Mayer: Why We Love High School Sports

   High school football season returned last week under the bright lights of Friday night. It's a bit of a cliché, but the symbolism reads true. The amount of personal investment by members of the community and alumni of the school is extreme. The teenagers on the field are playing for more than themselves or the team, which leads to a lot of pressure.

   What better place to try and get back to the true essence of sport than high school? The format provides a high level of competition with impressive athletes, but everything is less commercial. Players don't need to worry about their image, contract, or tabloid profiles.

  

    It should be said that in the age we live in, nothing is totally pure anymore. High schools in Texas build fifty million dollar football facilities, Lebron James and Bryce Harper find themselves on the cover of Sports Illustrated before they can go to a bar, and the AAU has become tainted with college basketball coaches circling like vultures. Social media has allowed for easy access to high school players, who often have to deal with ludicrous fans.

   Despite all the change that has led to a "professionalization" of high school athletics, it still remains a basic form of community togetherness. Many people in the stands are friends and relatives of the players. Others have been rooting on the school's team for decades. There are many towns across the nation and in Indiana that shut down to attend the game.

   In the Hoosier State amateur sport starts with basketball, but in recent years (spurned by the success of Peyton Manning and the Colts) football has slid up the pantheon. That may bring more media attention each Friday night, but it's not what matters most.

   High school athletes play for love of the game. They are invested in their teammates and want to have success because of the hard work put in and the pure joy elicited from giving their all and coming out victorious. Motives are not dictated by upcoming free agency, the desire to be the star of a team in a big city, or parlaying athletic ability into endorsement deals.

   We love high school football because it allows us to step back and see the sport for what it truly is: Young men competing in a brutal physical contest, relying on each other, and pushing their limitations to extraordinary places in order to accomplish a singular goal.

- Lucas Mayer