Ricki+and+Jono



By Jonathan Smith

Odessa, Texas is a city near Midland, Texas, which is home to roughly 99,000 people according to the 2,008 censuses. Odessa is probably most widely known for its sport, and specifically its love for football with the Permian Football high school team. Three Spanish Conquistadors and a black man first discovered Odessa after their boat got shipwrecked and they traveled west (“Odessa, Texas”). Author of the highly famous sports book __Friday Night Lights,__ H.G. Bissinger describes the town of Odessa as nothing more than depressed empty oil fields and high school football, “It was in the severely depressed belly of the Texas oil patch, with a team in town called the Permian Panthers that played to as many as twenty thousand fans on a Friday night” (8). The town is clearly depressed seeing as the average family income is only $27,869, with its per capita being $16,096 (Wikipedia). Odessa is full of nothing but sports, including Football, performing arts, rodeo, ice hockey, and indoor hockey. It appears that life in Odessa is brought together by sports conducted by High School students.

"Odessa, Texas" Wikipedia. 23 August 2009 . Bissinger, H.G. __Friday Night Lights.__ 1990.

Gary Gaines

By Ricky Orozco

Gary Gaines was born on may 4th in 1949. He is an extremely well renown coach in Texas high school ball. Gary Gaines started his coaching carrier as the head coach for Petersburg high school for only a year. After he left Petersburg he moved on to few more smaller high schools as the head coach such as Denver City, Amarillo Tascosa and Monahans. "In 1986 Gaines became the head coach for Odessa Permian High School", and led them to the national championships in 1989. After coach Gaines left Permian "he went to Texas Tech as an assistant coach and the recruiter for Texas Tech University". Gains left the University and went on as the head coach to Abilene Christian University and exceptionally well there and "won the lone star conference south division championships". Gaines had ended his coaching career after the championships and went on to be the "athletic director for Ector County Independent School District and Lubbock Independent School District". In 2009 Gary Gaines had announced that he would return into the coaching career as the head coach for Odessa Permian HS again.

"Gary Gaines" wikipedia. 8/23/09 