Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger

In Friday Night Lights, H.G. Bissinger is very clear in what his goal is: to write about high-school football. And not just any old, hooray-if-we-win football team; his case study is the Permian Panthers of Odessa, Texas, where stadium lights highlight the prairie every Friday night. Odessa is supported by two things: the vast reserves of oil and natural gas that create a vicious boom-bust cycle, and the routinely excellent football team. At the time, Permian were 4-time state champions in the toughest state for high school football in the nation, and yet the townspeople still grieved over each and every loss. The players Bissinger focuses on include Brian Chavez, a Harvard-bound tight end and "Boobie" Jones, a former star running back who is determined to prove that he can come back from a serious knee injury and still merit playing time. While this team will produce players that populate top programs around the nation, there are no NFL-bound supertalents here. Part of the interest here is that in the absence of a bona-fide star that all the hopes of a team are placed on, the reader is free to focus on the team as a whole, rather than just a LeBron James or a Randy Moss. (Couple notes: Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Roy Williams went to Permian, and Bissinger's latest book, More Than A Game, is co-authored with LeBron James about his high school team)