Celina Coach. (Making A Difference).

Celina is a small country town of some 2,000 residents in the rural northern tip of Collin County, Texas. On November 2nd, the Celina High Bobcats football team defeated rival Valley View High for its 50th consecutive victory, breaking a state record that had stood for 44 years. The Bobcats' last loss was on October 16, 1998, to arch-rival Pilot Point High, where Celina coach G.A. Moore Jr. once played and coached. Moore, now in his 39th year of coaching (including 19 at Celina) has led his team to three consecutive class 2A (small school) state championships. Should the Bobcats repeat this year, they will become only the second Texas high school team to win four consecutive titles.

The November 2nd win was the 383rd of coach Moore's legendary career, leaving him only 13 shy of the Lone Star State's all-time high school record of 396. He is expected to surpass it next season. His teams, which have lost a mere 71 games, have captured seven state championships in all, two short of the state record of nine for an individual coach.

USA Today for October 10th described Coach Moore as a "communal father figure and deacon-disciplinarian," noting that he "cites God regularly" and that "you could keep a statistician busy tabulating how many times his team prays each season -- before games, after games, at practices, before team meals." Consistent with the religious values that he strives to instill in his players, Moore places heavy emphasis on strong family ties. He and wife Lois Ann live on a ranch in Mustang, Texas, seven miles from Celina, that his grandfather bought about a century ago. Three grown daughters have houses on the property, while son Gary Don, an all-state quarterback for Celina's 1995 championship team and currently a member of his dad's coaching staff, also lives there. Coach Moore effuses, "We have a family reunion about every day around here."

In 1999, Moore became embroiled in a controversy over prayer at high school games. As noted, prayer has been a hallmark of Moore's coaching strategy for nearly four decades, and for Moore himself since his first high school game as a ninth grader. The Houston Chronicle for August 25th of this year recalled that when representatives of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) "descended on Celinato monitor the school's practice of public prayer before football games," Moore went to his office "where he keeps a Bible" and "flipped to the 22nd chapter of the book of Matthew and the verse, 'Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's.'" It was then, he told Chronicle reporter David Barron, that "I decided that somebody needed to take a stand, and that somebody needed to be me. I prayed about it, and I told the principal that I felt like somebody needed to lead the prayer, and since I didn't want anybody getting in trouble, it should be me."

A public address system borrowed from a local church was set up on the sidelines. "I told my coaches what I felt ... I needed to do, and if they arrest me y'all are in charge." It was, he says, "the only time in my life I thought I might go to jail, but, shoot, it was exciting. It was awkward, too, for a lot of people. But I made the decision, and I did what I felt I should do."

He was not arrested, but the U.S. Supreme Court eventually ruled that a school's public address system may not be utilized for prayer prior to a game. Prayers at Celina are now given without such electronic enhancement, as Bobcats' fans wear T-shirts emblazoned with the slogan: "Celina Football: They Pray Before They Play."

Looking back at his career to date, the new dean of Texas high school football reflects, "I've been so blessed in this situation. The good Lord has let this take place. I don't know why, because there's so many people [coaches] in so many towns that have great support. It humbles you when you really stop and think about it."