DIERKS, Ark. — Dierks High School celebrated its big win in the T-Mobile Friday Night 5G Lights contest with a pep rally featuring celebrity guests on Friday.

The town of around 1,000 people in southwest Arkansas made its mark on the national stage from the time this contest began.

“It really put Dierks on the map,” said Mason Smith, a senior middle linebacker.

However, this story doesn’t start with a pep rally or even with a country music star and an NFL legend visiting the school.

It starts earlier this year, with lifelong Dierks resident Krystal Green sitting on the couch, drinking a cup of coffee.

“I saw Rob Gronkowski come over the news, talking about this contest,” Green said. “And I sent a picture of my screen to my sister, and I said, “We gotta enter this thing.”

But Green, a

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