Parkview Panthers: Life of a Coach's Wife

Penny Flowe has three great reasons for attending Parkview’s big game against Brookwood tonight – she’s a Parkview math teacher, her son Patrick plays on the team – and her husband, Cecil, is Parkview’s head coach.

In fact, Penny says she’s only missed two of Parkview’s games in the 24 years they’ve been married.

“Patrick was born on a Tuesday, and that Friday night I was at the game,” she recalls.  “I like to think I support him and I support Patrick every single week, no matter who we're playing."

So you’d think this would be a pretty exciting week around the Flowe house, with the 30th Battle of Five Forks-Trickum – as the game against Brookwood is dubbed – looming. But no, Penny said: “If you try to do anything really different….” And her voice trails off. Years ago, she said she tried to make lunch on game day a special one – maybe by getting something from Longhorn Steak House, but her husband put the kibbutz on that.

“He’s like: ‘No. Keep it normal.”

As soon as the family gets back from church, the coach bunkers down with video footage of the team Parkview will play that week.

“I tell him: ‘I know if it’s Brookwood, I don’t expect to see you until you’ve figured out how to win.” Does the session last longer if it’s Brookwood he’s studying? “It’s never shorter,” Penny Flowe said with a laugh.

What makes the Parkview-Brookwood rivalry so intense? It's been that way pretty much from the time Brookwood was built and drew some teens from Parkview. Then, there's the fact that the "two schools that mirror each other in athletic and academic achievement, passion from their student bodies and community drive for excellence," writes Scott Bernarde in an

“When you get two great high schools together that close, it’s special,” Penny said.

For the Flowes, there's added spice, since Cecil and Brookwood Head Coach Mark Crews went to high school together. Barbara Crews, Mark's wife, recalls that the two couples were together at a wrestling match when Penny went into labor with the Flowe's first child, daughter Shelby. "So we go way back," Barbara said. "It’s a friendly thing."

And how does Coach Flowe handle the anticipation in the week of the game? "He's a little bit more quiet than normal," Penny said. He likes to race cars, and since he can't do much of that during football season, he plays on a simulator. "He spends a little more time late at night racing. It's his outlet."

This morning, Penny packed a goodie bag for Patrick, a senior, as she does every Friday, with a note and a scripture verse they both like. Injured earlier in the year, he probably won't be able to play this last game against the Broncos.

And as she does every game Friday, Penny will be painting those orange paws on students' faces for the game, and she said she would be sure she has plenty of orange paint today.

Daughter Shelby will be sitting with Penny during the game -- a junior at UGA, Shelby arranges her classes so that she never misses a Parkview football game -- and afterwards, win or lose, they'll go down to the field and join Cecil and the team in prayer.

"Does it have a little more meaning" after the Brookwood game?, she asked, answering right away: "Yes, that's what rivalry's all about."