Abilene Against The World

One of the greatest Greek myths is that of Sisyphus, the former king of Ephyra. Sisyphus was in theory a good ruler, prioritizing commerce, trade, and navigation, but like every single person in Greek Mythology, he had an extreme dark side: he liked to randomly murder travelers and guests. Obviously, this was considered by most of the Greek Gods to be “douchey” and “not cool”, so Sisyphus was to be punished.

Here’s where the myth diverts, there are multiple accounts, but there’s one undercurrent in all of them: Sisyphus tricked a god, and now no one on Earth could die. This was accomplished by tricking either Hades, Persephone or Thanatos, or a combination of the three, depending on whichever version you read. As a punishment for his crimes, the Gods decided to do to Sisyphus what he had done to the elderly on Earth. They would bound him in endless labor, leaving him unable to finish a difficult task, suffering under it forever.

The task that was given was for Sisyphus to roll a boulder up a hill. The kicker was that the boulder was enchanted by Zeus, and would roll away before the boulder would reach the top of the hill, dooming Sisyphus to a life of fruitless, endless, frustrating, eternal labor. This punishment was to be purposefully maddening for Sisyphus, a kind of torture that doesn’t merely exist within the realm of physical pain, one that becomes psychological, and therefore much more difficult to overcome or stay sane while doing.

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The entire town of Abilene has drawn an exceptionally tough slate of games this weekend. Let’s start from the smallest school, Abilene Wylie, and work our way to the biggest.

• Abilene Wylie will play Argyle. Argyle is ranked #1 in 4A by nearly every single publication. Argyle has been in the State Finals every single year since 2011. They won it all in 2013. They’re 11-0, and outside of games against Sanger and La Grange, they’ve won every single game they’ve played in by a comfortable margin.
• Abilene Cooper will play Aledo. Aledo needs no introduction to the High School football fanatics. If you need an introduction, there’s an excellent documentary series produced by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram called “Titletown” that you can watch. There’s no need to repeat the stories of Aledo’s dominance, they’re easily attainable.
• Abilene High will play DeSoto. DeSoto is the consensus #1 school in 6A. They’re ranked 12th nationally by MaxPreps, 4th in the nation by our friends at USA Today HSS, and they’ve been our #1 6A team in the state nearly every single week of the regular season. They haven’t won every game comfortably, but they also haven’t lost yet this season.

To play bigger school football in West Texas is to be okay with being the underdog. It’s a relative comfortability with being picked to lose against teams from Houston and Dallas that are verifiably faster than you, bigger than you, and stronger than you. Fortunately for West Texas, being bigger, faster, and stronger can help you win football games, but it isn’t everything.

For Abilene High and Abilene Cooper, it’s the third round of the playoffs that has been the toughest to pass. In the past decade, Abilene High has done it thrice, once losing in the State semifinals to Pflugerville, once losing in the Regional finals to Mansfield Timberview, and the other time beating Katy in the State finals. They’ve lost to the likes of Shane Buechele’s Arlington Lamar, Cedar Hill, DeSoto, and Southlake Carroll. If you’re going to win, you have to get past one of those traditional powers from the DFW area.

Abilene Cooper has had a rougher stretch of luck. When they have made the playoffs in the past decade, they’ve run into Aledo once in the third round, Cedar Hill once, Mansfield Timberview once, and Denton Guyer three times. That’s a ridiculous stretch of teams to have to beat in the third round.

Abilene Wylie essentially has a playoffs and pre-district rivalry with Argyle. They’ve played each other multiple times recently, and the majority of them have not gone the way of the Wylie Bulldogs. They haven’t been to the finals since they lost to Gilmer in 2009. They won a title as recently as 2004, but haven’t seen the level of success that they’re having right now in a fair amount of time.

It’s easy to root for an underdog, especially one that’s clearly overmatched in several areas. If you watch one of these teams, you’ll see some athletes that could clearly start for either team. You’ll also see some young men from the West Texas teams so small that it looks like they’ll snap if they take too hard of a hit. There will be players that appear NFL-ready and others that won’t play a single down after that day if they lose.

Statistically, the odds are stacked against the Abilene teams. It’s an effort that often seems Sisyphean; a challenge that seems too much to surmount, and when it is surmounted, is reset every single year. Some of West Texas’s dominant teams in the area have floundered under the overwhelming talent of the top Dallas area schools.

I’m not here to sell you on the teams from Abilene. You can take a look at the records of each team that they play and their pedigrees and make a decision on who you think will win by yourselves. It’s fine to be counted out. This is football. There is a winner and a loser, a favorite and an underdog, and there’s no shame in being either.

This is an exceptional case, however. I don’t think there’s ever been such a daunting slate of games for teams from one town, much less an entire area. All of West Texas is looking at San Angelo Central and their home game against Allen this weekend, but there are other teams that are playing for the pride of the most storied area of Texas High School football this weekend.

And you never know, a few of them might surprise you.

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