Power, Passion & Glory: The real story of Texas football madness
Film Synopsis
The release of “Friday Night Lights” has turned the nation’s attention to the incredible drama and emotion of high school football as played in the Lone Star State. But more and more of this attention is being directed away from the Hollywood film to the unscripted, unrehearsed, “un-Hollywood” version: “Power, Passion & Glory: The Real Story of Texas Football Madness.”
Narrated by veteran sportscaster
Pat Summerall, the documentary is the
product of filmmaker Ken Heckmann’s
quest to capture the grit, hysteria and
heart-stopping tension of the real thing. Appropriately,
he selected as his subject
the Celina Bobcats, who became the winningest team
in
Texas history during their dramatic 2002 season, all
of
which Heckmann captured on camera. Celina had won
57 straight games and four consecutive state 2A championships
heading into that campaign.
What Heckmann didn’t know when the project began was that two extraordinary events would give his documentary an extra dose of drama.
First, to everyone’s shock, Celina’s legendary
head coach of 14 years, G. A. Moore, suddenly left
to coach for the school’s archrival, Pilot Point,
who they would later play in a key game. To this day,
it’s not clear why he left. But when Moore’s
key assistant, protégé and friend Butch
Ford took his place, the stage was set for a riveting
story. The game pitting their teams against one another
is one of the unforgettable parts of the film.
The plot thickened further when the governing body of Texas high school athletics bumped Celina up to the 3A division. Overnight, they became the smallest school in their division, playing against better teams from bigger schools. The result is the pulse-pounding story of a team, and a town, defending their cherished reputations as champions.
After the close of this fateful season, Heckmann spent the following eighteen months turning miles of video into a tightly-wound, 110-minute documentary with enough twists, turns and excitement to fill several movies. Pat Summerall’s narration is complemented by original music from Dallas composer Chip Evans.
Emerging as the star of the documentary is Celina’s
new head coach Butch Ford. With his spiritual approach
and characteristically “Texas” colloquialisms,
Ford delivers a natural and unrehearsed tour-de-force.
His pre-game and halftime speeches are highlights
of the film.
Power, Passion & Glory is a heart-stopping story of a season on the brink. Can Celina maintain their record-breaking winning streak, even with a change of coach and division? Will they win their fifth-straight state championship? The film builds in tension to an unforgettable ending even Hollywood could not have even dared to imagine.