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The movie Friday Night Lights is based on the book by H.G. Bissinger, which was in turn based on the story of the Odessa, Texas Permian High Panthers. I really enjoyed watching this movie; not only was it based on a true story it was also a good representation about what Friday night lights are all about. For this small town athletics are all that they have, which is the case for a lot of small towns, it is how they get their names out there. If they get their names out there they are hoping that more people will enroll their kids in the school because of the athletics in turn raising the population in the town. For this town, like many others, football is the one sport that you have to be in to be somebody. I know that at my school if you are not in cross country then you have to be in football and even if you are not first string you are still somebody because you can stand out there on the field with your pads and jersey on.

For the seniors on this team it is their last chance to prove themselves to colleges; with out scholarships many of them will not go on to college because they cannot afford to pay for it. And for Boobie Miles his first game of his senior year would be his last; he suffered a season ending injury and was not able to play, in turn not receiving a scholarship. For these teams it is also all on the coach; after the first loss of the season Coach Gary Gaines finds "For Sale" signs all over his front yard; if the team doesn't preform the way that the town wants it to then the coach is to blame. My favorite part of this movie is the speech made by Coach Gaines, when he says "Perfection is being able to look your friends in the eye and know you did everything you could not to let them down." I totally believe him and ironically it is because of my own high school football team.