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Football player running with ball

Source: Thomas Barwick / Getty

It’s was just two weeks since the people of Rockport, Texas lost their homes to Hurricane Harvey, but that wasn’t going to stop the football team at Rockport-Fulton from playing the sport they love.
The team doesn’t have a school to attend or a football field to play on, but the Pirates coach, Jay Seibert decided days after he and many others lost their homes that the team was having their season-opener game, no questions asked.

Some players didn’t have but the clothes on their backs, but the team showed up to practice during the week leading up to their opener game, and by the end of the week more then 90% of the players showed up. They were running drills on sweeps and counters.
“They’ve got some important decisions, but at least for a couple hours, three hours on Friday night, they’ ain’t gotta think about that stuff,” said Tom Allen, Sinton ISD’s athletic director.”
Not everyone of Rockport agree with the team playing football after what the town went through, but Friday Night Lights is big in Texas and this is something the students need to get them away from this new, but temporary norm.
“This is something that we hope that our kids and their kids are going to draw from for the rest of their lives,” Allen explained.
Coach Siebert told the kids, “Remember who you play for. You play for each other. In this case, we’re also playing for our family and friends in our community. We’re playing for everyone.”
Although the Pirates lost their opener to Sinton High School, they had a unity of support from both sides.
The Fulton Pirates played their first game of the season just 40-minutes away from home in the nearby town, Sinton at the Sinton High School.
The Pirates head coach did inform his team that they needed to register for school in nearby schools for at least 4-2weeks in order to play football. No school, no football.