High school football is popular all over the United States, but the great people of Texas take it to another level. The movie Friday Night Lights is about the 1988 season of Permian High School in Odessa Texas. This movie, and the book it was based on, is not only about the a single season, but the story of what high school football means to this small Texas town. Friday Night Lights is an excellent example of the way Texans view their football teams, from inner-city Dallas and Houston to the suburbs of Odessa and El Paso and every map dot in between.
High school programs in Texas are divided into 6 Class groups. Class groups are determined by student body size of the school. The class groups range from 6-man football at very small schools (included within the 1A classification) to 5A, which includes schools with a large student body, usually located in larger Texan cities.
Almost all Texas high schools have a football program, sometimes at the cost of other athletic teams. Most games are played on Friday nights and local businesses have been known to close early on game day in order to follow their local team.
Most communities and businesses in Texas invest a great deal of money in their high school stadiums and football programs, especially compared to other parts of the country. Even small towns build stadiums with massive capacity: Ratliff Stadium in Odessa, Texas holds over 19,000 people in a city of 90,000. There are over 170 current NFL players hailing from Texas high schools, including Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Roy Williams, who graduated from Permian High School in 1999.
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