Friday Night Lights: The Narbonne Edition

So we're not in Dallas, Texas, home to the Allen High School $60 million football stadium and have a network prime time television show dedicated to the drama of high school football, but among us lives one of the best high school programs in the nation.

I graduated from Narbonne High School in 1997, and very few things shock me about it. The pepper spray incident that injured 47 students didn't surprise me. After all when I went there Shazeb Andleeb was beaten to death and immortalized by Frank Black. And this was before killing Pakistanis was a topic du jour in America.

The thing that does shock me about by alma mater is that their football program is ranked by many publications' Top 25 list in the country. Two of CBS Sports' MaxPreps rankings has them in the top 15. ESPN's Recruiting Nation Top 25 power rankings has the Gauchos ranked 16.

Huh?

I knew Narbonne has been good for a while after they won the City Section champion last season. I even chronicled their 21-21 tie in the same City Section championship game back in 2008 on this very website.

So the fact they are good in football isn't a shock. The fact they are one of the best teams in the nation does surprise me. Hell, I watched one of their games on ESPNU while covering a Dodger game.

Knowing what a great job head coach Manuel Douglas has done with the program, I had no idea what to expect when I went to the homecoming game on Friday. To be honest, I didn't know it was homecoming. All I knew it was a game against the hated San Pedro Pirates.

After trailing early 7-0, the Gauchos shut down the Pirates the rest of the way to go on to a 28-7 win. Senior quarterback and Washington Huskies recruit Troy Williams went 11-for-12 for 118 yards and three touchdowns while also rushing for 25 yards. Junior running back Johnell Jackson added 130 yards on the ground on what was a defensive battle.

This wasn't the 56-0 breeze against Long Beach Poly, the 54-7 trouncing of Banning. Then again this was a rivalry game that San Pedro has enjoyed throughout most of their history. Sure Narbonne beat perennial powerhouse Mater Dei 18-17 earlier in the season, but I knew Narbonne would be for real if they beat San Pedro.

This was my first time back on campus since I received my diploma in 1997 days after I buried my father in Louisiana and missed The Cure headline the Weenie Roast at the Irvine Meadows Amphitheater. It was essentially the same shithole I left more than 15 years ago. The only difference was now it had lights on the football field that was installed in 2008. Games used to have to be played during daylight or down in Daniels Field mere blocks away from San Pedro High.

I was shocked that there was not a seat to be found. Me and a fellow Class-of-'97-er couldn't find any seats in the bleachers and was relegated to the very top in a standing-room only section. You used to be able to do your homework during football games when I went to school, so this was a very unfamiliar thing.

This set up a for one of my biggest fears: running into people who recognize me. I talk to only a handful of people I went to school with and prefer to keep it that way. Besides after 15 years, if I don't want to talk to you by now why the hell do I want to catch up on lost times? If you were a bitch in 1995, you are probably an even more insufferable bitch in 2012. And with the supposed apocalypse coming up, I don't want my last few months on earth marred by these people.

Thankfully I've gotten really fat since my anorexic days, so no one can recognize me through the folds of fat that hug my face, my neck, my gut, my ass. And with the tons of drugs I ingested in college and my 20s, thankfully I couldn't recognize anyone either. Anyone, that is, except that douchebag galore average-at-best football player who was in my class.

Mr. Douche was one of those guys who you could see could be cute until you talked to him. Then you realized the only way he would get laid would be to become Mr. Date Rapist. He sat behind me in Spanish class my our sophomore year, and he thought it was really amusing to smack me really hard on the back where a fly from my Alice In Chains Jar of Flies t-shirt was. I punched him in the gut one day, and that stopped.

Fortunately any residue cuteness blew away in the wind making me wonder how much in child support he paid each month.

By then the final minutes of the game were ticking down. The Gauchos made a great goal-line stop, and everyone headed home with me jumping into the car unscathed. My friend wasn't so lucky: a parent noticed her, but that was the extent of the danger.

We left with our chests puffed out a little more knowing that our school's football team is pretty damn good and will probably see some of these players on Saturdays in the future. But most of all, we felt pretty happy that we survived going in that wayback machine with only the minimal amount of nostalgia.

Narbonne will finish up their regular season schedule with a game at George Washington Prep on Friday and hosting Gardena High School next Friday before starting the City Section Playoffs. A state bowl game in almost inevitable after all of this.

All hail the Green and Gold.