Answer:
The story begins in the middle of August 1988, just before the football season begins. Inside the field house is a picture of each player who had made All-State during the last 29 years. They hang immortalized in a picture frame, a reminder of what glory looks like. The field house is also draped in Permian white and black with various nostalgic items carefully placed. To the people of Odessa, this field house holds more significance than any museum or cultural landmark. Odessa Texas was settled in the 1880’s by a group of men from Zanesville, Ohio. They had lofty dreams of turning Odessa into a destination town complete with electric trolley cars. Unfortunately the land was useless to farm and risky to even raise livestock. Odessa’s future would not be realized until oil and gas deposits were found beneath its desert-like fields. Consequently Odessa became an oil town subject to the boom and bust periods of the international energy economy. Odessa is colloquially described as the “arm pit of Texas,” with the atmosphere of “a place rooted in the sweet nostalgia of the fifties” (64). Whatever Odessa lacks in wealth or amenities, it always has high school football. Expectations were always high that the team would make the state championship. Coach Gaines realizes what the town expects of him and his team, but he also knows that nothing is a sure thing in the crazy world of American high school football.