High School Football Tragedy

Throughout the country you cannot find a bigger high school football rivalry than Pahokee High School in Pahokee, Florida and Glades Central High School in Belle Glade, Florida. These neighboring towns abut Lake Okeechobee in western Palm Beach County, Florida. These towns are incredibly small, poor, rural and rely on one thing for their survival, sugarcane. In the past few decades, these towns have become known for something else, Football. That is with a capital FOOTBALL.

Each of these two schools have won multiple state championships, in different divisions, and have many alumni who have gone on the star at the college and professional levels. Pahokee is the two time defending state champion for its classification, and its notable alumni include Arizona Cardinal Anquan Boldin and current Florida State Seminole Antone Smith. Glades Central has won 6 state titles in its classification, tied for second most in Florida, and has more football players in the NFL and NCAA than any other high school in the country. Some recognizable names include former Buccaneer and Gator Reidel Anthony, NFL and Seminole receiver Jessie Hester (their current coach), current Steeler Santonio Holmes, former NFL RB James Jackson, former Dolphin safety Louis Oliver, and current Jaguar Fred Taylor. In fact, immediately prior to beginning my freshman year of college my high school played a Glades Central team that started JaJuan Seider at QB (cup of coffee in the NFL), Taylor and Jackson at RB, and Reidel Anthony at WR. We were happy at the 40-0 score in that game.

Before I get to the crux of my story, you need to understand the town dynamics. The kids on both of these teams know each other. Relatives live in each of the neighboring towns. In fact, Pahokee senior captain's Norman Griffith's mother lives in Pahokee and his father lives in Belle Glade. These two towns are that intertwined.

These two high schools play each year in "The Muck Bowl", one of those games were the pre-game starts all week, businesses close in both towns on football Friday, tens of thousands attend the game even though their aren't that many seats, and a truly great time is had by all. It should be a great game again this year as both teams are state ranked and undefeated.

On Friday evening, Pahokee had its homecoming game against Jupiter High School, and the number 1 ranked Blue Devils won 34-10. Pahokee's undefeated season is still going strong with a legitimate chance at a third straight state championship. The aforementioned Norman Griffith and some teammates went to celebrate the victory by attending a dance held at the Belle Glade Community Center. While there, according to reports, several people approached Griffith upset that he was wearing Pahokee's colors. The situation seemed ripe to escalate, so Griffith and teammate Donald Johnson decided the best thing to do was to extricate themselves from the situation. After leaving and getting in Griffith's family car, a young male walked up and shot Griffith, killing him and injuring Johnson.

Just utter and complete nonsense, as Griffith is apparently dead because he wore his school colors to a community center dance after a football game. This is heartless, tragic and utterly reprehensible. Not that anything like this matters now, but Griffith was being recruited by Division I-A schools like Iowa State, Middle Tennessee State, Ball State and Buffalo. Football was indeed Griffith's ticket. That ticket is now denied because of at least one moron who thinks that what you wear is more important than anything else.

To be fair, local authorities are investigating the shooting as gang related, at least to the point that the shooter may have been involved in a gang. A rash of gun-related incidents among young men have sprouted in Belle Glade lately, including a Glades Central player, Byron Blake, being shot in the hand just last Monday after practice. He returned fire before suffering further injuries. However, none of the reports link Griffith to any gang activity whatsoever.

A great postscript to this story could be written on Friday night, as Pahokee High School travels to Byrnes, South Carolina, to play an interstate game on ESPNU. Incidentally, Glades Central also played Byrnes, High School a couple of years ago, when ESPN was starting its high school telecasts. The Pahokee players have decided to play the game, as it does not conflict with Griffith's funeral, which will be held on October 11. To Byrne's credit, they have offered to spray paint Griffith's number 7 on the field.

I remember playing sports in my younger day, and nothing was better than to play your best while beating your rival, especially in a small town atmosphere. Where I grew up there were 2 high schools. We saw the other school/team in church, at the beach, in the store, everywhere. Never, did the rivalry escalate into gun shots. Unfortunately for Norman Griffith, this is no longer the case.

Rest In Peace Norman Griffith. I never knew you, your family or any of your friends. But I do know people like you, who have managed to strap themselves out of situations, whether it be locale, station in life, family or otherwise. It's just a shame that you never had that same opportunity.