Friday Night Lights are back. For many people, this is the most wonderful time of the year as football season is underway again. In small towns and large cities across Missouri, high school football reigns supreme. There is something special about the glow of the lights, the roar of the crowd, and an entire community coming together to support the team. Families, friends, and even strangers gather in the stadium to witness the spectacle. So football in Missouri is not just a game, it’s a part of the fabric of the communities.
These are the schools where Friday Night means just a bit more. We scoured the state for the best stadiums, crunched the numbers for the best records, and talked to players, coaches, and referees about which schools have the best football environments to see which are the best places for high school football in Missouri. We found out that there are far too many to list! But some schools do stand just a bit above the others.
This is a partial list of some of the best high school football stadiums in Missouri that truly symbolize Friday Night Lights. If you think we missed one, drop a comment!
If there is one place in Missouri that symbolized Friday Night Lights, it might be Webb City. The city of 13,000 residents still has that small town feel with a quaint downtown. Some people say they love the town because of it’s slow pace of life. But when it comes to football, there is nothing slow about the Cardinals!
Webb City has dominated the competition with 16 state championships including 1989, 1992, 1993, 1997, 2000, 2001, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2017, 2019 and 2021 and produced a number of Division 1 football players. One in particular is Grant Wistrom, who went on to star for the St. Louis Rams and Seattle Seahawks.
Waynesville High School has a strong tradition of winning football and several players have gone on to play in the NCAA, and some have even made it to the NFL. But the reason the school is included this year is the stadium. In fact, this field blew the competition away. In fact, it may be one of the coolest looking fields in the entire country. When we asked our contributors to pick the most beautiful field, this one got nearly every single first place vote!
And when you have had as much success as the Tigers have had over the years, you need a field that matches that level of excellence. They are off to a rough start in 2023, but this field just had to be mentioned.
They call it “The Pit.” It may have a rough nickname, but this stadium is about as cool as it gets. Not only does it look great, but teams around southeast Missouri will tell you that this is one of the toughest places to play in the state. The fans are rowdy and the entire town seems to come out to see the Indians play on Friday Nights. And once again in 2023, they are off to a great start with lopsided victories.
The school has about 1,600 students that live in several communities around Jackson and they are passionate about football. The team dates back to 1895 when they defeated Oak Ridge in the first high school football game in the area. And over the years, the Indians have had dozens of players playing in college. And there have been some legends, too. Edwin Horrell was a star center who went on to play for Cal-Berkeley and was later the head coach of UCLA for nearly a decade in the mid-1900s.
The Indians won the state title in 2020 in Class 5 by beating Platte County 42-7. The were runner up in 2019 after falling to Carthage in overtime.
Jackson High was also ranked as one Missouri’s Best High Schools for Sports by Niche. In fact, they are the top public high school on the list.
Ray-Pec is iconic. No matter what state championship event you go to, it seems like you see Ray-Pec shirts, jackets and hoodies every single year. This school has always done things a bit better than the rest.
I remember the state high school cross country championships back in the 1980s where their warm-ups, singlets, tents, and fan base all took their level of excellence to the next level. So it’s no surprise that they are still one of the best places in the state for high school football.
The biggest name to come out of Ray-Pec is probably Chase Coffman. He was a legend in the Kansas City area in high school, then solidified his legendary status as one of the best Mizzou Tigers of all time. But the depth of talent runs deeper than one player. The Panthers won the MSHSAA Class 5 state championship in 2004, 2005, and 2006, then the Class 6 championship in 2020 and finished the season as the top ranked football team in the state. The Panthers have also been ranked in the top 25 in the state nearly every season for the past decade.
Christian Brothers College High School in St. Louis is dominant. There is simply no other way to put it. All of the sports teams seems to be competing for state championships every year, but football may be one of the best of the best. And when it comes to school spirit, it’s hard to find a place with more passionate fans and alumni.
Over the past decade, CBC won the state championship in 2014, 2017, 2018, 2021, and 2022. They were runner’s up in 2015 and 2011. And the number of Cadets who went on to play in college is staggering. Just know that if you drive past the beautiful campus along I-64 in St. Louis County on a Friday night, you’ll likely see the glow of the stadium and hear the roar of the crowd enjoying another epic victory.
CBC was also named as the best school in Missouri for high school sports success.
Lamar High School football has a pedigree unlike any other in the state of Missouri. They have won the Class 2 State Championship 8 times, including seven in a row, which is a record that is likely to stand for a long time. We are talking about 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2020. And the few years over the past decade when they didn’t win it all, they were runner’s up. That’s a lot of winning!
The town is a short drive north of Joplin and has a population of about 4,200 residents. In fact, you can find most of those residents taking in the action at the beautiful stadium on Friday nights. And these fans are passionate. You have to get there early for big games if you want to get a seat, but fans are often able to leave early because most of the games over the past decade have been blowouts! That is also the case so far in 2023.
If you are into small town football on Friday nights, this might be one of the best road trips to put on your list this year to take in the spectacle.
