Fresh off of their 21-point come-from-behind victory over Randall, The Pampa Harvesters (3-1) will host Levelland (1-3) on Friday evening.
Head Coach Cody Robinson noted that the resiliency the Harvesters showed last Friday was a great example of what the team’s leadership council has been studying in their studies on the Book of Joshua from the Bible and how it relates to role changes in life.
“It would have been easy for Joshua to step up and lead if he had been somewhere else or an easier situation,” Robinson said. “But it turns out they were in the middle of the desert. It was 20 degrees at night, 110 during the day. There’s little water and who knows what kind of creatures and weather. It was an adverse situation. It’s harder to lead when faced with adversity than when it is easy.
“In Verse 10, in many translations, it says ‘Joshua takes command’ and Joshua steps up. That’s what we talked about last week. So to see a group of young men and coaches come together and do that exact thing, that was awesome.”
Robinson also lauded his defense for stifling some of the top players in the Panhandle late in the game.
“If you don’t do your job or, as we like to call it, you’re 1/11 part on the field, it makes a difference,” Robinson said. “The defense basically gave up two big plays early in the second half, but after that they got after it. It was a great
confidence-builder.”
The community support from the fans was also appreciated during Friday’s win.
“That is a special place for our kids to play football games,” Robinson said. “It’s a special place to coach a football game. Everybody plays their own unique role in competition at Pampa High School. That crowd, the Riot, etc. That’s at least seven points.”
As the team moves past the emotional win, Robinson said it’s a matter of what the Harvesters do to build off that win.
“We didn’t come in with a team goal to beat Randall,” Robinson said. “Obviously, we wanted to beat Randall. But we didn’t come this far to come this far. The most important thing about that game is what we do with it after. How much better did we get from it. We’ve made it an emphasis this week to coach harder with an edge.”
The Harvesters will host the Levelland Lobos on Friday at 7 p.m. But this is a new-look Lobos who, like the Harvesters, have a new coaching staff.
“They always put a quality product on the field and have athletes they like to get in space,” Robinson said. “Their offensive schemes are very popular and they will spread the ball out. Their running back, Marco Guillen, is a good back and they’ll move the ball around.”
Defensively, the Lobos will throw a lot of looks at the offense.
“At times it’s hard to know where people are at, especially in the secondary,” Robinson said. “Is it middle field open, or closed, or is it man (coverage). That’s something we will have to be sharp on.”
Before this week’s game against Levelland, the Pampa Harvesters will honor area veterans before the game.
“It’s always important to me for us to honor members of this community and there are a lot of people in this community who have paid a price so that we can all do what we do,” Robinson said. “Sometimes that’s forgotten. It’s important to me that we acknowledge the selfless serving nature of all of our veterans in Gray County.”
Veterans who arrive at 6 p.m. with their families will be allowed free entry to the game and during warm-ups they will be invited onto the field where the Harvesters will shake their hands and thank them.
“I was raised to always thank those people,” Robinson said. “My grandfather was a veteran and I think it’s important that our youth understand that how we live now didn’t come free. They live in the best country on the face of the earth and there’s a lot of people that enabled them to do that.”
Game time is at 7 p.m. and the game will be live-streamed on YouTube at https://youtu.be/l9GLG-QFEAM.
