I had a chance to get back to my roots on Friday.

Thanks to Bastrop playing on Thursday, and the Smithville Tigers being the only area team home this week, I got to experience lower classification football for the first time since I got my start in this business when I covered Palestine-Westwood (3A) in 2005.

Class 3A-and-below football is often overlooked thanks to the glamour and pizzaz of the upper classes with their multi-million dollar stadiums and future college starts.

And in being overlooked, those small things you don’t get in upper classification football are under-appreciated.
In small towns like Smithville, the game is still pure.
There is still that attachment the community has with its team.
In the upper classes, especially in the bigger cities, there is a level of detachment that grows between the fans and the teams.
As stadium-envy grows every year and the race to get a bigger and badder one than your rivals, the community gets more and more detached.
In Class 3A and below, the game has a level of intimacy that makes high school football in Texas such a special thing.
One thing I forgot about lower classification football is the smell of hot dogs and nacho cheese coming from the concession stand. (And how unhealthy concession stand food really is!)
Also, it is rare to find any football players marching with the band at halftime. Smithville had three.
The big stadiums are nice with their luxurious press boxes, large stadium bleachers and artificial grass, but one thing about most of these massive stadiums that is missing is that level of connection the fans have with the game.
I was sitting at the top row of the stands at Barry Field and was still able to feel like I was on the field.
You can’t get that at BISD Memorial, Burger or Chaparral Stadium. You can’t even get that at Wildcat Stadium in Elgin.
And like in Bastrop and Elgin with the Bears and the Wildcats, the entire town came out to support their Tigers.
Most of them in black, some of them in orange, but all of them wore their Tiger pride for everyone to see.
As Wharton took the lead, the fans didn’t stop cheering or believing.
The crowd at Barry Field cheered for their team as loud as they could as the 11 young men in black and orange carried the spirit of their town with them to a near victory.
Wharton did win and Smithville is still looking for its first win as it heads to Class 3A No. 4 Wimberley for a date with the Texans.
While the Tigers have their backs against a wall, a town of about 5,000 will stand behind those 50-plus young men every Friday night and cheer them in victory, pick them up in defeat and support them as they battle the toughest of challenges.
That is what Texas high school football is about.
Yes, Class 5A and 4A football is glamourous and exciting with their spread offenses, college scouts in the stands, future college all-stars  and their luxurious stadiums.
But its the intimacy that comes from small towns who’s hopes and pride is carried onto a 120-yard slab of grass by a team full of teenagers who give their all not just for school pride, but also for their town.
And while there may be that same thing at Bastrop and Elgin, it’s nothing compared to lower classification football in very small towns.