N.C. State football tickets may be hard to get, but you don't necessarily have to go to Carter-Finley Stadium to see good football. I may be the last person to discover this, but high school football is one of the best deals going.

I packed up my family last Friday night and headed to Ravenscroft School to see the Ravenscroft Ravens play the Warren County High School Eagles. For $10, the whole family (kids get in free) sat in the front row.

I had never been a spectator at a high school football game (unless you count the games I observed from the bench while on my high school football team). Put me down as a fan.

Sure you may not see a field full of future pros. But where else can you see the kind of life lessons we saw last Friday:

The Ravens had the ball deep in enemy territory with plenty of time for one last play. But they already were up by nine. At coach Ned Gonet 's direction, quarterback Johnny Jupiter simply dropped to his knee.

"When the other side knows they've been defeated, why make it any worse?" Gonet said. "That's part of sportsmanship."

Gonet said he appreciates the community coming out. Most spectators are connected with the school, he said, but "if you can get other people out -- if you have a big crowd, if you have a spirited crowd -- that adds to the home advantage."

Every Tuesday, The News & Observer Sports section prints game schedules and lots of other information -- records, statistics -- about Triangle high schools. Read up, adopt a home team, go to the game!

---

A reminder that Sept. 26 is the deadline for "My North Raleigh" photos, which we run every year to mark the North Raleigh News' anniversary. As always, we are asking area residents to send us photos that represent "your" North Raleigh -- people, places and events important to you.

Send digital photos to dholly@newsobserver.com or mail negatives to: My North Raleigh, North Raleigh News, P.O. Box 191, Raleigh, NC 27602. (In last week's column, I had the box number wrong).

Either color or black and white images are fine. We will not be able to return negatives.

Include a note about why the image represents North Raleigh to you, as well as a face shot of yourself, and your phone number in case we have questions.

We will publish the best photos in October, and others will appear on our Web site.