Doomsday101
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BROWNWOOD — On a cold, black Friday night after his team beat Graham, Brownwood High School first-year head coach Bob Shipley finished his radio interview in the press box at Gordon Wood Stadium.
He hitched his trousers and hopped down the steps to the field, where students and parents roamed under the lights, making pictures for their scrapbooks.
Shipley knew exactly what to say.
"The Brownwood fans are happy. The Graham fans are sad. But the University of Texas fans ought to be very happy," Shipley said.
"They got a glimpse of the future."
Brownwood won last week's District 2-3A game 28-27. The Lions snuffed a Graham extra point with less than 8 seconds left.
The play ignited such a celebration that Bob Shipley and his coaches had to herd their players like spooked geese back to the bench so the Graham Steers could attempt a desperate onside kick to try to preserve their undefeated season. To the delight of the homecoming crowd, the attempt failed.
Brownwood junior Jaxon Shipley embraced the onside kick in a tight hug. On the final play, he snatched a long sideline pass, giving him nine receptions for 242 yards and two touchdowns in his first full game of the season since he broke his collarbone in a preseason scrimmage.
The lithe and elusive Jaxon has yet to announce where he'll play college football. But many in this West Texas community, including the head coach who happens to be his father, say they suspect he'll follow his older brother, Jordan, to Texas.
Graham senior quarterback Case McCoy already has made that decision. He will go to Austin, as early as next spring, to become the second McCoy to play for the Longhorns. Like his older brother, Colt, Case has a quick release and a tenacious spirit on the field.
McCoy to Shipley. Texas fans have learned to love those three words. And they might hear them for years to come.
"Can you imagine?"
Those three words came Friday night from Brad McCoy, the head coach at Graham and the father of Colt and Case. The coach had just watched his youngest son craft a frenetic drive that began when Brownwood sacked the quarterback twice with 2:21 left in the game.
On fourth-and-19, he swiveled out of the pocket and streaked down the sideline. He leaped for the first down.
Eight plays later, Case's 17-yard touchdown pass surprised no one. It seemed scripted, even — a perfect season in the balance, band drums rattling, hoarse voices rising, cheerleaders kicking, no one sitting, everyone wishing — that in a showdown of the Shipleys and the McCoys, fate properly demanded an ending to remember.
The friendships between families stretch generations.
Brad McCoy's father, Burl McCoy, was a basketball coach at Abilene Christian University when a woman by the name of Addie Felts served as the school's first women's track coach. When Bob Shipley married his wife, Sharon, Felts became his mother-in-law — and the grandmother-in-waiting of his two future daughters, along with sons Jordan and Jaxon.
Bob Shipley and Brad McCoy played football together at Abilene Christian. But their careers in high school coaching took them to different dots on the map.
McCoy worked first in the small town in New Mexico where Colt was born. He later went to Tuscola, south of Abilene, where Colt caught the interest of the Longhorns coaches.
Bob Shipley coached Jordan at Burnet High School. He later moved to coach at Coppell High School, where Jaxon played two seasons and "made every player on the field miss him," said family friend Doug Bedichek, who drove all the way from Coppell to watch Jaxon and Case.
Distance never kept the McCoys and the Shipleys apart. They vacationed together. The boys went to church camp together. With their fathers, they fished the Devils Riverin Southwest Texas. They played pitch and catch with the football, and their parents watched their skinny little boys grow into players that old men talked about at the barbershop.
"It's been a fun friendship," said Debra McCoy, mother of Colt and Case. "They definitely have a relationship outside of football."
Until Friday at Gordon Wood Stadium, a McCoy and a Shipley had never played against one another in a uniform. That added a dimension of sweet conflict to the Brownwood-Graham game, something the Shipleys and the McCoys had never experienced.
Sharon Shipley watched from the track beyond an end zone. She wore a button with Jaxon's football picture on her lapel. She rubbed her palms in the cold.
"I don't like playing friends," she said. "But I want to win."
Brownwood led 14-0 at halftime. Graham scored two touchdowns in the third quarter to tie.
