2017 Schedule/Results: Class: 6A | 5A | 4A | 3A | 2A | 1A, TAIAO, TAPPS Six Man
AP All-State Teams: Class: 6A | 5A | 4A | 3A | 2A
Video: Inside High School Sports
Nearly everyone from a small South Texas town traveled to North Texas Wednesday night to root hard for their high school football team.
Refugio, Texas, was hit hard by Hurricane Harvey in August. The damage was so severe, the storm delayed the start of school for the Refugio Bobcats by weeks.
But the team persevered, driven by the hopes of the entire town, and reached the Class 2A Division 1 state championship game at AT&T Stadium in Arlington against the Mart Panthers.
"We had a lot of damage done to our house, our yard, property," said Robert Montalvo, parent of one of the players. "I mean, the whole town did. This just shows these kids go through a lot and look where they are now today."
Each student at Refugio has a story to tell about escaping or surviving the hurricane when it tore through their town. But the struggles didn't end when the storm moved on.
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Refugio ISD's superintendent says 13 percent of the students in the district remain homeless, staying with friends of family because their homes were destroyed. About half the football team saw damage to their houses, and a couple of the players lost everything.
Casey Henderson was one of those players. The wide receiver and cornerback says most of the roof of his house was sheared off in the storm. A few weeks later, he suffered another setback. Henderson fractured two vertebrae in his neck. He was paralyzed, and doctors told his family the odds of him ever walking again were slim.
Henderson did walk again, but watched Wednesday's game from a wheelchair on the sidelines. He says he can walk and stand, but still has limited mobility in one of his arms. The recovery is ongoing.
His head coach led an effort to raise money to rebuild Henderson's home in the fall, so his family can just focus on his recovery.
Henderson says he's proud of his team and himself.
"You have to fight through everything. You can't give up just because your house is destroyed or because somebody gets hurt," Henderson said. "My team has been through a lot, and here they are right now."
They fought hard, but Refugio fell just short of their goal. Mart won the title game, 34-21.
