|
Visit
the You Tube Trailer
KUT
90.5 Austin
High School Football Winning
Streak
AUSTIN, TX (2005-02-17) If you're from Texas, or
you've lived here awhile, you know just how
important football is.
And if you're itching
for high school football, there
are several dvd's that can satisfy the craving. Dallas
filmmaker Ken Heckman is out with a documentary
about a small town Texas team trying to keep an
incredible winning streak alive. Heckman's film is
called "Power, Passion, and Glory: The Real Story
of
Texas Football Madness."
[ Listen
to Interview ]
Austin
360 Review
by Michael Barnes
This is the real "Friday Night Lights."
Ken Heckmann's meticulous — and meticulously
fair — documentary about small-town Texas high-school
football verifies all the dramatic details of the
popular and slightly fictionalized studio movie.
[ Read
Entire Review ]
KLTV
(Channel 7)
Texas Filmmaker Issues
'Friday Night Challenge'
This is the story of the Celina Bobcats and the
2002
football season. They entered the year riding a 57-game
winning streak and four straight 2A state championships,
while attempting to overcome the departure of their
legendary head coach G.A. Moore to arch rival Pilot
Point, and the rise to 3A for the first time in school
history. Filmmaker Ken Heckmann hopped on for the
ride. [ Read
Entire Review ]
Dallas
Morning News
Heckmann then captures the new season
in which another coach takes over. The finely polished
film covers the entire season and also offers a look
at the players, the coaching staff, and the community
that takes such pride in the team. NFL broadcaster
Pat Summerall provides narration. Not rated, 110 minutes,
and the DVD offers more material, such as several
interviews and additional footage of the big Celina-Pilot
Point match-up.
Sante
Fe Film Festival Program
...You follow every game and every
locker-room session. You don’t have to care for
football to love this film. Finally, we get to see
what great teaching and tremendous community spirit
can do for kids. This documentary is not all about
winning. It also shows how to approach life. Ken Heckmann
and his crew are to be saluted. The photography is
sensational, the music perfect, and one walks away
with a warm, fuzzy feeling.
The
Houston Chronical (12/20/04)
Here's a late add to the list of
sports-related DVDs: Power, Passion & Glory: The
Real Story of Texas Football Madness, produced by
a Dallas filmmaker about the 2002 Celina Bobcats.
Suggested retail is $29.95, and producers say anyone
who prefers the semi-fictionalized treatment of Texas
high school football from the Friday Night Lights
theatrical film can ask for a refund and still keep
the Celina film.
Check out www.ppgthemovie.com
for details....
The
Celina Record (12/02/2004)
By Penny Rathburn
 Park
Cities People (12/02/2004)
By Glenn Arbery
Alburquerque
Journal Read Entire Article Here
(12/01/2004)
D
Magazine – Front Burner
KEN HECKMAN'S FOOTBALL MOVIE
Last year, I reviewed a film about the 2002 season
of the Celina Bobcats called It's Only a Game by Park
Cities resident Ken Heckman. Excellent. If I could
link my review, I would.
Ken just came by yesterday with
a new screener, and he says that the DVD release —
now with narration by Pat Summerall — is next
week. New title: The Real Story of Texas High School
Football Madness — Power, Passion and Glory.
Notice the Friday Night Lights
challenge.
Glenn
Arbery · November 9, 2004 10:46 AM
Dallas
Morning News
06:04 PM CST on Tuesday, November
23, 2004
Power Passion & Glory
The Real Story of Texas Football Madness
Ken Heckmann's Power Passion & Glory captures
football in its most basic form. With scene after
scene of players being bombarded by such immortal
coach speak as "we need to get after it!"
and "we have to want it more than them!"
many viewers will see themselves back on those small-town
high school football fields. Glory follows the 2002
Celina Bobcats, a team that had more than its share
of story lines. A bump up to the 3A level, the surprise
departure of legendary coach G.A. Moore for rival
Pilot Point and a 57-game winning streak to keep intact
all are at the forefront of the players' thoughts.
But the real star is new coach Butch Ford. A long
time assistant to Mr. Moore,
Coach Ford gave full access to his practices, meetings
and games, and the result is a rare look at a team
from every
angle. Mr. Ford's halftime and post-game speeches
are worth the price of admission. And when the Bobcats
finally lose in the second round of the playoffs,
ending the winning streak that had reached 68 games
as well as a run of four straight state titles, it's
obvious from all the shared tears and hugs that these
coaches and players were driven less by winning streaks
and more by their mutual admiration. Like another,
more high-profile high school football tale from this
year, Friday Night Lights, sometimes the dramatic
impact of watching a beloved team lose can be a viewer's
gain.
Best extra: "Fordisms"
reveals that many of Butch Ford's well-crafted pep
talks are mostly devised on the spot.
Stephen Becker
Starring Butch Ford and the Celina Bobcats. Narrated
by Pat Summerall. Directed by Ken Heckmann. Unrated.
