by Stone Phillips, Dateline anchor

 I love football.  Always have.  And when you hear my story, you'll understand why the "Pride of Pampa" is among my all-time favorite hours on Dateline. Covering the Harvesters' first home game this year and telling the green team's story felt like a blast from the past.  

Like so many of the players in Pampa, Texas, I grew up watching my older brother play.  Vic was a team captain for the Blocker Junior High Demons in Texas City, Texas.  He played tight end and, like Pampa's James Coffee, was a pretty impressive punter. 

Photo: Michael J. Stevens

Stone Phillips, in the stands, watching a Pampa High School football game.

Although, I must say I never saw my brother punt with his opposite leg the way James did the night we were there, because his kicking leg was injured.  James, my man, that was INCREDIBLE!   Still, Vic was a fine player and later earned a football scholarship.  Talk about tough acts to follow.   

After our family moved to St. Louis, I reached playing age and couldn't wait to suit up.  It wasn't Texas football, but we popped the pads pretty good in Missouri!   I started off playing offensive line on my Koury League team under Pete Weitzel, a volunteer dad and the first of many wonderful coaches I was blessed to play for over the years.  By the time I reached 9th grade, I had speeded up enough to play halfback and linebacker for my junior high team, the Parkway West Longhorns.  Trent Loter, I hope you're reading this, because there could be a quiz!  (Trent is the Pampa football team's equipment manager and he knows the mascot for darn near every high school in the state of Texas-- AMAZING!)  I wore #43 in junior high, because that was Dean Morton's number.  Dean was the star running back for the varsity team at Parkway West and remains one of the best high school backs I've ever seen.  He had speed and strength like Pampa's Chase Harris, and moves like you wouldn't believe.  Dean's father, Don Morton, was the varsity backfield coach.  I'll never forget how he would try not to laugh as the younger backs like myself would line up and take turns showing him our moves.  Let's just say, we weren't exactly faking him out of his jockstrap.  But Coach Morton was always encouraging.

The following year I was called up to the varsity by head coach Jack Wells.  Like most dedicated high school coaches, Coach Wells lived and breathed football, but he also constantly reminded us that family comes first.  I mean, every day he reminded us.  So when Pampa's head coach, Andy Cavalier, told me the story of what he did to make sure his family didn't take a back seat to football, I thought to myself, "A kindred spirit of Jack Wells."   They're both gifted coaches, caring people and great family men.  They have something else in common-- they both know the ups and downs of starting a sophomore at quarterback.

Coach Wells switched me to quarterback and started me as a sophomore.  Never having played the position, I was even greener than the green team's sophomore quarterback, Casey Trimble.  When I interviewed Casey before the game and he confessed to being a little nervous, I couldn't help remembering how I'd broken out in hives at the beginning of my sophomore season. When Casey threw his first touchdown pass of his varsity career,  I knew a lifelong memory had just been made. I remember the first touchdown pass I threw in the fall of 1970 like it was yesterday.  And I'm still grateful to Rick Lockton for making a great catch.

Of course, I also remember the sophomore mistakes I made.  When Casey fumbled the ball, I felt his pain.   

Like so many who play this game, I also experienced the brutality of football.  That's one aspect of the game I abhor. It's hard to see players go down with injuries, some of which can hobble them for years.  During my senior year, I suffered the first of two concussions in football.  I don't remember much of what happened after my bell was rung, only that the field was muddy and when I trudged to the sideline to confer with Coach Wells, I did something we still laugh about.  Dinged and desperate to dry my hands for the next play, I proceeded to wipe the mud on my fingers all over Coach Wells' clothes. Needless to say, I was taken out of the game. 

I recovered and was fortunate enough to continue with football in college.  I played quarterback at Yale with terrific teammates like my fellow St. Louisan  Mike Southworth, Kansan Eddie Lewis,  West Virginian Brian Book, Chicagoan Scottie Rooth, and the world's greatest tight end Greg Hall (to name a few). And once again, I was blessed to play for another incredible coach, Carm Cozza. Carm is the all-time winningest coach in Yale history.  More importantly, he is a total class act.  And the other coaches with whom I worked closely, offensive co-coordinator Seb LaSpina and backfield coach Richie Pont, were any player's dream.  They were such a positive force in our lives.  They kept us working and laughing all season long.  I love them both.

