Legendary football coach Todd Dodge will make his debut at Lovejoy on Aug. 30, and Bally Sports will provide a live broadcast.
Bally Sports said Tuesday that the Lubbock Cooper at Lovejoy game will be televised on Bally Sports Southwest Extra and streamed on the Bally Sports app. It will be part of the network’s annual Texas Football Days showcase.
The pregame show will start at 7 p.m., and the game will kick off shortly after 7:30. High School Scoreboard Live will follow, rounding up the action across the state.
After winning seven state titles — four at Southlake Carroll and three at Austin Westlake — Dodge is returning to coaching this season after being retired for the last two years. He was hired at Lovejoy in late January and needs two more state titles to tie the state record shared by Carthage’s Scott Surratt and the late Gordon Wood.
Lovejoy played in Class 5A Division II regional finals in 2020, 2021 and 2023, falling one round short of the deepest playoff run in school history. The 2009 team reached the 3A Division I state semifinals in its second year of varsity play.
Dodge has a career record of 233-72, and he won his last 40 games at Westlake before retiring after winning a third consecutive state title in 2021. His most memorable victory at Westlake came in the 6A Division I state championship game in the pandemic-ravaged season that started in 2020 and finished in 2021, when he beat Carroll 52-34 while going head-to-head with his son, Riley, who is Carroll’s head coach.
Lubbock Cooper was a 5A Division II state semifinalist in 2021, losing to state champion South Oak Cliff. Lovejoy, led by four-star Florida State pledge Daylan McCutcheon at wide receiver, enters this season at No. 16 in the 5A Division II preseason state rankings from Dave Campbell’s Texas Football. Lubbock Cooper is ranked No. 20.
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