Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

With statewide victories by tennis teams at LaGrange High School and LaGrange Academy, as well as that epic victory at state by Troup High in baseball, it shows another good reason why this town is extra-special. And there’s also LC sports. How did local athletics get so good?

Growing up in El Paso, our city had the reputation of not being great at high school sports. Whoever battled their way through the city championships, our sports had the big schools of Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Austin to contend with, as well as their rich suburbs. Most times our schools wouldn’t even get near the finals. I know everyone loves the seemingly plucky little schools at Odessa Permian and Midland Lee from the movie “Friday Night Lights,” but those teams beat up on El Paso schools in football by 50-60 points.

Working for the El Paso Herald-Post in sports, I just got used to the notion of school failure at the state level. Success was for another city or region, it seemed.

Moving here in 2001, I started following local sports. Imagine my surprise when LHS won the state championship in football and then repeated in 2003. Wow! That had never happened to a team where I had lived and followed the local sports scene. And it was happening in a town that was less than a tenth the size of the Texas city where I was raised. How could that be?

One thing I learned over the past 25 or so years is what it takes for a high school team to win a championship. You don’t need a ton of kids to choose from, but players who have this desire to win. It’s like the Terminator 2 movie when Arnold Schwarzenegger’s robot switches to auxiliary power to take on a more powerful shape-changing android. As they say during March Madness when there’s an upset victory “the underdog just wanted it more.” There are a lot of those unlikely success stories here in Troup County.

There’s more to it than just good players, it seems. I am impressed with the level of coaching talent here. The ones I have experienced seem to have a real joy for the game and mentoring young minds. Whether it’s at the collegiate level or local high school, there are great ones.

I’ve also discovered that parents and siblings play a big role too. Sure, there are some across the country who take pushing their kids too far, but this place has parents who combine a passion for the sport’s success with a love for the kid, more than even the trophy. As much as I enjoyed seeing my son be one of the ones holding his team’s tennis trophy, I love even more than he overcame injuries and having to learn a new sport.

You’ll also see local businesses, hospitals, churches, civic groups, and others sponsor those developmental leagues, and act as superfans when there’s local success. It really helps.

But here’s when you know there’s something special. I remember during the season when my son’s team just clinched a regional match. He and his teammates didn’t celebrate there and then, but instead ran over to enthusiastically cheer on the girls’ team, as they fought to come back after being down. Their rivals in the other town simply left when their matches were over, not caring what happened to anyone else at their school. 

For me, that’s the auxiliary power from T2 robot, or the secret sauce in the recipe. It’s when the local kids care just as much about a teammate than they do about their personal situation. That attitude comes from families, parents, coaches, and other locals. As long as the locals keep that spirit, you’ll see more trophies heading Troup County’s way.