The Lions scored twice in the fourth quarter. On one play, Jaxon leaped in triple coverage in the end zone. Four players jumped, three of them peaked, and one — wearing his brother's number at Texas, No. 8, for the Lions — rose above them all. Touchdown.
"He's got intangibles," said his uncle, former TCU receiver Stephen Shipley. "He can hang in the air so long."
The Graham Steers came back, scoring late in the game and setting up the final drive.
Brad McCoy and Bob Shipley paced on opposite sides of the famous football field in Brown County, where Gordon Wood coached 23 seasons at Brownwood, won seven state championships and guided a dynasty to a record of 257-52-7. "The Texas Tradition," reads a message on the press box.
The broadcaster for KOXE FM-101.3 could barely catch his breath.
After the blocked Graham extra point, Brad McCoy gathered his players. He told them they had played their worst half of football in the first half and their best half of football in the second.
Case stood. "Leave this loss here," he said.
"Anybody else got anything?" Brad McCoy said. There was no answer from the Steers.
Jaxon posed for pictures long into the night. He was asked what it would be like next year, playing in the district with Case at Texas.
"It's definitely going to be a lot easier to play those guys," he said.
Case threw for 355 yards and four touchdowns. It was not his best game of the year. In a game Oct. 2, he threw for 385 yards and six touchdowns against Bridgeport. He has 26 touchdown passes through eight games. Graham and Brownwood could meet in the playoffs for an encore.
"This spotlight tonight is what I dreamed of," Case said. "This is what Texas high school football's all about."
Jaxon and Case met over by the fieldhouse when most of the crowd had gone. The night had to end, and their parents were in a hurry to get to Dallas. The McCoys and the Shipleys were flying to the Missouri game to watch their other sons play — together.
"I hope we play together," Jaxon said of Case.
Later, the Graham Steers left for the two-hour drive home. Bob and Sharon Shipley were on their way to the airport, and Jaxon needed somewhere to stay, so he hopped the Graham bus and spent the weekend with Case, watching the other McCoy and Shipley connect twice for touchdowns on national TV.
He hitched his trousers and hopped down the steps to the field, where students and parents roamed under the lights, making pictures for their scrapbooks.
Shipley knew exactly what to say.
"The Brownwood fans are happy. The Graham fans are sad. But the University of Texas fans ought to be very happy," Shipley said.
"They got a glimpse of the future."
Brownwood won last week's District 2-3A game 28-27. The Lions snuffed a Graham extra point with less than 8 seconds left.
The play ignited such a celebration that Bob Shipley and his coaches had to herd their players like spooked geese back to the bench so the Graham Steers could attempt a desperate onside kick to try to preserve their undefeated season. To the delight of the homecoming crowd, the attempt failed.
Brownwood junior Jaxon Shipley embraced the onside kick in a tight hug. On the final play, he snatched a long sideline pass, giving him nine receptions for 242 yards and two touchdowns in his first full game of the season since he broke his collarbone in a preseason scrimmage.
The lithe and elusive Jaxon has yet to announce where he'll play college football. But many in this West Texas community, including the head coach who happens to be his father, say they suspect he'll follow his older brother, Jordan, to Texas.
Graham senior quarterback Case McCoy already has made that decision. He will go to Austin, as early as next spring, to become the second McCoy to play for the Longhorns. Like his older brother, Colt, Case has a quick release and a tenacious spirit on the field.
McCoy to Shipley. Texas fans have learned to love those three words. And they might hear them for years to come.
"Can you imagine?"
Those three words came Friday night from Brad McCoy, the head coach at Graham and the father of Colt and Case. The coach had just watched his youngest son craft a frenetic drive that began when Brownwood sacked the quarterback twice with 2:21 left in the game.
On fourth-and-19, he swiveled out of the pocket and streaked down the sideline. He leaped for the first down.