Long after my football-playing days were done, I experienced what many fathers in

In a heartwarming report, Dateline travels to Pampa, Texas to tell the real story of high school football, Texas-style.

by Matt Fields, Dateline producer based in Washington D.C.

It was early July. I was sitting at my computer writing a script about a murder trial in Northern California when I got the call from New York. The network was preparing for the return of NFL football on Sunday nights as well as the launch of a new drama, "Friday Night Lights," when our anchor, Stone Phillips, decided that he wanted to do a football story of his own.

It was a natural for Stone. He is, after all, a great athlete who grew up playing football and basketball and went on to have a very successful college career as Yale's quarterback during the 1970s.

I found myself tasked with finding a high school somewhere in the country that would open its doors to our cameras, giving us an all-access behind-the-scenes pass, to tell a story about high school football from the inside-out. The challenge was daunting.

I thought, "There are thousands of high schools in the country, where do I even begin?" I quickly settled on Texas, the state famous for it's obsession with the sport, especially at the high school level, thanks in large part to H.G. Bissinger's Pulitzer Prize-winning book, "Friday Night Lights."

Then, I wondered, "With many of the unflattering stereotypes portrayed in the book and the movie that followed -- coaches pressured to win at all costs, players treated like gods, towns with priorities out of whack -- would any program be willing to let us in? Would any coach want a network newsmagazine following his family and his players from their living rooms to the classroom and the locker room? Eventually, the answer would be yes.

But first, for two weeks, I scoured the Internet and worked the phones, looking for leads. I was looking for something more than football, something deeper, something with an emotional component that would resonate with just about anyone. I wanted to find a dynamic coach, kids with heart, a town with soul. I called sources from past stories, friends, friends-of-friends, sports reporters and our affiliate stations.

Finally, I came up with a list of five potential schools. Then in mid-August I hopped on a plane bound for Texas. Over the next five days, I would drive nearly 1,000 miles across the state, visiting one school each day.

My first stop, Celina. About an hours drive north of Dallas, Celina is home to some 3,000 people, all of them football crazy. The Bobcats were state champs last year, and under the charismatic and fiery leadership of Coach Butch Ford, they were showing promise of returning to state again.

The next day I drove south of Dallas to Waxahachie to visit Coach David Ream and his team. The Indians had a beautiful stadium that most small colleges would drool over and the makings for a deep playoff run in the 4A division. It just so happened that Stone has roots in Waxahachie, with a family farming operation dating back generations.

From there I headed further south to a town outside of Waco called Gatesville. Home to the Fighting Hornets, several state prisons, and a young enthusiastic coach named Michael Morgan. Morgan was looking to build his team into a perennial playoff contender in the 3A division.

On Thursday morning I drove north some 200 miles to Windthorst to meet Coach Bill Green and his son, Brad. The youngest of three sons to play under his father, Brad is the team's star QB. Coach Green had won a state championship with his two older boys and was looking to get his third with Brad. The Trojans are a 1A powerhouse, a division for some of the smallest schools in the state. The town of Windthorst has a little more than 400 people living there, most of them dairy farmers. In fact, several of the boys on the team get up well before the sun rises to milk cows before heading off to day filled with football and schoolwork.

Courtesy Wil McCarley

Matt Fields (right) with Dateline's Stone Phillips.

Over the past four days I had meet some wonderful coaches and kids. All of the schools would have been ripe for a story. But when I strolled into Pampa on Friday morning, five days into my road trip, and met Coach Andy Cavalier I knew almost immediately that my search was over. I had that gut feeling. Pampa would be the focal point of our story.

What unfolded throughout the day confirmed my feeling all the more. Andy Cavalier, with his "aw-shucks" charm and contagious smile had such a palpable geniuneness about him. I could feel his incredible passion for football and the love he had for his players. Talk about salt-of-the-earth, it was this guy. And to top it off, he had wonderful family supporting him, especially his wife Wendy and his mother, Kathy.

Of the players, I was impressed right off the bat. And all of them told me they had bought into Andy Cavalier's motto for the season, "Tueor Porro," a Latin phrase meaning to preserve and surpass. In this case, they wanted to preserve and surpass the legacy of Andy Cavalier's father, Dennis, who was the greatest football coach this town ever had. When he came to Pampa in 1987, he set a high standard for the football program and challenged every team that followed to live up to it.

