FanHouse High School Sports

The season is over for the most famous high school football team in America. It wasn't the happy ending everyone wanted.

If it had been, ESPN's trucks would be rolling back into Parkersburg, Iowa, followed by a truckload of other media. This story had a Hollywood beginning, then it turned into a reality show.

"Our kids deserved to have a ball bounce their way or a break to win a close game," Al Kerns said. "But that's the movies."

He's the co-coach at Aplington-Parkersburg High. You may not remember the name, but you probably remember the plight.

The community of Lincoln, Ala., continues to rally behind the family of Keith Howard and the school's football program.

Howard, 48, the popular head football coach and athletic director at the tiny school on Highway 77, a half-hour drive east of Birmingham on Interstate 20, died Aug. 3 from a massive heart attack after leaving the Lincoln-Etowah season opener at halftime complaining of chest pains.

Howard's death not only impacted the small, rural county where he was born and raised, it has touched hearts nationally. The school has received letters of condolences from individuals and organizations across the country, including the Erie County Legislature in New York that passed a Memorial Resolution Sept. 10 in honor of Howard.

A high school football player in New York City spent five hours in custody Friday because police wrongly believed he was involved in the murder of another teenager -- even as his coaches insisted he hadn't been anywhere but school and practice.

Until Monday, when I nervously dialed McNicholas High School in Cincinnati, I hadn't talked to my first football coach in nearly 40 years. I got his answering machine. His voice still made me want to drop on my belly and give him 20.

Steve Klonne.

Ohhhhhhhhhhhh.

I've thought about Klonne often lately. Here's why: In a silly move by prosecutors, a Louisville high school football coach was accused in a trial last week of reckless homicide and wanton endangerment in the 2008 death of one of his players. Those prosecutors told a jury that Pleasure Ridge Park 's David Jason Stinson (pictured) caused the death of 15-year-old lineman Max Gilpin. They said he died of a heat stroke after he was forced to run "gassers," the traditional set of sprints that coaches unleash on players at all levels of football for conditioning and often for punishment.

LINCOLN, Ala. -- The stadium lights dimmed and the 36-foot projection screen beyond the south end zone brightened. Keith Howard, a special combination of coach, Christian, mentor and fundraiser, was poised to address the community he so dearly cherished. Soft music played, the video started, and a voice surely from heaven was heard.

Howard had the crowd at hello.

Even in death.

Lisa Howard's loyalty to family is providing her with strength this week.

The dedication ceremony to rename Talladega Memorial Stadium to Keith Howard Memorial Stadium during Lincoln High's home opener Thursday -- originally postponed Wednesday afternoon -- will be held as scheduled, Lincoln High Principal Terry Roller told FanHouse Wednesday night.

Keith Howard, 48, head football coach and athletic director at the tiny school in Talladega County, Ala., died last Friday night after leaving the Lincoln-Etowah season opener at halftime complaining of chest pains.

"We are going to do whatever Lisa wants or needs," Roller said. "It was off, but she decided to she wanted do go through with it, because she has a daughter-in-law who is expecting and she wants to spend time with her as well. "

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The story wasn't much of blip on the sports radar. A football coach in Alabama suffered chest pains during a game and died on the way to the hospital.

It wasn't Nick Saban or anybody you'd know. It was Keith Howard, whose name you'll probably forget as soon as you click off this screen.

There are more pressing stories to get to, like Rich Rodriguez's tears or Joba Chamberlain's pitch count or whether T.O.'s ailing toe will make an appearance in this week's reality episode.

LOS ANGELES -- Quiet tension filled the small courtroom when the standout high school running back walked in wearing an orange prison jumpsuit for the opening hearing of his attempted murder case at Compton Juvenile Division Court Wednesday morning.

Although Compton Superior Court Judge Charles R. Scarlett ordered that the name of the athletic-built prisoner be withheld because he's a juvenile and prevented cameras and voice recorders from the courtroom, it was immediately evident that this was not your typical gang-related shooting arraignment.

That's because Jerry Stone, a 5-foot-10, 200-pound senior, wasn't your average athlete on the football field.