If I happen to be at the Seattle Center the same time there’s a high school football game, I might go watch it. I’ll listen to the reports about it on the television or radio and read about it in the newspapers or on the internet, but only when it’s convenient for me. Obviously, I’m not exactly a huge fan. However, I do know enough to know that we’ve got some really great football programs at high schools all around the Puget Sound.

Rivals.com conveniently just validated this knowledge for me with the release of their rankings of the top 100 high school football programs in the US. Unsurpisingly, the top ten teams came from schools in Texas, Florida, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, California, Georgia, and Mississippi, places where high school football is often just as serious and important as any pro sport, perhaps even more so. I think this makes the appearance of a couple Washington schools on the list all the more impressive because we don’t have such tradition here; our football players aren’t good because they have the whole community behind them at all times–our football players are just plain good.

Cracking the top 100 are Bellevue HS in Bellevue, of course, coming in at number 70 this week with a 5-0 record. If that’s not awesome enough for you, consider Issaquah’s Skyline HS: they’re ranked number 23, also with a 5-0 record propelled wins like their last one where they wiped out Garfield 35 – 2.