My High School Is the Scene of a Great Movie Plot
Posted by Melissa Carter at 12/6/2010 2:46 PM 
Categories: uncategorized
Tags: Bert Show Melissa Columbia Tennessee Dylan Rebeor
Categories: uncategorized
Tags: Bert Show Melissa Columbia Tennessee Dylan Rebeor
Photo Credit: Cookeville Herald-Citizen
No, this is not from an episode of "Friday Night Lights" in Texas. It's real and in Tennessee. And it's my Alma Mater Columbia Central High School.
I first began to get the messages last week asking if I realized Central was in the title game Friday night. I didn't, having been in Atlanta almost two decades and loosely connected to what's going on in my home town. I turned to Twitter for immediate updates the night of the game and got the good news. So thanks to everyone who remembered I was from Columbia and kept me informed.
I may be biased, but I think screenwriters should be all over this.
Sixteen-year-old CHS Wide Receiver Dylan Rebeor battled colon cancer and died Friday morning. Minutes before his death he asked his mother, "Did we win?"
My Lions learned about his death at school that day, and had to take the field some 94 miles away later that night in the biggest game of their lives. They wore his number 25 on their faces like war paint and held silent vigil in the locker room. Then these teenagers took the field and saw fellow classmates with shirts that said CHS Lions Fight Like Rebeor. They won by 21 points. Wouldn't you buy a ticket to see and be inspired by this movie?
I left Columbia as soon as I could. A small town girl with my sexuality a secret at the time, I rushed to college and on to Atlanta, where I have enjoyed the comforts of big-city life. But when people ask me about the strength I've shown in my experiences, whether being out on the radio or undergoing a kidney transplant, I now look toward the western sky to Columbia's border and realize there is something pretty special about that town. I'm proud to be a Lion today.
Melissa Carter I have heard you on the radio for some time now and I so think you are one strong female. The things you have been through. I wish there were more people in this world that are as strong as you and willing to voice their opinion like you do.
Thanks David B
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melissa, i love what you wrote. i too am proud to be a lion! class of '86. and you are so right this true life story would be one heck of an inspirational movie! dylan is becoming an inspiration more and more every day to people who don't even know him. imagine the impact of a nationally relaesed movie of this amazing story!!
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Wow. That does sound like a plot for a movie. ...perhaps one day it will be made into one.
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Thanks so much for sharing this. What an amazing story!
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