Big Game Splits a Texas Town : Prep football: Perennial state power Odessa Permian High has been penalized after a rival, Odessa High, turned it in for practicing out of season. They play tonight.

If there was any doubt how important high school football is in Texas, listen up.

The price of crude oil reached $40 a barrel this week, which should make the West Texas town of Odessa delirious. That’s the kind of news that could snap an oil town’s depression, which is just about what Odessa has been in for the better part of a decade.

But that’s not the important news in town. No sir, not when the town’s two high schools, Odessa High and state champion Permian, meet tonight in their annual game. Not when Permian has been portrayed in a new book as a football program seeped in a win-at-all-costs mentality that overrides education. And especially not when Permian has been banned from this year’s playoffs because Odessa’s coach told state authorities about Permian’s illegal summer practices.

Odessa is in the midst of a furor that is tearing the community asunder, the local paper contends.

Odessa High Coach Jerry Taylor is being reviled as a traitor, and school officials are begging students to stay calm. It’s anyone’s guess what will happen tonight at the sold-out game, but authorities are taking no chances. Police are expected in force.

H.G. Bissinger, the author of the book on Permian, “Friday Night Lights,” had planned a book signing in Odessa on game day, but canceled after he was threatened by Permian boosters. Locals say Bissinger made a good call.

“There are some real fanatics out there who don’t appreciate their football season being messed up like this,” said Kathy Wilson, an Odessa native. “People out here take their football seriously.”

Permian plays in a $6-million football stadium equipped with Astroturf and 19,500 seats. Coveted season tickets are willed from one generation to the next. Junior high teams run Permian plays so often that they’re second nature by the time the kids reach high school. All of which may be the reason Odessa High is known for its vocational training programs, and affluent Permian High holds five 5-A state football championship trophies.

Odessa High hasn’t beaten Permian in the annual intra-city game in 25 years.

“Permian is a machine,” said Taylor, who says he got tired of what he calls a “flaunting of the rules” by the Permian coaches.

In August, after witnessing what he said were numerous rules violations by Permian, Taylor complained to the state scholastic authorities. After hearings last week, two Permian coaches were suspended for two games and the school was barred from the playoffs.

“We contend we did not violate any . . . rules, and if we did it was a complete misunderstanding of how the rules should be interpreted,” said a still-fuming Permian Coach Tam Hollingshead. Hollingshead maintains that the summer practices were voluntary, and that the coaches were only present to protect the athletic equipment.

School district Athletic Director John Wilkins, who oversees the football programs at both schools, likened the penalty to “giving life imprisonment for stealing a pack of gum at the 7-Eleven.”

Gerald Treece, a 1963 Permian graduate and assistant dean of the South Texas Law School in Houston, is attempting to overturn the ruling on grounds that Permian was denied due process during the hearings.

Others have already taken the matter into their own hands. Cars parked at Odessa High have been plastered with Permian High School State Champion bumper stickers. Across town, Permian students found their cars shoe polished with obscenities demeaning “Mojo,” a school nickname for the Permian football program.

“I think it stinks,” said Odessa-native Wilson, an Odessa High graduate whose son attends Permian. “The boys shouldn’t be punished for something adults might have done.”

Alberto Byington, a member of the committee that imposed the penalties, said, “We need to send a message to all coaches in the state that this type of activity will not be tolerated.”

Taylor says he has received nasty phone calls and notes, even car bomb threats.

“Since I was the messenger, people blame me for splitting the town, but my personal opinion is this thing was self-inflicted by Permian,” he said. “There is a feeling on Permian’s part that they’re invincible, that the rules are for other folks but not them. It was a severe punishment, but it had to be to get their attention.”

Permian and Odessa High both have 2-1 records.

“It’s going to be a war,” predicted 16-year-old Chad Sandell, a former Permian player. “Anyone wearing Odessa High red is history, on the field or off.”