norman the men told Norman they needed Jimmy to play in order to win. Norman Dale did not care about who was on the team, it mattered how the players were playing together. Coach Norman went to go visit Jimmy, Coach Norman tells Jimmy a story when he was younger, he would do anything to win a game whether he hurt someone or pushed away someone to win a game. During the movie his perspective about winning had changed. While the team was playing against another team during the game, it did not matter if they were losing it mattered that they were working together. Another example, from the movie Hoosiers was when a player named Ollie had gotten fouled on he had to make the last winning points. Ollie was discouraged, he would not make the winning shot, he gained confidence in himself, so he shot the first shot and made it Ollie was so surprised that he made the first shot, he still had to make the second shot there was a suspense to make the last shot and he did the team was so happy Ollie made the team