Best Friday Night Environment/Fans

[coastalball]

Kinda combining both questions, because I'm interested in both (and they almost go hand-in-hand). What stadium has some of the best atmosphere on a given Friday night? Same with fans. What communities really show out for the kids each week, regardless of their records?

[maroontide06]

All of the Pearl River County schools (Picayune, PRC, Poplarville) know how to pack a stadium out.  As far as atmosphere goes, you've got to have a really good PA announcer to keep the crowd engaged and we've got that at Picayune.  I still wish we would bring back the cannon.  The smoke ring was a thing of beauty.

[Rebel Maniac]

I think this question(s) has a lot to do games that week as well. Rivalry games being a big part of that. Starkville vs. Oxford and Wayne County vs Laurel are two that come to mind. I am sure Picayune vs. PRC can bring a huge crowd to both stadiums just because of geographic location. 

[coastalball]

That's true, I've seen that Picayune stadium packed out like crazy. I agree with the PA for sure. Being on the losing end of a game where the PA is snarky and gets under your skin is a really underrated factor that I'm surprised more teams don't try to have. Hearing "X Team scores" compared to "X Team easily cruises into the endzone through the Y Team defense" makes a big difference in terms of mind games with the opposing team. 

 

Wayne's stadium is pretty stinking nice so I definitely feel like that is a great place when they're full. 

[Mower Man 63]

4 hours ago, maroontide06 said:

All of the Pearl River County schools (Picayune, PRC, Poplarville) know how to pack a stadium out.  As far as atmosphere goes, you've got to have a really good PA announcer to keep the crowd engaged and we've got that at Picayune.  I still wish we would bring back the cannon.  The smoke ring was a thing of beauty.

I’m not sure what brand of Sausage that Poplarville uses but  Picayune and Prc serves Fortenberry’s Sausage and they are probably the best in the State. 

[maroontide06]

4 minutes ago, Mower Man 63 said:

I’m not sure what brand of Sausage that Poplarville uses but  Picayune and Prc serves Fortenberry’s Sausage and they are probably the best in the State. 

The concessions are very good at Picayune and PRC.   The sausage dogs are definitely top notch.

[Wareaglefan1us]

Wayne County was once one of the best atmospheres anywhere in this state or any other. But like everywhere attendance is down. 

[coastball]

D'Iberville and OS are probably two of the best on the coast in my knowledge. Only negativity I can think of is the student sections can get a little ugly at times, but they're going to do what the administration allows so there's that but atmosphere is usually great.

[BrickCity]

My favorite environments are usually found in the smaller towns. 3a-4a mainly. This is where high school football becomes the focal point on everyone's Friday night.

[s1nglewing]

Prep, MRA, Centreville.

Outside MS, Niceville FL is amazing. You can see their's on YouTube: 

 

[doyouevencoachbro]

2 hours ago, Wareaglefan1us said:

Wayne County was once one of the best atmospheres anywhere in this state or any other. But like everywhere attendance is down. 

 

When that stadium was full of Orange T-Shirts it was pretty intimidating. 

[doyouevencoachbro]

2 hours ago, coastball said:

D'Iberville and OS are probably two of the best on the coast in my knowledge. Only negativity I can think of is the student sections can get a little ugly at times, but they're going to do what the administration allows so there's that but atmosphere is usually great.

 

I agree on OS.

[Rebel Maniac]

I see we are talking about larger schools but what about small schools? Are there any that, maybe not can rival those big schools, but have a great Friday night atmosphere? 

[Chunky6617]

Honestly, I don’t like the atmospheres at the bigger stadiums with turf fields. They are trying to mimick a smaller college style atmosphere, and to me that just isn’t high school football. I prefer smaller, high school atmospheres 

[coastball]

I've been to some Mccomb/South Pike/Brookhaven games and those crowds have been entertaining as well as the announcer at McComb. However, that was quite a while ago so I'm not speaking on recent years

[maroontide06]

6 minutes ago, Chunky6617 said:

Honestly, I don’t like the atmospheres at the bigger stadiums with turf fields. They are trying to mimick a smaller college style atmosphere, and to me that just isn’t high school football. I prefer smaller, high school atmospheres 

Our stadium was built in 1950.  It's certainly not a Texas style double decker that wraps around, but it's a fully cast in place concrete stadium with a track.  We do have turf, but it was badly needed at Picayune and I'm thankful we have it.  I think I understand where you are coming from in regards to the college style atmosphere (Re: Brandon), and honestly it felt like I was stepping into a different tax bracket when I went there in 2023.  But we don't have anything that mimics the college style atmosphere, it's strictly high school football at Picayune.  We just play in a larger classification.  You can have larger classification football, that still feels like small town high school football and at Picayune we've been able to capture that.

[coastball]

Picayune atmosphere is pretty good when packed out. Been through many a battle there on Friday nights

[maroontide06]

15 minutes ago, coastball said:

Picayune atmosphere is pretty good when packed out. Been through many a battle there on Friday nights

It helps when the away side is full too, and I've seen it jam packed many of times.  You always want the visiting team to travel well.  If they don't, it's kind of depressing.

[Vott]

3 hours ago, Rebel Maniac said:

I see we are talking about larger schools but what about small schools? Are there any that, maybe not can rival those big schools, but have a great Friday night atmosphere? 

Lumberton does. And although they dont win often as they would like to, Sumrall packs it out pretty well at their home games.

[doyouevencoachbro]

3 hours ago, Rebel Maniac said:

I see we are talking about larger schools but what about small schools? Are there any that, maybe not can rival those big schools, but have a great Friday night atmosphere? 

 

North Panola on homecoming.  Charleston most nights.  

[Vott]

1 hour ago, maroontide06 said:

It helps when the away side is full too, and I've seen it jam packed many of times.  You always want the visiting team to travel well.  If they don't, it's kind of depressing.

It is very depressing. It also hurts the gate and concessions when visiting teams do not travel. One year at an HHS home game the visiting team brought 14 fans. If you go back and look at the schedule of previous HHS home games you would know who that team is.

[Mower Man 63]

3 hours ago, Vott said:

It is very depressing. It also hurts the gate and concessions when visiting teams do not travel. One year at an HHS home game the visiting team brought 14 fans. If you go back and look at the schedule of previous HHS home games you would know who that team is.

Gotta be one of the Jackson Teams. In 2023 Forest Hill brought less than 10 to PRC 

Edited April 4, 2025 by Mower Man 63

[Merlin]

4 hours ago, Mower Man 63 said:

Gotta be one of the Jackson Teams. In 2023 Forest Hill brought less than 10 to PRC 

it was them, or Jim hill I don’t remember, last year that had 16 at west jones

[Wareaglefan1us]

17 hours ago, Vott said:

It is very depressing. It also hurts the gate and concessions when visiting teams do not travel. One year at an HHS home game the visiting team brought 14 fans. If you go back and look at the schedule of previous HHS home games you would know who that team is.

Natchez use to be like this and I get it there’s a sign about a mile from my house that says Natchez 177 miles. But I was always that parent that when my son is playing I’m going to be there. You never know when injuries are going to happen.

[Vott]

1 hour ago, Wareaglefan1us said:

Natchez use to be like this and I get it there’s a sign about a mile from my house that says Natchez 177 miles. But I was always that parent that when my son is playing I’m going to be there. You never know when injuries are going to happen.

I guess it may be because I like to drive, but Natchez was one of my favorite road trips. I take off from work that Friday more likely it was gonna be a win for HHS and on that drive home had the scoreboard show "Friday Night Under the Lights" with Russ Robinson keeping me company on the radio. By the time it went off the air I was almost back in Hattiesburg.