Aside from football, each and every player I met with made eye contact with me and answered my questions with a "yes sir" or "no sir." This is certainly not something I find talking with most teenagers I know. They were however, typical of most teens around the country, interested in cars (pick-up trucks in this case -- it is Texas after all), girls, video games, cell phones, and food.

Perhaps what struck me the most, though, was witnessing their interaction with the team's Equipment Manager, Trent Loter. Trent has Down Syndrome and has been a part of the team since the early 1990s. These guys treated Trent like a brother: wrestling with him in the locker room, exchanging jokes and playful teases, and quizzing one another about the various high school mascots around Texas. To me, this spoke volumes about their character.

Later that evening, I attended the "Meet the Harvesters" event in the stadium. Thousands of folks poured into the stands for the chance to meet the players, coaches and cheerleaders. I had the opportunity to talk with alumni, parents and fans. Yes, they were crazy about the Harvester football team. But what I found was more than just a group of people interested in winning football games. What I found was a caring community. And the boys beneath the helmets and pads were a reflection of what mattered the most in Pampa: family, friendship and faith.

There's nothing like a crime story to grab the public's imagination — and 2006 provided some of the most gripping in the past few years.

Here is Dateline's review of seven stories (in chronological order) that dominated the tabloids, caused a buzz among bloggers and were discussed at length by cable TV pundits.

by Dennis Murphy, Dateline correspondent

"Who ARE those guys?"

Remember Butch saying that to Sundance? The relentless trackers were on them. Unshakeable.

I felt that way about a detective we got to know covering the Nelson Serrano murder trial in central Florida. His name is Tommy Ray and he works for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement— the F.D.L.E., which is like the state's version of the F.B.I., supercops who get called in on the big cases.

In 1997, Tommy was put in charge of the investigation into an awful crime. Someone, or maybe more than one, had cooly walked into a family-owned manufacturing business and gunned down four people execution-style— three men and a woman— in the offices just off the shop floor where they made garment conveying tracks like you see at your dry cleaner.

Four families were devastated and united in their belief that a recently-ousted business partner had been the shooter or had paid someone to do it.

After digging into the history of bad blood at the plant— allegations of stealing, threats— Agent Tommy Ray came to believe the family was right. The fired business partner, a man named Nelson Serrano, had been the architect of the quadruple homicide.

"I know he was definitely involved," the detective told us, "I just wasn't sure how he pulled it off."

Serrano, the suspect had what seemed an airtight alibi. On the day of the murders, he'd been five-hundred miles away in Atlanta on a business trip. He could prove it, too. An Atlanta hotel lobby security camera showed him at the front desk about noon, five-and-a-half hours before the killings, then again about ten that night.

For the next three years, Tommy Ray and his team analyzed and reviewed every phone call and business transaction Serrano and his circle of friends and family had made in the months leading up to the murders.

And finally— eureka! — they found the one thing they could take to the district attorney, the evidence that shredded Serrano's alibi that he'd been in Atlanta that day.

That moment of discovery is at the heart of our report on Dateline Wednesday but what reminded me of the guys pursuing Butch and Sundance was what happened next.

Nelson Serrano was indicted for the four murders but with the investigative heat closing in on him he'd taken refuge in his native country Ecuador.

The advice from the U.S. State Department and the F.D.L.E. (Tommy's bosses), was that the chances were slim to none of ever getting Serrano extradicted back to the States. Forget about it. Close but no cigar.

Which is only a waving red cape to a bull of a detective like Tommy Ray with a fearsome reputation for cracking cold-case crimes. "I mean we were bound and determined, to see this thing to an end, to get him out of Ecuador," he told us.

So one morning, on another assignment altogether, the detective and some other agents were having breakfast at a hotel in Miami. Tommy looks up and sees this sign reading "International Military Intelligence Meeting."

He goes into the conference room and asks if anyone is there from Ecuador. A colonel stood up and announced that he was in charge of the U.S. embassy in Quito, the capital. The detective played the military man a PowerPoint presentation on his laptop of the case against Nelson Serrano and when he saw what a violent crime it was he told Tommy Ray, "We'll work it out. We'll get him out of Ecuador."

Did Nelson Serrano look down from his luxury apartment tower in Quito, see the surveillance teams, following his every movement? When Ecuadorean authorities arrested him at a favorite local restaurant, did he say, "Who are those guys?" Probably not, but the relentless Florida detective finally had his man. In his dogged pursuit, agent Ray learned that Ecuador's constitution regarding dual nationality had been revised, allowing the country of Nelson Serrano's birth to deport him back to the United States in the custody of Tommy Ray.

