#1 High School Football Team Visits Tulsa Union

Friday, September 1st 2006, 10:52 am

By: News On 6

Friday Football is always big in Oklahoma, but Friday evening it was turned up a notch, as the nation's number 1 ranked high school football team takes on Tulsaâ€™s Union High School.

Hoover High School has four straight Alabama state titles, has been the feature of a national TV show on MTV and Friday they took a tour of Union High School.

News on 6 reporter Steve Berg was with them Friday during their walkthrough at Union High School.

Hoover was interested in academics. Two top schools looking to learn from each other. You'd never guess from a pleasant stroll around the Union campus that one of the biggest high-school football games of the year was about to be played here.

"Much more than just a football game. It's a community event." You might be surprised by what Union principal Dave Stauffer says went into this event. "3 to 4 to 5 years of planning. It takes a lot of time to bring a hundred football players and dignitaries and administrators to a facility like this. It makes us all get very excited about having the opportunity to host a school of Hoover's caliber."

Then again, Union is no slouch and there were a few oohs and ahs from the visitors during their tour.

"Certainly impressed with the Union campus. It's just a state-of-the-art facility." Hoover Principal Richard Bishop knows having the nation's number-one football ranking comes with a big bullseye. â€œAre we number one? We don't know that. If we are number one, we'll have to earn it this year without a doubt."

Hoover comes to Tulsa with some Hollywood-style hype. Many already know them from the MTV show two-a-days, which followed the team last season through both football fever and the trials and tribulations of teen romance.

Principal Bishop says he liked the portrayal. "They're a student first. They have relationships like everyone else second. And they also play football. So I think it's depicted a good side to what high school is all about."

Ironically, the football field was the one place they didn't set foot on Friday. They say this trip is as much about academics as it is athletics. Richard Bishop: "In the south, football is king in the state of Alabama. So we have to balance that. And we have to work at balancing that."