HATTIESBURG, Miss. — Warrior Field on Old Highway 11 here is flanked by the massive Temple Baptist Church on one side and a water tower with “Oak Grove Warriors” emblazoned across it on the other.
Nearby are places with names like Lumberton and Purvis, towns that rest atop a local salt dome where nuclear bombs were test-detonated near the height of the cold war. The local radio features music by bluesmen with names like Ironing Board Sam and Honeyboy Edwards, though the dense forest of trees — the reason this area is called the Pine Belt — interferes with the signal every now and again.
Once inside the stadium, ticketholders are greeted by the clanging of cowbells — the Warrior Field gift shop sells cowbells for $25, a dollar extra for one with an Oak Grove Warriors sticker — and the welcoming smiles of two young women eager to sell tickets for the 50-50 raffle drawing at halftime.
For all its regional specificity, a fall Friday night at Warrior Field is a scene similar to the one played out in rural high school stadiums across the country each week. But flip to Page 13 of the game program and everything changes. There, in the upper right-hand corner, is a familiar face among the photos of the Oak Grove coaching staff. “Brett Favre Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks,” it reads below the photograph.
“We lost our offensive coordinator right before the season started when he took a job as a principal,” Oak Grove Coach Nevil Barr said. “I thought, ‘Shoot, let me check with Brett to see if he’d be interested.’ ”
Favre lives in the area and has a daughter who attends Oak Grove High School, which has about 1,600 students. During his storied N.F.L. career, Favre would regularly use Oak Grove’s facilities for off-season workouts and run drills with the school’s players.
“I thought with his enthusiasm and his knowledge and his fire that he’d be perfect for the job,” Barr said. “I knew he’d be great with our kids. His dad was a football coach. It’s just in his blood.”
There was, however, one minor hitch: Barr did not have any money in his budget to pay Favre.
“He said, ‘Let me get this right: you want me to get up early to come to work every day, work at night, work on the weekends and you’re not going to pay me a dime?’ ” Barr recalled. “I said, ‘That’s right.’ He said, ‘That sounds like the perfect job for me.’ ”
And it has certainly worked out for the Warriors. Oak Grove is 7-2 this season and, under Favre, the offense is averaging more than 30 points a game. Minutes before a recent game, Favre — dressed in a black coach’s shirt, black shorts and a black cap bearing the letters “OG” in gold — tossed a pass to young ball boy, who made the catch and beamed as if his mother had just declared pizza perfectly acceptable for consumption at breakfast.
Once the game was under way, though, Favre put on his headset and embraced an unfamiliar demeanor: one of quiet restraint. Aside from pumping his fist near the end of the first quarter when an Oak Grove player blocked a defender with such force that the opponent’s mouthpiece went hurtling through the air, Favre spent most of the game’s early going with his hands either in his pockets or clenched behind his back. When the offense was not on the field, Favre did not go back to the bench to give instruction to players or diagram plays. He left such tasks to other assistants and limited his interactions to the coaches he communicated with through his headset.
It was not until late in the first quarter — around the time the sun vanished and the only light visible on the horizon was the faint glow of a Dollar General sign in the distance — that Favre removed his hands from his pockets to applaud his offense’s efforts and high-five some of his fellow coaches after the Warriors scored a touchdown to take a 9-0 lead. As the first quarter gave way to the second, Oak Grove appeared to be in command.
Oak Grove’s opponent, Meridian High School, then scored four straight touchdowns to take a 28-9 halftime lead, just as smoke filled the stadium like a fog, the result of the concession stand grill-master’s efforts to satisfy the coming burger rush. Through it all, Favre appeared largely unmoved.
But with his team still trailing by several scores midway through the third quarter, Favre’s staid shell began to crack. He paced the sideline and intently observed most snaps bent over at the waist with his hands on his knees. Then, late in the quarter, Favre — like a pot of water slowly starting to boil — berated an official and gave his quarterback, Kirk McCarty, who would eventually attempt 55 passes, a stern dressing down as he came off the field after botching a play.
“Coach Favre just knows what he’s doing,” McCarty, a junior, said after the game. “He’s always one step ahead of the defense. It’s awesome.”
With Oak Grove trailing, 28-16, in the fourth, Favre finally went back to the bench to draw up a few plays for his players, unleashing an energy that appeared caged most of the game. His offense responded, scoring two touchdowns in the game’s final three minutes for a 31-28 lead. When the go-ahead score was registered with 27 seconds remaining, Favre placed his hands on his head and smiled widely, a look that conveyed equal parts satisfaction and relief.
After a last-gasp pass by Meridian was intercepted to end the game, Oak Grove students stormed the field. Asked how it felt to orchestrate a comeback as a coach rather than as a player, Favre cracked a slight smile and said, “It feels just as beautiful.”
He then turned and ran toward the celebration on the field, eager to join in the fun.
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