Growing up a coach's kid in West Texas, meant that Friday Night Lights were what my father and us prepared for each and every week. Hearing the fight song played on Friday Nights meant that we were scoring touchdowns, which usually meant my dad and the the team were executing the plan they put together. From film sessions, to weight rooms, to pep rallies, to football fields; I was there for the entire journey. I even slept many a night on a bus, riding back from a game, as my dad drove the school bus.

So this year when I met Coach Reed and his son Stryker, I could not help but be reminded of my childhood with my father. As a Executive Director of Beyond the Business, a new television show that highlights coaches and their program, I was able to meet Coach Reed and his team, and share their story.

What made their story so unique? They had just experience an F1 tornado in the spring that ripped apart their community and destroyed the facilities that they used for athletics. What drew me in to this story was that in 2022, as the principal of the elementary school in Jacksboro, I experienced a similar story. Knowing what it was like to pick up all of your things, relocate, and try to carry on as if things were normal were something that I and Coach Reed had in common.

A common trial and a passion for working with kids in sports allowed Coach Reed and I to begin working together and learning more about his program and each other. Through Edifly Productions, I was able to return to Gordon this school year and cover not one, but two of the Gordon Longhorn football games. Two of his players had already committed to Division 1 programs as 3-star athletes, with one or two more on the radar for other Division 1 programs.

For a community the size of Gordon to have so many talented athletes in their school, you would think that it would be the thing that impressed me the most. And it did impress me. But what impressed me more than that is how they were not satisfied. They were hungry for more.

This season is a special one for the Gordon Longhorns. Not only are they on track to win their 3rd consecutive state title in football, but they are also predicted to win in multiple sports as well. They have one of the top 10 winning streaks in high school football in the entire United States of America! So what do you do when you are the best? According to Coach Reed you look for more adversity!

That took me back a minute! A person and a community that has experienced one of the most adverse situations a group of coaches and young men could face, eagerly anticipated and put themselves in yet another challenge. Gordon is a Six-Man football program, and has been playing such since the 50s. However, with the multiple Division 1 athletes getting offers and looks from colleges, along with finding it hard to find opponents to fill their schedule, Coach Reed and the Longhorns decided to put their 33-game winning streak at the time to the test.

On Friday, September 19th the Gordon Longhorns traveled 336 miles round trip to take on an 11-man program in Thorndale. How do you prepare for an 11-man game when your level of play is 6-man? You practice both everyday!

This is not the first time that Coach Reed has taken the challenge of facing an 11-man program with a 6-man team. In 2012, as the Head Football Coach at Throckmorton, Coach Reed and the coaches at Windthorst agreed to a football game that was played 11-man for the first half, followed by 6-man in the second half.

How did Coach Reed and the 6-man program do? They won the game 46-21. You want to know the interesting thing about it. I was there! At the time I was working at Bellevue Schools, a small 1A down the road from Windthorst, and this story intrigued me. Who would of thought that years later I would get to meet Coach Reed and develop a friendship.

On September 19th the Gordon Longhorns defeated the 11-man Thorndale Bulldogs 54-21 to continue their win streak to 34 games. Their win streak leading into the UIL State Championships is 43 games.

Leading up to this football season, Gordon had already put together an impressive resume with multiple state championships in football and one in track on both the boys and girls sides of the athletic program. What the Gordon Longhorns are doing this season is, in my opinion, one of the most impressive stories of resiliency, combined with an ambition to be not only the best 6-man football program, but one of the most dominant high school athletic programs per capita, in the entire state, and possibly in the country!