There’s only one road to get to Boys Ranch — you’ll inevitably take US-385 to this spot in the Texas Panhandle, about 30 miles northwest of Amarillo. But there are lots of ways to get here.
Louis Kelley III got here in May 2023. The grandson and namesake of Texas high school coaching royalty, Kelley is a rising star in the coaching ranks, and took the opportunity to become the head coach of the Roughriders after a successful stintas an assistant at Lubbock Coronado.
“I knew coming to Boys Ranch, it was going to make me a better coach,” Kelley said.
Jacobe Gonzales got here two months later. That’s when his parents went to jail and, a month shy of his freshman year and without a place to go, he picked up his life in Canyon and moved here.
“I came out here to Boys Ranch to try to find a better life for me,” Gonzales said.
That’s the mission of this place, Cal Farley's Boys Ranch, a residential community for at-risk children as young as 5 and as old as 18. Located on what used to be the pioneer town of Old Tascosa, it’s now the state’s largest childcare facility, welcoming in kids with nowhere to go, whether it be from family troubles, failed adoptions, disciplinary issues or a myriad of other circ*mstances. Boys Ranch serves about 300 kids a year.
“It’s kind of like foster care, and kind of like a summer camp vibe at times, with kids walking all over,” said Aaron Wampler, Boys Ranch’s head football coach from 2020 to 2022. “The whole community is a ton of really good-hearted people that genuinely care about kids.”
It’s against that backdrop, serving a purpose to better the lives of at-risk kids, that Boys Ranch fields perhaps Texas high school football’s most remarkable team.
Wampler arrived in Boys Ranch from Amarillo Caprock, where he was a defensive assistant. Like Kelley, it was his first head coaching job; and like Kelley, he quickly recognized that this job is unlikeany other.
Many of the players at Boys Ranch have never played football; some haven’t even played sports. Every coach at every level will tell you the value ofbuilding a cohesive culture, but in a place like this, that takes on a whole new meaning.
“You’re trying to teach the game at a very, very basic level initially, and that’s a big challenge,” Wampler said. “But as much as anything, most of these kids come from unfortunate backgrounds where they’ve had to fend for themselves their whole lives, and now you’re trying to get them to buy in on a team aspect. So you try to create a culture of love and selflessness and discipline.”
Another thing to wrestle with: the consistent turnover of the roster. Players could disappear at a moment’s notice, often for reasons worth celebrating like adoption or another more permanent place. On the flip side, anyone could walk in the locker room at any time.
“You never know when you might get an athlete,” Kelley said. “It’s like playing the lottery here, and you get to create athletes with a lot of these kids.”
Gonzales is one of those lottery ticket athletes, a gifted player who had played middle school and youth football. The 5-9, 180-pound sophom*ore-to-be got limited touches as a freshman — though he did notch his first rushing touchdown — and should see an increased role in his second season, especially with a coach thatbelieves in him.
“It’s a blessing to play for Coach Kelley,” Gonzales said. “He’s a big role model for me. I look up to him a lot, and I know it’s best for me to play for him right now.”
Wins, understandably, are hard to come by in this patch of sun-scorched west Texas — the Roughriders have just one winning season in the last 33 years, a 6-5 mark in 2008. It was especially lean prior to Wampler’s arrival in 2020, as Boys Ranch accumulated the state’s longest losing streak, stretching to 49 games.
Until…
“I grew up at WolfforthFrenship and won a ton of gold balls there,” Wampler said. “I played at West Texas A&M and was part of the best team in school history, and won a lot of games there. But the most meaningful win I’ve ever had was the night we beat Booker.”
It was October 1, 2021 — more than five years since Boys Ranch’s last win. The 0-4 Roughriders traveled to Booker for their final non-district game of the season. Using the dual-threat ability of quarterback Isaiah Brown, Boys Ranch jumped out to an early lead.
“They’re grinding it out since two-a-days in the summer, just like everyone else.” Wampler said. “But so many times, they come up short, and you see them kind of think, what are we even doing this for?”
Boys Ranch extended its lead after halftime.
“I mean, the work that goes into it, the highs, the lows, the emotions that are tied to it,” Wampler said. “You just want it so bad for those kids. You see their true hearts and they work just as hard as everybody.”
Final: Boys Ranch 38, Booker 14.
On a Friday night with more than 500 Texas high school football games scattered across the state, it’s a scoreline that’s easy to miss. It’s a result that’s impossible to forget.
Hours later, as the buses pulled off of US-385 well after midnight, a town fire truck escorted them onto Julian Bivins Avenue, the town’s main drag. There, in the dead of night under a crescent moon, stood dozens of the town's residents lining the street, clanging cowbells and waving hastily made signs. The Roughriders scampered off the bus and bounded down the road on foot, pads in hand, whooping and hollering, the bells of the church heralding their return.
“I still get chills,” Wampler said. “You always hear, act like you’ve been there before. But you’ve got to celebrate it. You celebrate it like it’s the state championship. It’s one of those things they’ll remember forever. It's one of those things I'll remember forever."
The Roughriders won a second game that season, the season finale over Stinnett West Texas. The next year, a thunderbolt: a 5-6 record, and the program’s first playoff berth in 14 years. After Wampler left to take over at Clarendon, Kelley picked up the torch, guiding them to two more wins and another playoff berth in 2023.
“It’s a great feeling when you win,” Kelley said. “A lot of these kids, they’re not used to winning much. Whenever we win, you can see it in their faces.”
Boys Ranch will take on a new challenge in 2024, as the Roughriders will drop to Class 1A and play six-man football for the first time. It’s a move that should benefit a small program with limited depth, but will require adjusting to new rules and strategies.
Jacobe Gonzales said he’s excited for the move to six-man. More than that, he’s excited that he’s found his place.
“Last year, it was a struggle to be the new person on the Ranch,” Gonzales said. “But the thing that makes it special is the home. I get along with all the kids here. It’s like another brotherhood.”
