Hometown Heroes: A Cross-Country Road Trip into the Heart of High School Football

By: Theron Hopkins

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Synopsis: Author Theron Hopkins travels from sweltering summer practices to heated crosstown rivalry matchups to one of the biggest games in the country, the Texas 5A state title game, held in San Antonio’s Alamodome, witnessing thrilling wins and devastating losses along the way. Hitting twenty towns in twenty weeks, this story showcases a cross section of America seen through football, from Great Falls, Montana, where the coach borrows five hundred dollars in his own name to purchase weight-training equipment for his team, and builds them up to championship caliber; to Waldport, Oregon, where the varsity squad is just fourteen boys strong and gearing up to take on one of the toughest teams in the conference; to Massillon, Ohio, where high school football is so important that the president of the booster club puts a tiny orange football into every baby boy’s crib in the hospital. But the author also finds that the wins or losses on Friday nights are only part--and maybe not even the best part--of what makes the game so irresistible and so important to all those people who watch it, coach it, and play it. Night after night, all across America, the story uncovers the true heart and soul of high school football.