Friday Night Lights Sparknotes

The book, “Training Camp” by Jon Gordon is an inspirational story filled with invaluable lessons and insights on bringing out the best in yourself and your team. The story follows a little boy named Martin Jones who was a undrafted rookie trying to make it into the NFL.. He spent his whole life proving many critics that a guy with a big heart but is small can succeed against all the odds.After Martin sprained his ankle during preseason, he thought that he lost his dream., but then he meets a very special coach. The coach was a great mentor, he shared eleven lessons about life that kept his dream alive. This help him a lot and even made him to be one of the best of the best.

The novel begins with preseason football in the heat of a Texas summer. The players and coaches practice over 4 hours a day in 100-degree weather. The media is affecting every player pushing for a state championship and college scouts at every practice. The boys who gave completely of themselves for their sport are unique personalities. From dedicated quarterback Mike Winchell to Harvard-bound Brian Chavez to the inscrutable Ivory Christian, the team was full of young men who were singular human beings, each one bringing something special and indefinable to their group. And that's just scratching the very surface.The book recounts the tragic story of Boobie Miles, team’s star running back who had been highly recruited by all of the major programs. He is expected to attend and earn a scholarship to a large state college. The community

Elijah’s daughter, Luvenia, struggles to get a job and into college in Chicago while her brother Richard travels back to South Carolina. Abby’s grandson, Tommy works with civil rights and protests, and tries to get into college for basketball. The story ends with Malcolm, Richard’s grandson, getting his his cousin Shep, who is struggling with drugs, to the family reunion. In reading this story one could wonder how the transition from slavery to segregation in the United States really occurred. The timeline can be split into three distinct sections, Emancipation, forming segregation, and life post-Civil War, pre-civil rights.

The author of this book Daniel James Brown did a preposterous job on writing this book and also describing each and every character. The Boys in the Boat was about these nine boys that row their way to the Olympics. People don’t expect for them to even get to the Olympics. This one kid called, Joe Rantz he was abandoned at a young age and had to live by himself throughout almost his whole life. This book really gives a good example of perseverance and how if you want something you have to come and get it. This book shows perseverance when one of the boys, Don Hume gets sick before the Olympics and pushes through and helps them win the gold for America.

Odessa wasn't even integrated until the early 1980s. Even after it was integrated, the district lines were drawn so that Permian would get most of the black students and Odessa High would get the Mexicans students (105). Even with Permian getting the majority of African Americans, there were only six black players on the team. Of those six, five of them started and one of them was injured (107). The black players at Permian were usually regarded as the best on the field. Even so, most coaches still considered them a lower class. Even Nate Hearne, a black coach that usually dealt with the black players, described Boobie as just another dumb nigger if he couldn't carry a football under his arm (18)." The racism wasn't just within the town and the team, it was affected other teams Permian played. When it came time to play the Carter Cowboys in the quarterfinals, a meeting had to be set up to discuss the terms of the game. This was mostly due to racism since over 90% of the Carter school was African American. The Permian coaches argued over where the game would be held. A neutral location was chosen for the safety of the fans. After the final pass of the game, player Clint Duncan knew it was incomplete when he looked up and "saw a bunch of cocky niggers jumping up and down (334)."

A wise person,Tommy Hilfiger once stated, “the road to success is not easy to navigate, but with hard work, drive and passion, it’s possible to achieve the American Dream”. This quote means that through willpower and passion, anyone can become successful. In the world we live in now, achieving the American dream can be challenging than before, on the contrary, with the right mindset, and inspiration the American dream is still possible.That being said, yes the American dream is still possible to accomplish, getting a good location, a future, and lastly a monumental historic moment that can be never unremembered.

The non-fiction book, Friday Night Lights, by H. G. Bissinger takes place in Odessa, Texas in 1988 and focuses on the Permian Panther high-school football team.

