In 2021, Ganado residents and alum Clint Hensley began placing weekly Facebook posts concerning the Indians football team, such as who they were playing and each team’s record.
On August 3 of this year, Hensley’s book, Friday Night Warriors, went on pre-sale. The Facebook posts went from being Ganado v. whoever they played that week, to an indepth dive into both schools playing each week, and that information as well as much much more were put together to make the book possible.
What made you decide to put all of the information together into a book?
“The day after we lost to Timpson in the semifinals in 2023, I made a Facebook post recapping our season,” Hensley explained. “2023 was a season that the program went beyond expectations and was tabbed as the “Haters Tour,” because Ganado was not given any respect by anyone outside of Ganado, including Dave Campbell’s Texas Football.
“The highlight of that season was our 41-12 whipping over Refugio, a team who had dominated us the previous 10 seasons, in the Quarterfinals at Victoria Memorial Stadium, and who had defeated Ganado just four weeks earlier for the district title.
“Enough was enough, and this was a testament of the hard work our coaches and team put in to prepare for that game and the entire team believed that they could beat them. In the semifinal game, Ganado went toe-to-toe with Timpson and led at halftime, before falling in the second half.
“Timpson had Division I prospect Terry Bussey, who now plays at Texas A&M, who told our quarterback, Bryce Ullman, after that game that next year is your turn and go win state. We were only going to lose three seniors from that 2023 team and we had a very strong senior class returning and I knew we would be back and the possibilities were for real-Ganado could go to state and win it in 2024.
“I mentioned on Facebook it was possible I might write a book on our football program one day, and I got a lot of feedback on it. It was just a matter of doing it and putting it together. I actually got started on the beginning phases of it in January 2024, but then put it aside, because I thought if we actually do win state, this would be quite fitting to write the book. I already had collected data and archives of our history through the years and had the tools to write the book.”
What can people learn in the book?
“It’s all about Ganado football and the history of our program. It touches the beginning of our history with thorough detailed recaps of all of our seasons since 1995, when the Ganado football program became a power, and all the way for the next 30 years to our first state title in 2024.
At the end of the book, I have a list of our complete history since the Ganado football program began in 1928 with each seasons’ records, coaches, playoff history, school stat records and all team photos of every team that advanced to the playoffs or won a district title.”
How long did it take you to get everything together and where did you get the information for the book?
“The first items I began collecting go back to 1996, with newspaper clippings from the Victoria Advocate of our football games. That was a historic season for Ganado as we went 14-1 and advanced to the semifinals and lost to Groveton in the Astrodome.
“I bought my first Dave Campbell’s Texas Football magazine in 1997. Around 2000, the old Collier-Sharp website that had weekly school rankings and picks for each game was very popular. I have some old printouts of these. There was a man that began doing team histories on Collier-Sharp that I took big interest in and have some printouts of those too for different schools from the area.
He later passed away and the website went under.
“In the summer of 2008, I began to work on a project of recording team histories for all area schools as a hobby. I reached out to Mike Forman, former sports editor of the Victoria Advocate, for team histories for schools from the area. He actually printed out a couple of seasons for me and sent them to me in the mail. I really appreciated him for doing that and for his help. A year later in 2009, I went to the Advocate one day after work and met with Mike and he handed me a scorebook that has all team histories from all area schools dating back to 1982, which was the year when he began his career at the Advocate and coincidingly was the year I was born.
“He told me if this building was to catch on fire, the scorebook would be the first thing he would take. That’s how valuable this scorebook was to him.
I went across the street to the public library and made copies of what I needed for all seasons that I didn’t have. I got all area school team histories that date from 1982-1995 from this scorebook and every year after that I was able to get the information online.
“I later found out I was the ONLY ONE whom he lent this scorebook to, because he knew what I was doing and he trusted me.
“I have so much respect for Mike Forman, and he did a tremendous job while working at the Victoria Advocate, in my opinion. He covered many of our games in the past and did an excellent job, and we would happen to meet with each other every once in a while, when he would be in Ganado to do a game and we would have a nice visit.
“1982 was also a significant year for the Texas football playoff format as UIL began taking two teams to the playoffs, a runner- up, along with the district champion. Prior to that year, it was just the district champion that advanced to the playoffs and that was it.
Nowadays, four teams advance.
“Between 2011-2013, I went online and ordered all Dave Campbell’s Texas Football Magazines dating back to 1982-1996, which were those that I didn’t have. I have football clippings from the Victoria Advocate and Jackson County Herald-Tribune archives of our games I used for this book. I made many trips to the JCHT making copies and getting resources from their yearbooks in archives for information.
