Odessa High School

Football University prepares players for the next level

ODESSA -- It's the goal of Football University to not just put together another typical skills camp. The organization wants to provide a camp experience like none other.

FBU holds camps all across the U.S., but only in areas where athletes of all ages breathe, eat, drink and sleep the game, making the Permian Basin the perfect stomping grounds for the organization's newest camp.

For the past three days, nearly 200 football players ranging from the junior high to high school level, and featuring a variety of skills, took part in a camp intended to get them ready for the next step at Permian High School. A majority of these players were from West Texas, although a few journeyed from New Mexico, Oklahoma and as far away as South Carolina to take part in the camp.

Bringing FBU to the Permian Basin is a process that was a couple years in the making.

"We've been researching the possibility of extending our camps and bringing them to a place where guys at a junior high and high school level eat, drink and sleep football," Football University Director of Operations John Davis said. "We tried to bring the camp here last year, but it didn't have enough behind it. We wanted to reach out into West Texas and let the local area prove what kind of tradition they have out here."

The FBU camp gives athletes a chance to learn skills on the field as well as in the film room from instructors who have either played or coach at the collegiate or professional levels. Among those working with the athletes was former Dallas Cowboys offensive lineman Dale Hellestrae.

Hellestrae had a 17-year career in the NFL also playing for the Buffalo Bills and Baltimore Ravens. During his time with the Cowboys from 1990-1995, he served as the team's long snapper and was a member of the three Super Bowl winning teams.

Hellestrae is in his first year of involvement with FBU, but says it's been a great experience with the structure of the camps attracting him to the organization.

"I wanted to be a part of what this camp does," Hellestrae says. "A lot of times a player puts his name on a camp, shows up for five minutes at the end of it and that's that. These guys really invest their time into this camp. They are actually teaching these kids lessons that will help them with the game and in life down the road."

As far as the camp coming to Odessa, Hellestrae has a good understanding of what football means to the Permian Basin.

"I played college ball at SMU and I played with some guys from Permian," Hellestrae said. "I have an understanding of what football means out here and how good the brand of football is that is played here.

Legendary Andrews shows no signs of slowing down | andrews, coach ...

Leta Andrews has never considered doing anything else.

Not in 49 years of coaching, a remarkable stretch that has made Andrews famous, the winningest high school basketball coach in the country and a face recognizable to almost any coach in the state of Texas.

But it’s not the wins that have kept Andrews on the sidelines all these years, the last 23 at Granbury.

“I’ve never wanted to do anything else,” Andrews said. “I’m already doing exactly what I’ve always wanted to do, working with young ladies, help them be the best young ladies they can be.”

For the second straight year, Andrews kicked off the Basin’s Best Volleyball Clinic at Odessa High by speaking to a group of volleyball coaches, sprinkled with a few coaches from other sports who wanted to hear the coaching legend speak.

Andrews rarely talks about nuts and bolts. She almost never talks about her coaching philosophy.

She reached the record-breaking figure of 1,334 wins by focusing on her players.

“She’s coached all kinds of athletes, from All-Americans to the kids on the bench,” said Odessa High head volleyball coach Linda McMillan, the Basin’s Best organizer. “Like she said, you can’t coach all kids the same. Kids are different, and she coaches every kid according to what they need.”

Andrews has been a legend in the state of Texas for a long time.

But she became a nationwide sensation last December. With Andrews marching to the magical mark of 1,334 wins — one more than former Fort Worth Dunbar boys basketball coach Robert Hughes — the national media descended on Granbury to chronicle the moment.

Reporters from around the state came calling. The New York Times knocked on Andrews’ door. Katie Couric wanted to talk to Andrews.

Marching to 1,334 became a spectacle unlike anything Andrews has ever seen in her 49 years on the bench.

“It was overwhelming,” Andrews said. “The people that picked up on the record. So many people couldn’t believe a female did it. I couldn’t believe it either, but I never thought about it. The only win that mattered to me was the next one.

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