Manifesto of the soul. Friday Night State Lights

It's not just a sport, it is how you face life.
Not many sports threads on here, and that's cool. I'm really not a sports nut, although outside of my area I may be considered as such. I coached my kids teams when they were little.
It's State Championship time in Texas. And at Cowboys Stadium no less! Unfortunately my little home town made it and lost tonight taking the silver. My kids are 16 and 13, so for a small town it's always a huge thing. I've watched these boys grow up and it's an emotional roller coaster.
If you opened this thread and hate sports, let me explain. It's about overcoming. When you are not suppose to win. When they say, "oh look, a bunch of white rednecks" (yes I heard that said, and others heard worse) playing kids with free rides to OU, Texas, Florida, Arkansas, with our kids playing their hearts out but falling short, you see the determination to excel at whatever may lay ahead.
It truely is an amazing thing to behold. We won it two years ago to a far more athletically superior team, but heart and determination won out. My boy is 13 and started on all sides of the ball his first year in School ball. Running back, defensive wheel, kick off receiver, and full time kicker. I don't know where he got it, other than a champion mentality in the town. I've never turned down throwing the ball with him but I'm not psycho dad.
So! What about y'all? Anybody else out there in the state games or other sports?
Do other parts of the world know what Friday night lights are? Or is it something else in your world which carries the same feelings I have on how they attack life?

"Nobody who ever gave their best has ever regretted it"

"In life, as in sports, you need to know where the goal post are"

"We were somewhere around Barstow when the drugs began to take hold" < unrelated quote....maybe