by Laurance L. Priddyby Laurance L. Priddy
Tall, handsome Bobby Thompson attains a cherished goal when he accepts the job as head football coach at Comanche Springs, Texas, a West Texas oil town that has fallen on hard times, but inside, he seethes with insecurity and frustration. He doubts the love of Paula, his feisty, red-headed wife, and fears that he will soon lose her. As the Comanche Springs team seems headed for its first district championship in years, Bobby confronts racism and corruption in the high school athletic program, along with his own personal demons. Can he find the courage to face this conflict with honesty and integrity, and emerge with his career, his marriage, and his self-respect intact?
CRITICAL COMMENT
From Booklist, November 15, 1993:
Bobby Thompson accepts a position as head football coach at the
high school in Comanche Springs, Texas. His wife, Paula, is dissatisfied
with the decision but agrees to the move, knowing it will be for a few
years at most. As Bobby guides the Comanche Springs team toward its first
championship in years, he confronts small-town politics, the influence
of old money, athletic corruption, and overt racism. His personal life seems
to be falling apart when Paula leaves him after his own insecurities cause him
to accuse her of adultery. When he himself is accused of professional
misconduct--by a school board member who has a win-at-any-cost mentality--
Bobby fights back with truths that destroy his career in Comanche Springs
but help him retain his self-respect and regain his wife. An excellent read.
--Melanie Duncan
From Publishers Weekly, November 22, 1993:
Taciturn football coach Bobby Thompson accepts a job at a high school
in a small Texas town. When Thompson decides to make a black player
the team's starting quarterback, the diehard football-fan townspeople
do not respond charitably. Thompson's personality is never well-drawn:
he claims that his wife is "both his lover and his best friend," but Priddy
rarely shows them in civil conversation, and Thompson not only doubts his
wife's fidelity but has over the years ignored her desire to attend law
school in favor of his coaching career. He occasionally fantasizes about
sex with his female students but is self-righteously horrified when he
discovers that a local businessman is actually having an affair with one.
Plot structure in this first novel is awkward, and events are often
foreshadowed in a heavy-handed way, i.e., Thompson wonders about the
strange circumstances of the former coach's departure, and it turns out
there was evil-doing behind it. On the other hand, scenes involving the booster
club--made up mainly of local businessmen who take the high school games
extremely seriously--have an easy authenticity..........
From Review of Texas Books, Winter, 1995:
Calling to mind H.G. Bissinger's nonfictional portrayal
of Texas high school football, Friday Night Lights, Priddy's
novel races up and down the same familiar turf-small Texas
towns with hopes helplessly pinned on secondary school-age
male demographics. It occurs to very few of the characters
in this well-written soap opera that there might be life anywhere
outside of their Friday night autumn rituals. Priddy's troubled
but capable protagonist, Coach Bobby Thompson, faces an assortment
of challenges: racism emanating from a black/white quarterback
controversy, jealous assistant coaches, steroid abuse, overeager
alumni boosters, an uneasy relationship with the school board,
and an important ethical dilemma in the midst of a championship
season. Just in case Coach Thompson doesn't have enough on his
plate, his long-suffering and disenfranchised wife, who has career
plans of her own on hold, has been seen lunching with his school
board nemesis. It was Ross Perot who was once quoted in the Dallas
Morning News as saying "We in Texas have to decide. Do we want
our kids to entertain us on Friday nights at football games,
or do we want them to be winners for the rest of their lives?"
If we had more coaches like Bobby Thompson, Texans might not have to
choose..................
David Carroll
where to buy winning passion:
