Franchise helping to uplift Uvalde

Wade Miller entered the name of his home city on a search engine, and the algorithm finally predicted another ending.

For months, when Miller, head football coach at Uvalde High School, went online to look something, anything up about his community, the search engine would provoke memories of tragedy, loss and pain.

Uvalde Shooting. Uvalde School Board Meeting.

But in the days after Uvalde High’s emotional victory in their home opener against Winn on Sept. 2, mere months after a horrific school shooting left 19 children, two teachers dead and a whole region reeling in grief, Miller at last had a reprieve.

“It popped up ‘Uvalde Football,’” Miller said Sunday. “If we can kind of flip the script like that, that’s what we want to do. We feel like win or lose, we’re helping people look at our town in a better light than they have in the past.”

Students and parents are clinging to moments of normalcy. Children first returned to school in Uvalde on Tuesday. Justyn Rendon, a senior and linebacker on the varsity football team, hopped on a bus with his head coach and teammates this weekend to Houston, where they toured the stadium and attended the Texans’ regular-season opener against the Colts.

Texans coach Lovie Smith, linebackers Christian Kirksey and Kamu Grugier-Hill visited the Uvalde football team for its high school home opener. The franchise donated $400,000 to the Robb School Memorial Fund and gave the team new jerseys, pants and other football gear. The Texans will wear a helmet sticker that says “Uvalde Strong” against the Colts.

Rendon spoke Sunday morning about their community, how his teammates all know someone who is dealing with loss.

“You know, it means a lot to a lot of these guys to just get away from Uvalde in general and feel the joy of just being here,” Rendon said. “Like coach said, a lot of these guys may never experience an NFL game like this. It’s going to be a big thing.”

Brooks Kubena