“Block that kick!” a fan yelled. The Tornadoes did, and the Faith fans on their sideline cheered.

It was that way all night, with Faith parents encouraging players they knew only by their jersey numbers to tackle their own sons, and with teachers and administrators rooting for the team playing against their students.

The story here is that Grapevine Faith, a well-funded high school football team from a Dallas suburb, played against Gainesville State, a Texas Youth Corrections team with no money and no home stadium. Which means, among other things, that they have never played a home game, or had fans besides the maybe two-dozen faculty members who would make the trip with them.

The Grapevine coach asked half of his school’s fans to switch to the Gainesville side for the game, to give the kids – who have to complete at least half their sentence and have no behavior incidents to play – an idea of what it feels like to have people believe in you.

It’s a little sappy, maybe, but who cares about that? It’s the time of year for sappy, anyway, and five gets you ten this ends up in an episode of Friday Night Lights if the show doesn’t get canceled again.