PORT NECHES — Any chance Port Neches-Groves coach Brandon Faircloth can take to forget about the harsh realities of life is a great thing.

So, why not coach a football game?

“It takes with some healing to get out and get back in a little of a routine, you know, kind of an escape,” he said. “I know me and our coaches and some of our players, our houses are flooded, so it helps to get out here and [to] not think about that for a little while is nice. We have kids who work so hard, and we love working with them. It definitely was an escape for me to get back out here and coach football and get back out here with the kids. It definitely was a relief from what we were dealing with at the house.”

On Friday night, the Indians’ house won’t look like it went through a hurricane. Purple will fill the home side of The Reservation stadium. A football game will kick off.

More than a week after Tropical Storm Harvey, getting back to football will be a victory in itself for both PNG and Baytown Sterling. Both teams returned to practice Monday.

“This is the first time I’ve gone through something like this, and it definitely is a humbling experience,” second-year Sterling coach Brett Sawyer said. “You’ve got communities that were devastated, and that’s where sports come in to bring something positive.”

The visitors’ side might not look as full, and Sawyer perfectly understands. As hard as Harvey impacted greater Houston and Southeast Texas, traveling isn’t so easy to do for some.

“I don’t know if our community is just ready to travel,” he said. “If it were a home game, that might be a different deal. I know the band the drill team won’t be there. It’s just going to be the football team and the cheerleaders.”

Like PNG and many other teams in the area, Sterling did not play a Week 1 game. Its home game against Clear Lake was a washout.

On Friday, Sterling gets to begin building on a 6-4 season that nearly resulted in the school’s first playoff appearance since 2008. Channelview beat Sterling in the season finale to end those hopes.

The last time the Rangers won seven or more games was 1988, when they were 7-2. They can still match that.

Friday night, that’s not important.

“The win and the loss doesn’t matter,” Sawyer said. “The fact that we’re playing is what matters.”

PNG is a District 22-5A tri-champion, along with Port Arthur Memorial and Vidor, and has lots of tradition on its side. But tradition couldn’t be any more valuable in giving an entire community and its visitors a chance to come together.

“Here at PNG, we have such a great community, and our football has such great community support,” Faircloth said. “Anything that we can do for them on Friday night and give them somewhere to come out and cheer and have a smile on their face — it’s been a terrible tragedy for so many people — if there’s any way we can help in that, we would love to. Our fans love football, and this time of year, we can give them that Friday night.”
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I.C. Murrell: 549-8541. Twitter: @ICMurrellPANews