It was a struggle to the end. As Ray and other agents escorted a handcuffed Nelson Serrano up the stairs of the commercial flight bound for Miami, he faked, Tommy Ray says, a fall that bloodied his face a little. The flustered flight attendant demanded that the prisoner be left behind in Quito, trying to tug him out of detective Ray's grasp. The pilot intervened and Nelson Serrano was soon wheels-up for Florida charged with the first-degree murder of four people five years prior. He faced a jury almost nine years after the crime.

Tommy Ray has cracked cases again and again when other cops have thrown-up their hands. "There's not a case out there that I feel can't be solved," he said, "I just think you keep digging long enough and hard enough you're gonna come up with something."

"Unfinished Business," Dennis Murphy's report on Nelson Serrano and the four murders, airs Dateline Wednesday, Dec. 20, 9 p.m.

by Jesamyn Go, Dateline web producer

Parents of teenagers know all too well: When it comes to holiday presents, kids want tech toys.

"Every year, they want laptops or iPods, always something along those lines of technical gadgets," says John Armand, 46-year-old Dateline producer and father in a blended family of six kids — five of them teenagers.

But in a world where most teens know more about computers than their parents, and where there's always an unseen danger — like predators lurking in chat rooms and social networking sites — what's a parent to do?

My parents had a particularly trying time with my 17-year-old sister last year. The cordless phone seemed attached to her ear, and trying to get her attention when she was on the family computer sometimes felt like talking to a dead log. She was instant messaging at all hours of the evening, and would minimize her screen anytime anybody walked by.

So my parents getting her what she wanted for Christmas— a video iPod— seemed to me to be just another thing that would keep her distracted.

I'm told it's not an uncommon dilemma for parents. I talked to Susan Shankle, MSW, LISW-CP, and Barbara Melton MeD., LPC, authors of the upcoming book "What in the World are Your Kids Doing Online?" and they have some recommendations for parents, if you must get them the electronics they are asking for.

• Talk to them about using the items responsibly. "Frame it as an opportunity for them to prove they are maturing by taking care of the items and by using them responsibly," says Melton. "I would get across the point that getting and using these technologies is a privilege and not a right, and that the misuse can result in their being taken away." Armand has a cell phone policy with his younger teens. "If they use it after 11 p.m., they lose it the next day," he says. The policy, he finds, discourages them from breaking the rules.
• Tell them you'll be checking in. "If you're getting them a cell phone, you may want to reserve the right to order detailed billing to be sure they are not using them during the hours they shouldn't be -- like in the middle of the night or during class," says Melton. If the item is a laptop or computer, depending on the child's age, the parent might want to prepare them for the possibility of their randomly checking history, chat logs, or their MySpace. 
• Added costs? Some items have recurring costs or plans attached. "You will want to discuss any additional costs to having the item. For example, for MP3s, downloading songs requires an account be set up and there is a minimal charge for each song downloaded.  It adds up! With cell phones, who pays for the plan or the minutes? If they get games that are played online, are there special materials needed to play the game? Is a high-speed Internet connection necessary?" 
• Don't know a Wii from a Zune? If your child wants a gadget that's not familiar to you, ask him or her questions. "'What is the product function?' 'What do you want it for?' 'What are some potential problems?' Ask your child to do some research and get back to you. If he wants it bad enough, he'll help you out," says Shankle. She also recommends for parents to do research themselves and to use reliable Web sites.
  In the craziness of the season, parents should remember to emphasize that the holiday isn't about the presents. "Use the time as an opportunity to communicate," reminds Shankle. "They are out of school and you probably have some time off from work. Remember, you are a role model for your child at all times. Help show them life -- as well as holidays--  is not about 'the stuff.'"

"You can also do something with your child that helps other people," she adds. "Make sure your teen understands that doing good work is about the people for whom you do it."

And listen. "If you spend enough time with them, just wait. They do actually want to talk to you about their lives, their friends, and their MySpace," adds Armand.

So my sister did get her video iPod. (My dad is a softie for his girls.) But he did use it as a chance to get a message across. On the back of my sister's new iPod, he had engraved:

"Ginger. Call your mom. She's worried. iClean. iStudy. iBehave. Love, Dad."