110 minutes, plus extras. Available at www.ppgthemovie.com,
$29.95.
THE PASSION
OF CELINA
By Charles Michael
“It's not the time to panic. It's the time to
fight!” This is one of the many exhortations
given by Coach Butch Ford to his Celina Bobcats football
team during the tough moments of the 2002 football
season. It is featured in the new movie, “Power,
Passion & Glory: The real story of Texas football
madness”.
A huge billboard in the town
of Celina proclaims, “Where God, Family, Education,
and Athletics Come Together.... To Form a Very Special
Community.” Texas High School football is in
some ways like a religion to its many followers. This
movie chronicles the 2002 football season of one of
the most storied programs in Texas.
The Celina Bobcats went into
that season with a 57-game winning streak and four
consecutive state championships. However their long
time coach G.A. Moore had just resigned his position
at Celina and had taken the head football coaching
position at Pilot Point, the arch rival of Celina.
Three of his Celina assistants made the move with
Coach Moore, while six of the assistants remained
at Celina.
The players had hoped Coach
Moore would stay but when he finally did leave, the
question was would they rally around Coach Ford and
the assistants who remained. In addition, Coach Ford
was faced with the daunting task of continuing the
winning streak and the added challenge of Celina being
moved up to the 3-A class and having a game on the
schedule that season against Pilot Point and Coach
Moore.
“Tradition never graduates.”
The movie, with narration by NFL and broadcasting
legend Pat Summerall, tells the moving, exciting story
of what happened during the 2002 season. You will
hear from Coach Ford, Coach Moore, several Celina
players, Celina boosters, and others. You will have
inside access to Celina practices, coaches’ comments
just before the game, at halftime, and after the game.
You will get a sideline view
of game action and of Coach Ford working with players
and assistant coaches and a few of his “discussions”
with the “zebras”. You will see all of the
key plays of the 2002 season. You will see the pep
rallies before the games and the way that the community
supports the football team.
“I take full responsibility....
The harder you work the harder it is to surrender....
If you think about it, we didn't do much.... I'm really
disappointed.... It's my fault.” As the movie
and the season unfolds there are increasing challenges
for the Celina team. Early in the season the team
has a 62-34 win over Sanger but you will hear Coach
Ford berate his team after the game.
When you have a long winning
streak a coach has to find a way for the players to
learn from a win so that they don't get complacent
and they continue to improve. How do the players react
to the criticism?
“It's not the time to
panic. It's the time to fight!” The Celina team
faces their first real football challenge of the year
against Little Elm without injured top running back
Josh Sharrock. How do they respond?
Celina plays their first ever
3-A game against Pottsboro and finds themselves behind
21-8 at halftime. “What a great opportunity to
show what kind of a great football team you can be....
It’s going to take all the emotion that you got.
It's going to take all the guts you got.” What
happens in the second half of that game?
“If I lose and get run
out of town, you gotta give me a job.” Next is
the biggest game in Texas that week. Celina at Pilot
Point. There is a 70-minute rain delay that night
before the game starts.
Hear what Coach Ford and Coach
Moore say to each other before the game and after
the game. How tough is that game on both of them?
Can the student defeat the teacher?
“We're gonna give 'em
a valiant effort. I'm just not sure if effort will
be enough.” The next game on the schedule is
the toughest game to date. Gainesville at Celina.
All the players, coaches and fans see this as a supreme
test.
See a miraculous play near
the end of the game that shows the heart of a champion.
See Coach Ford and two of his assistants, after the
game, engage in a training exercise known as the three-man
roll.
“I watched you pass 'em
by and not hit 'em. I seen it and you know I saw it....
That’s breakin' my heart.... Don’t you do
that no more!” A few weeks later Celina is still
in the playoffs and facing a very dangerous team,
called, appropriately enough, Dangerfield.
It is in this game that Celina
most earns the “Glory” part of the title
of this movie. “There's something to be learned
from everything. I'm not sure I can tell you what
it is we're supposed to learn today.”
“Friday Night Lights”,
the movie, contains some of the same themes as PPG.
However some of FNL was fictionalized (By the way,
the book by H.G. Bissinger, from which the movie was
made, is much better than the movie, in my opinion.)
Near the end of that film, Billy Bob Thornton (portraying
Odessa Permian coach Gary Gaines) gives a moving speech
to his team just before their final game. But did
it really happen that way?
When you see Coach Butch Ford
give an equally moving speech in the wake of the Dangerfield
game, then you are seeing what really happened. No
sets, no scripts, no rehearsals, no actors, just the
reality of a football team trying to maintain a state
record winning streak, four consecutive state championships,
all with a new head coach.
PPG takes less than two hours
to watch, but will last a lifetime in your memory.
Austin
360 Review
by Michael Barnes
This is the real "Friday Night Lights."
Ken Heckmann's meticulous — and meticulously
fair — documentary about small-town Texas high-school
football verifies all the dramatic details of the
popular and slightly fictionalized studio movie.
[ Read
Entire Review ]
|
