Texas high school coach turns out the Friday Night Lights
Gary Gaines, the 63-yearold high school coach at the centre of the Friday Night Lights book and film, has left the Odessa Permian sideline for the last time.
Gaines said he resigned from the West Texas football program he helped make famous. He said he doubts he’ll coach again but wasn’t sure what’s next for him.
“We’re going to give it to someone else and, hopefully, they can make more out of it than we did,” said Gaines. “We came here to make some deep playoff runs and we weren’t able to do that. That’s what (Permian fans) expect, and I expect as well.”
He leaves with a 69-281 record in eight years as Permian’s head coach, including a 23-21 mark in his last four years.
In all, he coached Permian from 1986-89 and 2009-12, and was an assistant there for three years in the early 1980s.
His second stint in Odessa included a lone playoff victory and no district championships. Gaines led the program to a state 5A championship in 1989.
The Panthers were undefeated that season, just a year after Buzz Bissinger spent a year in town researching his bestseller, which chronicled how high school football binds an oilpatch community.