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What: “Investigative Reports, Special Edition: Wide Open: Inside the World of High School Football”

Where: A&E;, Friday, 9 p.m.

This two-hour documentary isn’t about injuries, deaths, recruiting, cheating or anything else that is bad about high school football. It’s about the good, about what young men can gain from a team sport.

The A&E; film follows two high school teams through a season.

One team is from the Texas prairie town of Stephenville, located amid cattle ranches and dairy farms in a place where high school football is king. The athletic facilities are better than those at many colleges, games attract 10,000 fans and after games players and students attend church dances.

The other team is Jefferson High in South Central Los Angeles, where the players practice on a dirt field, have to clean the graffiti off their lockers and, as star running back Trey Jackson says, “Pray every night just to wake up the next morning.”

The two coaches, Jefferson’s Hank Johnson, a 20-year veteran, and Stephenville’s Mike Copeland, are featured, along with several players from both teams. Stephenville linebacker Scott Lee worries about such things as what college will give him a full-ride scholarship. Jefferson quarterback John Brown, who became a father at 16, has different kinds of worries.

Stephenville has one minority player, black receiver Jeremy Madkins, the son of a strict Baptist minister. Almost all of Jefferson’s players are black. Stephenville, which has won four state championships, has a winning season; Jefferson does not.

But the similarities between the teams are amazing. Both coaches emphasize they’re teaching their players to be winners in the game of life, instilling a sense of discipline, respect, pride and teamwork, and giving them the tools to become good citizens.

Larry Stewart