Rick O'Brien: Coach Gro lights up the night

Friday night lights . . .

Wyncote, Pa., is not Odessa, Texas, home of the Permian High Panthers that former Inquirer staffer H.G. "Buzz" Bissinger wrote about in the classic Friday Night Lights.

Though he does not coach in the high school football hotbed of Texas, Joe Gro believed strongly that his Panthers, of Cheltenham High, deserved to play under the lights on Friday nights, just as every other Suburban One League school does.

For years, there was talk of it happening. But talk, as Gro found out, is cheap. He and his players had to take their case directly to Cheltenham Township School District board members.

So that's what they did, showing up en masse at a school board meeting last spring and voicing their reasons for wanting a lighted stadium.

"I said to them, 'Tell me why my kids don't deserve this?' " said Gro, Cheltenham's 22d-year coach. "I said, 'You need to tell me why we can't have this.' "

There was no reason, except for the usual red tape. So, with the urging of Gro and company, the go-ahead was given for permanent lighting. On Friday, the Panthers played their first official game under the lights. They celebrated the event by fighting past Suburban One neighbor Harry S Truman, 7-6, in a nonleague matchup.

"I was excited," Gro said afterward, "but my real excitement was for the kids. I was real happy for this group."

Gro, a health and physical education teacher at the school, blamed himself for Friday night lights not becoming a reality sooner at Cheltenham.

"I should have forced hands five years ago," he said. "I didn't get actively involved in the process. This time, I got actively involved, and so did the kids."

Said Scott Layer, Cheltenham's fourth-year athletic director: "This has been a 15-year battle trying to get this. The school board was a little bit nervous about the whole thing. It's never been part of the Cheltenham culture."

On the sideline during games, Gro is one of the area's most animated and vocal head coaches. Just ask his assistants and players. That same intensity, no doubt, was displayed when he pushed for the installation of lights at a field where he is always moving, always pleading, to the officials and his players, and always oozing intensity.

"Joe was one of the major proponents for it," Layer said. "He went to all of the school board meetings."

There was a good crowd Friday night, even though it was the start of Labor Day weekend. Spectators lined the fence behind Cheltenham's bench.

"It's real exciting to have lights," said Jon Gary, a 5-foot-10, 200-pound senior running back and linebacker for the Panthers. "It makes us play harder, gets us more into the game."

It also saves the team - and opponents - from playing games on Saturday afternoons in late August and early September, when the heat and humidity can cause major leg-cramping and dehydration.

All involved said there was a pregame and weeklong buzz surrounding the official start of Friday night lights at the school.

Gro and Layer hope that lighting is just the beginning when it comes to stadium upgrades. More bleachers could be used on both sides. And turf - which is what Truman, Friday night's opponent, has in Levittown - would take the program to another level.

"That would be ideal," Gro said. "You see what it can do for schools like Truman, Wissahickon and Coatesville. It really enhances things. If it happens, it would be great. But if it doesn't, we'll do with what we have. You first have to take baby steps."

Gro pours himself into coaching the Panthers. His sweat-soaked T-shirt after the taut, mistake-plagued win over Truman showed that. He deserved this night, and many more, under the lights.