WAKE UP! SPECIAL EDITION | A look back at ‘Fathers and Sons’

EDITOR’S NOTE: ETBlitz.com editor / publisher Mitch Lucas had a travel day today, and Wake Up! didn’t hit on time. So instead of not having Wake Up!, we’re calling it Wake Up! Special Edition. This originally appeared as one of Mitch’s “What’s Causing All This?” columns on Saturday, Dec. 2, 2023, following Kilgore’s football loss to Chapel Hill at Longview’s Lobo Stadium. Coach Clint Fuller’s Bulldogs would get revenge last year, beating Chapel Hill twice and reaching the 4A state title game. This column, the one reprinted here, is one of the three most widely-read items in the history of this website, and we’ve also included the original art, by photographer Alex Nabor. So enjoy again, “Fathers and Sons.”

++++

So… what do y’all want to talk about?

Let’s talk about fathers.

Kilgore High School football didn’t have the night they wanted on Friday night. The Bulldogs didn’t have the night coach Clint Fuller wanted them to have, didn’t have the night you wanted them to have, or the night any of us wanted for them – I guess, unless you’re a Chapel Hill fan reading this, in which case you need to tell the person who updates the Facebook page for Chapel Hill ISD for me that “dominating” is not defined by anyone else on God’s green earth as a two-point win.

Yes, I said that, and meant it, in reference to a post that was made on that Facebook page after the game on Friday night. Chapel Hill didn’t dominate Kilgore. They did win the game. Congratulations.

Enough of that, for what it’s worth, back to our topic: fathers.

I watched coach Fuller Friday night throughout the game, watched him coach, watched him interact with his players.

In fact, I’ve watched him since he’s been here, since the night he took the job as Kilgore High School’s head football coach. I was there that night, the night of the school board meeting back in 2021, to meet Clint, his wife Emily, and their two children, daughter Dylan and son Phil, named after Clint’s dad, coach Phil.

Coach Fuller has led Kilgore in 41 games now, and he’s 33-8. I’ve covered all of ‘em. I don’t know him like I know the back of my hand, or anything, but I do call him a friend, and a good coach.

But I also can call him a good dad.

There’s something else I can call Clint: he’s a father. Do you know what I mean?

Clint is also a second father to every single one of those young men out there in that program. He’s not giving them lip service. He’s not there just to win. He’s not there just to do his job. There’s no time clock he’s punching when he leaves Mitchell Field House every day.

Clint Fuller is bringing to Kilgore what Mike Vallery brought to Kilgore for years and what Mike Wood brought to Kilgore after that, and that’s a passion for these young men to do well, not just in the game of football, but in the game of life.

Not every player that puts on those shoulder pads is going to continue to play after high school. In fact, many of them won’t. For most of these young men, THIS is their football career. These are the good old days. There won’t be more first-and-goals, more two-hour bus trips, more emotional locker-room talks. This is it.

I saw something near the end of the game Friday night that I want to talk about, not to embarrass anyone, but to make my point.

One of Kilgore’s players was upset as it became obvious that Chapel Hill was going to win the game, and who could blame him? I was upset, too, I’ll be honest. I had had a long day, our website had crashed, and all the work we had built up had been lost. On top of that, Kilgore was about to lose. It was a disheartening experience.

But the player walked off, obviously angry, in a direction by himself, toward Kilgore’s sideline, apparently furious with something, and Fuller – seeing what was going on right at the moment – stopped everything, went to the young man, and pulled him in. Obviously, I’m watching from the press box at that point, and I have no idea what was said, but he was able to calm the situation, to diffuse it, and allow everyone to go shake hands after the game without incident.

That’s what men do. Even after defeat. Even when deep down, we might not want to. Even when we would rather walk off. Even when it hasn’t been our day. It’s what men do.

It’s what Bulldogs do.

It’s what we’ve always done.

And Fuller didn’t do that because anyone was watching. He didn’t KNOW anyone was watching.

Character, it’s said, is what you show when you don’t know anyone is watching.

I don’t think I’ve ever told this, and I hope I won’t embarrass him. He’s retired and he’d probably tell us if he were here, “Heck (he wouldn’t say ‘heck) no, you won’t embarrass me, tell the story.”

But not long after I got here, I went to see coach Vallery in his office at the field house. (Former Kilgore trainer) “Red” Ganus was there, and it was near the end of the day, Red in his office, Val in his. I walked in, and Val was sitting at his desk – I could see him through Red’s door – with one hand on his face, the other one scribbling something on a small piece of paper.

“Come in, Mitch,” he said, with that gravelly voice. “What can I do for you?”

 I went in, and waited on him to finish.

“Sit down,” he said. Then, as I did, he said, “Mitch, you’re not ever thinking about going into coaching, are you?”

I stood there a second, and thought about it. “No, sir,” I said, kind of wondering why he would ask. Before I could say anything else, he said…

“Good. I’m gonna give you some free advice.”

He looked at me over his glasses, and said, “Any grown man who would base his living on what 16, 17 and 18-year-old boys are gonna do day-in and day-out has completely lost his mind. Now, what do you need?”

After that, we all had a good laugh. I knew he was playing around, but I understood his job had daily frustrations, and that nobody – nobody – loved those kids more than Val.

And that’s what coach Fuller reminds me of. He wants these kids to succeed on the field and off.

And we’ll miss all of these seniors, and I’m gonna name them all right now, in alphabetical order. If I miss someone, y’all, it wasn’t on purpose: Parker Allums, Rashaud Brown, Mikel Dennis, Taylor Gibson, Matthew Hardy, Jacob Davis, Braquan Moye, Braydon Nelson, Taylor Oliver, Sage Orange, Josh Parrish, Jordan Pierce, Malachi Pierce, Aiden Reyes, Aubrey Saylor, Zander Short, Zaylon Stoker, P.J. Wiley, Derrick Williams, Emmanuel Young, and Leo Yzaguirre. We’re gonna miss every single one of y’all.

So Kilgore lost in the playoffs to Chapel Hill. We did. Who knows how Chapel Hill will finish?

We’ll play football again. We’ll do it in August.

Kilgore may lose the battle on the field from time to time. And they’ll be outscored. But they are never, ever outclassed.

Wake Up! is presented daily by Cozy Coffee Station, in Kilgore and in Gilmer. See their menu at Home | Cozy Coffee Station, and visit them at 110 Midtown Plaza in Kilgore, and at 755 Highway 271 in Gilmer.