“Other websites I used were texashighschoolfootballhistory. com, pigskinprep. com, Lonestar Football, and MaxPreps, where I have obtained recent stats from. I give a lot of credit to our current athletic director/ head football coach Josh Ervin for his help on this project, on providing me stats as well as any other information that I needed, with the recent years since he has been in our program since 2018.”
What are your ties to Ganado?
“I’m a 2001 graduate from Ganado, my roots and ties are all in Ganado. My mom and dad live there and both worked at the school district for a long time.
“I was not an athlete, but I did play football up to my sophomore year. I understand the hard work and dedication football teaches, and it does teach a lot of valuable life lessons to prepare these young athletes for the real world. I just was not cut out to be a football player, but I developed and have a huge passion for the game and knowledge of the game, and I love the school pride that revolves around Texas high school football.
“I served as a student assistant/ manager for the JV and Varsity football games for my junior and senior year and enjoyed every bit of it. I wanted to help out and be part of the team.
“I give lots of credit and have always looked up to Monte Althaus, who was our athletic director from 1995-2000. He was the man who was instrumental in turning our football program around. We went from a losing program to 91 tri-district champions in his first year in 1995, and missed the playoffs because of the district’s positive points formula in the threeway- tie, and our one loss was to Industrial.
“I attended my first Ganado football game in 1993, and have been to many Ganado football games since and have seen wins and the losses, and have witnessed a lot. Winning state was the icing on the cake. In 2021 I started something with making Facebook posts each Friday of our weekly game capsules to show support for our school and the Ganado football program, and it started out as short and simple, basically stating who we are playing, the series record between the two schools along with the last meeting. Each year these have grown, where I have including histories of our opponents and other aspects of the matchups. I support everything to do with Ganado ISD, because I love Ganado, and again that is where I came from.
It is not all in football, all other sports as well, and we have been very successful in baseball and softball, also to mention winning our first softball title in May was awesome and I have supported those teams as well, along with our academics, band, and other aspects of our school, that has strived for excellence since 1900. I bleed maroon, and I will until the day I die.
Aside from scores and stats, what will the book hold?
“The book recaps key players from each team I went into detail with along with scores and stats from each game I covered. It does mention coaches, as well as coaching changes, players who have gone on to play at the next level in college or pro, which was obtained with information I was able to either research or was provided to me.
There were some tragedies that took place in our community along the way that are mentioned as well.
“It is basically a timeline of our beginning to winning the state championship.”
Tell me about the publication process. Was the book something you planned to do from the beginning?
“After Ganado won state, I spent Christmas holidays and the first half of January gathering season stats and box scores from MaxPreps, which I eventually put together in a folder and I made a lot of copies and presented them to the entire team and coaches at our ring ceremony in April.
This was something I wanted to do to show my appreciation and gift to the team for winning state and I thought it would be a good keepsake for them.
“On January 22, it all came together in my mind we had just won state a month ago, and it was time to put it all together in a book. I had my information, the archives, the websites to go to, and it was just a matter of doing it. I spent many hours in the evenings and weekends working on this and finished typing it up the last weekend in April.
“I spent all of May to the first part of June reading through the whole thing and making edits. Since this was a first for me, I was not familiar with the publishing process or what to do so I reached out on Facebook on July 1 for some help. Chris Doelle, who works for Lonestar Gridiron, reached out to me and he willingly published the book.
“Clay Green was the one who introduced me to Chris at a football game last year as he came to me and told me I need to friend this guy on Facebook, and that Chris is a football historian and goes around to area games.
“This book went on presale on August 31 and is still up for presale and will be available for pickup for all of those who have preordered the book at the Ganado homecoming game on October 3.
“Chris and I will be at that game at a table signing and handing out books to those that preordered and anyone that wants to walk up and buy one right there.
I have shared the link on my Facebook page, if you are interested, it is there.
This book is for Ganado, it is my gift to Ganado and all of those that have ever put on a uniform at Ganado. If you like football history, if you are a passionate Ganado football fan, or just a high school football fan in general, this book is for you.
“I enjoyed going back and reminiscing through the years while putting this together, and believe me, there were some things I have forgotten, but then remembered while working on this project. It took a lot of work, and this is one accomplishment I am proud of. There might be more to come, we will see, and I hope this is enjoyed by all who have the interest in reading it.”
The book is on presale at boardgamelegends.com, just search for Friday Night Warriors single copy.