Boone and his family face horrible experiences when moving to Alexandria. When moving to the neighborhood, many neighbors were so upset but many were also happy that he didn’t back down. He was offered the head coach position but turned it down because he felt it would be incredibly disrespectful to Coach Yoast. Boone & Yoast agreed to make the relationship work. The African American students meet with Coach Boone in the gym, the meeting turns into a disaster when Coach Yoast and the white students arrive and disturb the meeting. Gerry Bertier was one of the students among the crowd of white students to interrupt. “I’m Gerry Bertier. I’m the only All-America you got on this team. If you want us to play for you, you reserve over half the positions …we don’t need any of your people on defense we’re already set.” said by Gary Bertier to Coach Boone. Boone makes it clear that all players will be on the team regardless of the color of their skin.

I am aware that there are better and worse high schools out there than Fremont High School. And yet, reading Kozol's account of the terrible conditions that are endured by these students made me feel more aware of the severity of improper or inadequate education that poorly funded schools provide. All of these problems, alongside my awareness of my fortunate years of education, make me wonder, just as Mireya did, as to why, "...[students] who need it so much more get so much less?" (Kozol 648). Interestingly, I have little to comment on Kozol's actual writing style, even though he wrote this account of his. I was just so attached to the characters within that school that I wanted to be able to reach out somehow; Kozol definitely achieved something very touching here.

In Remember the Titans we witness Coach Boone fighting for civil rights, signifying the image of an outsider integrating into a foreign white team as their coach. Director Boaz Yakin, uses techniques to strengthen Coach Boone’s character where the initial hate and disrespect towards him succours the development of a meaningful arc. The disrespect and aggression is employed when a brick is thrown through his house window, threatening him with the derogatory coloured comments calling him “Coach Coon”. The pressure of quitting was not felt and heroically he encompasses the journey with Yakin emphasising Boones evocative discipline and determination forcing integration amongst the segregated football team. This technique is employed when we witness Coach Boone stepping up, pushing equality for the players in a determined strike to stop racial abuse for good. His actions initiate the forced building of friendship and acceptance when he forces both races to get to know and accept each other at the camp. Yakin heightens the themes of overcoming racism when Boone rallies the troops together to support their team mate during a sad time. Instinctively, the implicit segregation is evoked further bringing unity to the team, Coach Boone emerges as a ‘hero’ to both the coloured and white community.

In the writing Fremont High School by Jonathan Kozol he discusses the reality of urban schools and how they are unable to obtain the proper education. At Fremont High School children are not always able to eat during their lunch period, the proper education needed for college is not obtained, the school reflects institutional discrimination, and the building is overcrowded limiting course offerings for children.

In order to live up to the reputation of the town and peers, the Permian Panthers and the coaches set goals so that they will have a winning season. The goal that is set is to win the state championship and nothing, including injury will change that goal. This occurs when Boobie Miles, the star running back, chooses to play in spite of a torn ALC, rather than yielding to the unimaginable pain that he is in. The team imposed a structure, which establishes the goals and values of the team, therefore reinforcing the team’s solidarity to winning the championship not only for them but for the town.

This novel develops characters that engage in sex, to teachers cheating so their high school football players can continue to participate on the football field. Many people have a major affect on football and society in this novel. One of the major characters was Boobie Myles. Boobie was supposed to be the star athlete on the Permian football team. In the beginning, Boobie was arrogant to his teammates and wasn’t a good team leader. All Boobie cared about was winning and getting to the next level of football to satisfy his athletic needs. When Boobie is injured, he realizes he took football for granted and would do anything to play again. The team needs Boobie and Boobie needs the team. Coach Gaines realizes Boobie was seriously hurt and gives an inspiring pep talk to the team about how the players need to put their heart in the game and how lucky they are to be playing for Odessa.

Chapter 3 was a very long and in my opinion wordy chapter. This chapter discuses the ideological frameworks of many topics that include, political and economy of the schools. Chapters 3 describe how schools were once a place for higher education but not have turned into a business, big business at that. During this time schools weren’t diverse. The European children went to one school that separated girls from boys and the other races went to separate schools if they were able to event get a piece of education.

The film wasn’t about that 13-0 record and winning a state championship, but the struggle that came with it and all the hardships they had to deal and get past. Racism, prejudice, compassion and love were all key aspects of this film as shown. The racism, prejudice of the team when they first met was severe and had been changed. The love and compassion came as the team grew to become one unit and love each other and be able to become something more powerful than they could be by themselves.