Andy Lowry, the football coach at Columbine High, is retracing the route Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris traveled during their April murder spree when he comes across an eight-sided trophy case hanging from the lobby ceiling. "Look," he says, pointing. "It wasn't touched. If they wanted a symbol, it doesn't get any better." Down the hall is a weight room bigger than the chemistry lab. "If they were looking for jocks, they could have gone there." If there's a bit of defense lawyer in his tone, it's because he's been on trial ever since his Rebels were accused of turning Columbine into a hazing house of horrors, taunting students like Klebold and Harris until they snapped. "I've run it around in my mind a million ways," says Lowry, "and what troubles me is that everyone has been blamed here except Dylan and Eric. They're the ones who pulled the trigger, not my kids."
Columbine's motto, Stretch For Excellence, once told you all you needed to know about this school of 2,000 in the Denver suburb of Littleton. It's a place where a bond issue was passed so the kids could get a new gym, where the view from nearby Rebel Hill includes six side-by-side baseball diamonds, where a news show produced by students for an in-class TV network features regular sports updates, where the football team has won seven of the county's last eight sportsmanship awards. Under Lowry, Rebel football didn't seem like an obsession -- just one of many points of pride.
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