Friday Night Lights

I have to admit, I've never seen the movie or the television show called Friday Night Lights, which is based on a high school football team in Odessa, Texas. I do, however, have personal experience with high school football in Texas, and can tell you that most towns think their team deserves a movie made about them.

My hometown of Lewisville, Texas had a great football program for many years, and the Lewisville Fighting Farmers (yes, our mascot was a farmer named "Big John") won the 5-A football state championships in 1993 and 1996. Many of the traditions at Lewisville High School are over 100 years old, and the whole town comes together on Friday nights to watch their boys play.

When I was in high school I was an officer on the Farmerette Drill Team, our school's pom/dance team that performed at halftime. Our band, cheerleaders and drill team were just as much a part of the experience as the football itself, and I think some of the band parents were more hardcore about football than the players' parents.

Schools in Texas pay millions of dollars for their state of the art stadiums, and the football boosters often raise more money than any other organization at the school. With the crowd roaring and the hometown heroes playing their hearts out, there's really no better place to be than a high school football game on a Friday night.