God, Texas high school football and a coin flip: Amarillo makes the Class 5A Division I playoffs in unique fashion

A 3-way tie led three Texas high school football coaches to meet at a gas station in Planview Friday night to decide playoff fate

Amarillo High’s Jett Lopez carries the ball during a non-district football game against Palo Duro at Dick Bivins Stadium on Sept. 19, 2025. / Amy Pham/For the Amarillo Globe-News / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Hours after the season was put in peril, Amarillo High found a way into the Texas high school football playoffs.

Thanks to a win and a coin flip right before midnight in west Texas.

In what is a made-for-TV script, Amarillo started Nov. 7 with a 7-2 mark. By mid-afternoon, UIL had deemed the school had used an ineligible player.

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The Sandies quickly became 1-8 and had to win against Amarillo Tascosa. Last year, Tascosa posted a 34-29 win against the Sandies.

Tiebreaker Terror 

Abilene, Tascosa and Lubbock Monterey were No. 1 to 3, respectively, in the district standings after Amarillo forfeited.

• Caprock beat Lubbock and lost to Amarillo

• Amarillo beat Caprock but had to forfeit to Lubbock

• Lubbock got a forfeit win against Amarillo and lost to Caprock

Even with the win, the Sandies ended up in a three-way tie with Lubbock and Amarillo Caprock.

They all went 2-4 overall in 2-5A Division I play. 

The first tiebreaker is head-to-head wins and with Sandies got lucky there. The ineligible player did not play in that game so the only win Amarillo was able to keep was that.

Then what? 

The second tiebreaker was a plus-minus comparison in terms of wins. The math turned out that all three were tied at 0 with wins and loss margin.

Lubbock beat Lubbock Coronado, 42-35, on Friday. Caprock lost to Lubbock Monterey on Thursday, 34-28.

Amarillo beat Tascosa, 63-21.

Driving to Toot ‘N Totum.

Reporter Lance Lahnert posted he was getting on the road and driving to Plainview, Texas.

Located closer to Lubbock than Amarillo, the town on Interstate 27, the group decided to meet at a Valero gas station — where gas was 2.59 per gallon for unleaded last night.

Coin flip

Amarillo’s Chad Dunnam, Caprock’s Rowdy Freeman and Lubbock's Juan Rodriguez all met near the gas pumps and, with two cameras rolling, flipped. 

The odd man out would get the 4th seed and a trip to the postseason. The other two would turn in equipment on Monday and prepare for 2026. 

Amarillo got win No. 2 on Friday.

The season ended for Lubbock and Caprock on concrete, not the football field.

After 7 minutes, the coaches got in the vehicles and drove off.

It’s Amarillo High winning the coin flip.
No. 4 seed!!@Matt_Stepp817 @KaleSteed @ZachWoodardTV pic.twitter.com/fhM3sekjsU

— Lance Lahnert (@lancelahnert) November 8, 2025

There were two coins that landed on heads and the other on tails — which won it.

When asked about the results, a teary-eyed Dunnam talked to Lahnert

“We said if it’s God’s plan … and it’s God’s plan,” he said. “We got a special group of kids. I hate this because I’m crying all the time. I’m an emotional wreck, but it’s God’s plan and we trust in him.”

History Repeating

The coin flip reminded some of what happened 37 years ago and almost on the same date. 

On November 5, 1988, Midland Lee, Midland and Odessa Permian were tied at the top of the district, so the tie-breaking coin toss had to be made. 

The odd man was out and Midland missed the playoffs.

The scenario would later be depicted in the movie “Friday Night Lights."

Permian is the school featured in a 1990 book written by H.G. Bissinger, called “Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream.”

The 1990 book actually focused on the Permian Panthers’ 1988 season, which ended with a loss to Dallas David W. Carter High School in the semifinals. 

The book was a New York Times bestseller.

It later spurred "Friday Night Lights", a movie featuring Billy Bob Thornton as head coach Gary Gaines in 2004. It depicted life in the West Texas town that not only focused on football, but also the socio-economic surroundings of the town and the football-crazed culture. 

Gaines had two stints as the head coach of the Panthers, first from 1986 to 1989, before getting a college job with Texas Tech in 1990. He was 46-7-1 in that span and won the state title in 1989.

He returned to guide the Panthers from 2009-12. The legendary coach, a Texas High School Coaches Association Hall of Famer, died in 2022 after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2017.