Sacred Heart & Ville Platte HS Teams

My name is Tim. I am a physical therapist in the small Cajun/Creole Southwest Louisiana town of Ville Platte where 51% of our population of 8,000 lives below the poverty line. We have two high school football teams in our city. One is an 82% African American, predominately Protestant, mostly poor public school called the Ville Platte High Bulldogs. The other is an all white, Catholic, largely upper middle class, private School, called the Sacred Heart Trojans. Now, we are in the Deep South, where the city and high schools there were torn apart with racial violence that made national and international headlines two years ago. We are not immune to the racism and prejudice that historically has been in this region. But, we have been given a rare and precious gift that brings this town and community together in a way that nothing else has- a simple high school football game. A game that draws the whole community together in which winning is important, but not the most important thing. A game where respect, effort, and love for your opponent is the most important. A game where the two teams share a meal together the night before the game. A game where the two teams after the meal, kneel together and pray FOR THEIR OPPONENT to play his best game of his life! A game where the winners shut their mouths and talk good about their opponents and the loser doesn't hang his head, but looks at his opponent and shakes his hand and says, "Congratulations. Good Game"! A game where NFL Films came down and did a short 10 min. feature on the game and the late Pope John Paul II saw this feature and sent a letter with a Papal Blessing over the two teams, schools and town. A game where the public school faces closing due to a 40 year old desegregation case and the prayers from members of BOTH schools have kept it open! The Game is called the Tee Cotton Bowl (Tee is Cajun-French for petite or little). Also here are some past articles written about the game that I have included in this email. I have more also if you are interested. I have seen some of your work. It is outstanding.

This year's game is the week of Nov. 6th. I sponsor this game along with my wife every year. This year is the tenth anniversary of the game.

Submitted by Anonymous

Respect