Deep in the mountains of southwest Arkansas is Dierks, a town of less than 900 people where fall means cheering on the Outlaws come Friday nights at Ayers Field — the stadium everyone just calls “the Holler.”
Tucked between two hills, the Holler sits in an actual hollow, but its name also comes from just how loud it gets on game nights. During football season, it’s the place to be. Even as one of the oldest grass fields in the state, with bleachers that hadn’t been updated since the ‘80s and a field that slopes from one end to the other, the seats always get so packed it turns into standing room only. And whether the Outlaws win or lose, when the final whistle blows, everyone pours onto the Holler alongside the team. It’s a community tradition that has played out for generations.
“My dad played on this field, my grandpa played on this field and his dad played on this field,” says Mason Smith, a recent graduate and former linebacker on the Outlaws. “It makes me proud to live up to their legacy. Here, everybody comes together, and it’s not just about watching you play — it’s about watching our town and supporting our community. This team means so much more than whether we make the playoffs or not.”
Last fall, that spirit traveled well beyond the Holler, carrying Dierks High School to No. 1 in T‑Mobile’s Friday Night 5G Lights, a competition that awards a $1 million football field upgrade to a high school community chosen by public vote. Now, on Sept. 18, the community will celebrate as the reimagined Holler gets its big reveal.
“For as long as I can remember, I’ve had an obsession with the rallying spirit of hometowns around their high school football teams,” said Lucy McLellan, Chief Brand and Communications Officer, T‑Mobile. “Friday Night 5G Lights was built to celebrate the communities, competition and hometown pride that bring people together in a way nothing else can, and Dierks showed exactly what that’s all about.”
This is the story of how a tiny Arkansas town rallied around an aging football field, won something almost nobody thought it could win and discovered that the biggest transformation wasn’t actually the field.
How Dierks got in the game
When lifelong Dierks resident and Booster Club member Krystal Greene saw four-time Super Bowl champion and Friday Night 5G Lights ambassador Rob “Gronk” Gronkowski talking about the competition on the news last summer, she took a picture of her TV screen and texted it to her sister, Kara Tedford.
“I said, ‘We have to enter this. I feel it. This is special. Dierks could do this’.”
So, Greene and Tedford, and with the help of Adriana Hogg, a Dierks High School teacher and cheer coach, immediately got to work spreading the word and getting the community on board.
It was a feat that felt far-fetched at first, as Dierks was one of more than 2,100 schools from all over the country that entered Friday Night 5G Lights.
“We’re a town of 884 people,” says Paul Ernest, who served as head football coach of the Outlaws during the competition and has since become the school’s principal. “I just didn’t think that we could go out and compete with towns and schools that had populations five, six, seven times ours.”
But when Dierks landed a Top 25 finalist spot, the excitement inside the school and throughout the town grew into something no one expected. Then it spread across social media, with everyone from Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders to NFL, NASCAR and entertainment stars joining in. Even a rival school ran Dierks’ voting QR code on its jumbotron at halftime and called timeouts so its fans could vote for their Arkansas neighbors.
“Once that stuff started happening, I thought, ‘wow, this has got a chance,’” says Ernest.
The moment Dierks won
The competition came down to the final hours, with Dierks battling it out with Oregon’s Lebanon High School until the very end. No one was sure who would take the crown.
But when Dierks learned it had edged out the competition to become the Friday Night 5G Lights champion, all that hope and hard work turned into an emotional outpour through every hall of the school and corner of Dierks.
“The football team had a dog pile on the gym floor [when it was announced] because they were all so excited” says Hogg. “Just seeing the joy on the kids’ faces made all the hard work worth it.”
“I just started crying when I found out that Dierks won,” adds Greene. “To know that all of our hard work and all of the students’ hard work paid off — it was just unreal. I still pinch myself because I can’t believe it.”
The celebration continued a couple of weeks after the announcement, when Gronkowski and country star Bailey Zimmerman came to Dierks for one big party with the community. After seeing the town for himself, Gronk’s takeaway was simple.
“When I got to Dierks, I understood exactly why they won,” he said. “The whole town poured their passion into every single day of this competition, refusing to let up until they locked in the win. And now they’re going to have a field and facilities that reflect that unstoppable spirit.”
What does a million-dollar Holler look like?
The Holler as everyone knew it — sloped grass, outdated bleachers and all — is about to look a whole lot different.
Less than a year since their win, T‑Mobile has completed an NFL-grade turf field, upgraded visitor bleachers, concession area and a Gronk Fitness (Gronkowski’s gym line) renovation that will transform the Holler experience for everyone.
Ernest adds that Dierks’ biggest transformation isn’t necessarily the one under the Friday night lights.
“In this competition, we saw bridges bonded that I don’t think people even remembered why they were burnt in the first place,” says Ernest. “And in a town this size, stuff doesn’t go away very easily. I think this competition allowed for people and families and friends to come together and rebuild those bonds.”
For Hogg, the lesson runs even deeper.
“I just believe that winning this competition also tells kids that they can do anything in life. They set a goal to win this thing and they did it. And if they set a goal in academics, they can do that too,” she says. “Winning the Friday Night 5G Lights competition will be something that kids will get to enjoy for years to come, and it has definitely made a historical moment for our school district.”
For hometowns across the country dreaming of their own Friday Night 5G Lights moment, now’s your chance. T‑Mobile’s third annual competition is now underway with more than $8.4 million in funding and prizes is up for grabs, including:
• 1,000 $5K Fridays winners
• 40 Division Finalists
• 4 Division Champions
• Spotlight Awards
• T‑Mobile Fan Favorite
• A $1 million Grand Prize home field upgrade
Applications will be accepted until Sept. 18 (with voting beginning on Oct. 8!) — and if Dierks proved anything, it’s that population size is no limit on what a community can accomplish together. Could your school be next?
