Friday Night High School Football example essay topic

905 words
Friday Night Lights Is High School football a sport, or is it more than that to some people? Recent newspaper headlines include such items as coaches abusing student athletes; fathers of athletes murdering coaches, and mother's cheer leading candidates to assure their daughters make the cheer leading team. In Odessa, Texas high school football is a major contributor to the society of a small town in Texas society. Every Friday night, 50,000 people fill the stadium to see high school students put their lives on the line to win a football game. H.G. Bissinger writes a novel called Friday Night Lights, about a year in 1988 where High School players prepare and play on the High School team, and what an impact they have on a small city in Texas. The novel begins with preseason football in the heat of a Texas summer.

The players and coaches practice over 4 hours a day in 100-degree weather. The media is affecting every player pushing for a state championship and college scouts at every practice. A star player named Boobie Miles is in the spotlight and is expected to attend and earn a scholarship to a large state college. The community cannot wait for the season to start to see the greatest team in Texas history, continue the winning tradition of the Permian Panthers. In one of the first games, Boobie Miles sustains a serious injury and will likely play again. Coach Gary Gaines, the head coach, had almost every play setup up for Boobie and will have to have a new game plan for the season.

The team knows what they need to do and with their community behind the team, the Panthers qualify for the state playoffs, but lose to the dangerous Carter team. This novel develops characters that engage in sex, to teachers cheating so their high school football players can continue to participate on the football field. Many people have a major affect on football and society in this novel. One of the major characters was Boobie Myles. Boobie was supposed to be the star athlete on the Permian football team. In the beginning, Boobie was arrogant to his teammates and wasn't a good team leader.

All Boobie cared about was winning and getting to the next level of football to satisfy his athletic needs. When Boobie is injured, he realizes he took football for granted and would do anything to play again. The team needs Boobie and Boobie needs the team. Coach Gaines realizes Boobie was seriously hurt and gives an inspiring pep talk to the team about how the players need to put their heart in the game and how lucky they are to be playing for Odessa. H.G. Bissinger is the author of this book and the narrator. He is very descriptive about each individual on the football team and how they impact society. Bissinger's word choice and sentence fluency is excellent.

He establishes his characters, develops the plot, and builds the novel to reach a climatic conclusion. The sentence fluency is well structured and easy to read. Bissinger's writing will not allow you to put the book down when you start reading the novel. This book points out different main ideas, and goes from the football game to the impact of society.

You never know what is going to happen next. Usually, football related novels focus on just the sport, but "Friday Night Lights" deals with football having an impact not only on the field, but also within the society of a small town. One chapter is the exciting football game; the next chapter is the reaction of a small town when the team loses. I also enjoyed the author's realistic views of the football game, and the impact the simplicity of a High School football game on an entire community.

I understand his views of this game and of a small community. Most people do not know football is a very complicated sport. "Friday Night Lights" deals with other aspects football has to offer, such as relationship building and community involvement. A negative aspect of this book is how the players and coaches treat each other. The definition of a team is the development of friendship and synergy created by players and coaches with a common goal. However, in the beginning, all the players and coaches cared about was winning a state championship.

After Boobie is injured, they realize they rely on each other a great deal more, and learn what a team is supposed to be. This book is great for high school students interested in sports. It's not entirely about football, because this book's main idea is how society acts about one sport. I rate this book highly because the author's style of writing and the story is very interesting, and proves the age old point that winning isn't the only thing.

Many other important factors play into the development of not only the major characters, but of the town itself. Once you pick this book up, you will read it to it's conclusion, which means the book captures my attention and interest, and is rated very highly as an entertaining and meaningful novel..