Deals.Woot

High school football is the big social event. Not much goes on in our tiny community, so church functions and high school activities really draw a crowd. It is not so much the football, as the entire experience, sitting with friends, sharing news and watching the kids.

The county population is about 8,000. You might see a 500-1000 come to football and hundreds to H.S. basketball.

I live in NW Arkansas in a town of less than 3000 and when it comes to football it's like a all the holidays wrapped up into one every Friday night here in town. With the pep-rally kicking it all off on Friday afternoon and people driving around town with the local teams flag flying from there vehicle and messages on their vehicle windows (courtesy of our H.S. cheerleaders) all leading up to the main even Friday night.

Even our 7th grade games on Thursday and the little league games on Saturday night draw huge crowds. This last Saturday little league game was standing room only at the high school stadium due to them being in the play-offs as the only undefeated team.

So yes, I would say football is a huge deal in our town because they practically roll up the streets and shut the town down for football games. GO BEARCATS

Seconding the rural Iowa comment. Lots of people come to our games, but our team always sucks. I think in the last 20+ years we've only had 1 really good team. My HS just doesn't seem to grow football players big enough. It's okay though, because everyone gets to watch the marching band at halftime. Our band is one of the best in the state for a school our size. This year was probably the 1st year since I graduated college that I didn't make it to a football game. (I did manage to attend the Showdown at Valley for marching band.)

@tsfisch: If you don't mind my asking, what part of Iowa and/or what school district?

Its somewhat big, but not near as big as baseball is. Im from a small town but we shoot out baseball players like there is no tomorrow. If you watch baseball at all, then youve heard of Buster Posey. He came from my small town.

@msklzannie: Well this was back in the 80's, and I was the last graduating class for the school (which was something like the 5th smallest in Iowa at the time). It has since merged not once, but twice, with other school districts. It's in the Mason City area, just a bit south. I won't name names but the "current" district won State boys basketball last year :)

Having 6 High Schools makes it hard for the community to get behind the teams. Although when my High School went to (and won) state my freshman year all through the playoffs the city was drenched in blue and orange. All the high schools got off early to leave - we filled up something like 35 buses from just the high schools to go to the state game. Not to mention all the other people who drove on their own.

We've put out a couple NFL players as well as a few NBA players and 1 or 2 MLB players. A couple of the guys I went to HS with are playing in the NFL now.