Eight plays later, Case's 17-yard touchdown pass surprised no one. It seemed scripted, even — a perfect season in the balance, band drums rattling, hoarse voices rising, cheerleaders kicking, no one sitting, everyone wishing — that in a showdown of the Shipleys and the McCoys, fate properly demanded an ending to remember.
The friendships between families stretch generations.
Brad McCoy's father, Burl McCoy, was a basketball coach at Abilene Christian University when a woman by the name of Addie Felts served as the school's first women's track coach. When Bob Shipley married his wife, Sharon, Felts became his mother-in-law — and the grandmother-in-waiting of his two future daughters, along with sons Jordan and Jaxon.
Bob Shipley and Brad McCoy played football together at Abilene Christian. But their careers in high school coaching took them to different dots on the map.
McCoy worked first in the small town in New Mexico where Colt was born. He later went to Tuscola, south of Abilene, where Colt caught the interest of the Longhorns coaches.
Bob Shipley coached Jordan at Burnet High School. He later moved to coach at Coppell High School, where Jaxon played two seasons and "made every player on the field miss him," said family friend Doug Bedichek, who drove all the way from Coppell to watch Jaxon and Case.
Distance never kept the McCoys and the Shipleys apart. They vacationed together. The boys went to church camp together. With their fathers, they fished the Devils Riverin Southwest Texas. They played pitch and catch with the football, and their parents watched their skinny little boys grow into players that old men talked about at the barbershop.
"It's been a fun friendship," said Debra McCoy, mother of Colt and Case. "They definitely have a relationship outside of football."
Until Friday at Gordon Wood Stadium, a McCoy and a Shipley had never played against one another in a uniform. That added a dimension of sweet conflict to the Brownwood-Graham game, something the Shipleys and the McCoys had never experienced.
Sharon Shipley watched from the track beyond an end zone. She wore a button with Jaxon's football picture on her lapel. She rubbed her palms in the cold.
"I don't like playing friends," she said. "But I want to win."
Brownwood led 14-0 at halftime. Graham scored two touchdowns in the third quarter to tie.
The Lions scored twice in the fourth quarter. On one play, Jaxon leaped in triple coverage in the end zone. Four players jumped, three of them peaked, and one — wearing his brother's number at Texas, No. 8, for the Lions — rose above them all. Touchdown.
"He's got intangibles," said his uncle, former TCU receiver Stephen Shipley. "He can hang in the air so long."
The Graham Steers came back, scoring late in the game and setting up the final drive.
Brad McCoy and Bob Shipley paced on opposite sides of the famous football field in Brown County, where Gordon Wood coached 23 seasons at Brownwood, won seven state championships and guided a dynasty to a record of 257-52-7. "The Texas Tradition," reads a message on the press box.
The broadcaster for KOXE FM-101.3 could barely catch his breath.
After the blocked Graham extra point, Brad McCoy gathered his players. He told them they had played their worst half of football in the first half and their best half of football in the second.
Case stood. "Leave this loss here," he said.
"Anybody else got anything?" Brad McCoy said. There was no answer from the Steers.
Jaxon posed for pictures long into the night. He was asked what it would be like next year, playing in the district with Case at Texas.
"It's definitely going to be a lot easier to play those guys," he said.
Case threw for 355 yards and four touchdowns. It was not his best game of the year. In a game Oct. 2, he threw for 385 yards and six touchdowns against Bridgeport. He has 26 touchdown passes through eight games. Graham and Brownwood could meet in the playoffs for an encore.
"This spotlight tonight is what I dreamed of," Case said. "This is what Texas high school football's all about."
Jaxon and Case met over by the fieldhouse when most of the crowd had gone. The night had to end, and their parents were in a hurry to get to Dallas. The McCoys and the Shipleys were flying to the Missouri game to watch their other sons play — together.
"I hope we play together," Jaxon said of Case.
Later, the Graham Steers left for the two-hour drive home. Bob and Sharon Shipley were on their way to the airport, and Jaxon needed somewhere to stay, so he hopped the Graham bus and spent the weekend with Case, watching the other McCoy and Shipley connect twice for touchdowns on national TV.