There is perhaps no other high school in the state of Missouri with a better football tradition than Jefferson City. The Jays’ have had nearly 200 All-State players, 10 All-Americans, 14 perfect seasons, and a 71 game winning streak. When you add in a rabid fans base, you have one of the best football environments in the Show Me State.
From this field rose one of arguably the first behemoths of Missouri prep football, and the results are why the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame proudly inducted the Jefferson City Jays Football Program with the Class of 2019.
Jefferson City Football was the first to win 10 state titles in Missouri high school history, including 1976, 1977, 1978, 1984, 1988, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994 and 1997.
The list of Jays who went on to play in the NFL features:
Charlie Brown – Saints
Jerry Crumpler – Cowboys
Dennis Meyer – Steelers
George Shorthose – Dolphins, Chiefs, Broncos
Don Webb – Patriots
Justin Smith – Bengals, 49ers
Steve Martin – Colts, Eagles, Jets, Chiefs, Patriots, Green Bay Packers, Houston Texans, Minnesota Vikings
Kirk Farmer – Rams, Chiefs
Justin Gage – Bears, Titans)
Sylvester Williams – Broncos, Titans, Dolphins and Chargers).
The town of Maryville in northwest Missouri is football crazy. Northwest Missouri State University is based in the town and has won several NCAA Division II national championships over the past few decades. But on Friday nights, it’s all about the Spoofhounds. And just for the record, they are the only school in the country to have a Spoofhound as a mascot.
Not only does Maryville High have one of the coolest mascot names in the country, but they also play some good football. Maryville won the state championship in 1982, 2009, 2012, 2013 and 2017 and was the runner up in 1984, 1996, 2008, 2016 and 2020. So for this town of about 10,000 people, football on Friday nights are a generational family affair.
If there is one high school that is synonymous with Friday Night Lights success on the western side of the state over the years, it’s Rockhurst High. The Hawklets have played in the state championship 16 times, winning it 9 of those years. And the student body at the private school in Kansas City really comes out in full force to support the team every home game. The stadium got rave reviews from our panel of experts with the cool blue track standing out from the rest. And the team is off to a great start in 2023 with big wins of Ray-Pec and Blue Springs South.
And the number of players who have made it all the way to the NFL from Rockhurst is astonishing. Take for example:
Tony Blevins – 49ers and Colts
Brad Budde – Chiefs
Charlie Heck – Texans
John McCambridge – Lions
Dexter McDonald – Raiders
Paul Migliazzo – Bears
Kenyon Rasheed – Giants
Kerry Reardon – Chiefs
Timothy Thomas Ryan – Buccaneers
Bill Whitaker – Packers and Cardinals
Jordan Willis – 49ers
So when you have this level of success combined with a top-tier level of school spirit, you understand why. Rockhurst was also named as one of Missouri’s Best High Schools for Sports by Niche.
Blair Oaks in Wardsville is one of those schools that seems to be good at everything. And when it comes to football, the Falcons are really, really good. They won the Class 2 state championship in 2004, 2006, 2018, 2020, and 2022. And they are dominating the competition once again in 2023. They were even named one of the best schools for sports in the entire state of Missouri.
It may be a small town, but the people in this rural area close to Jefferson City come out in droves to support their team. Part of the reason is they have had a lot to cheer about over the years, and 2023 is no different. The Falcons are once again one of the top ranked teams in the state, so you can expect the stadium to be packed for a long time to come.
There are few towns across Missouri where their identity is almost synonymous with Friday Night Lights. That is certainly true with Camdenton. For those of us who grew up around the Lake of the Ozarks, we always knew we could head to Camden County to see the Lakers play a great game.
The team has had so much history that the program is even in the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame. They also have five state championships to go along with their hall of fame status. According to the Hall of Fame web site, when the team was inducted in 2016, the team had made the playoffs every year since the 1980s and have had 114 All-State selections since the program began in 1959.
The Lakers are off to a great start again in 2023, so you can bet Friday nights will be hopping at Bob Shore stadium for the rest of the season.
Liberty North high school is only 13 years old but has already established itself as a powerhouse in Missouri football. They have already finished in the MaxPrep Top 25 in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022. And in 2021 the Eagles finished as the runner up in Class 6, falling only to powerhouse CBC. In fact, over the past three years, they have only lost a handful of games, often dominating opponents.
So when the Eagles take the field and North Nation hits the bleachers, you can bet the place will be rocking on Friday nights.
Francis Howell football is good. And we mean really, really good. They won the Class 5 state championship in 2022 and finished in the top 25 power ranking of all schools in Missouri in nearly every year over the last decade, according to MaxPreps. And the Vikings pack the stands on Friday nights in St. Charles.
The Vikings won the state title in convincing fashion in 2022 over Fort Osage, 49-21. That completed an undefeated season for Francis Howell, which gave the fans a lot to cheer about. The team started a little slower in 2023, but their 2 early losses came against very good teams, so there is still time to turn it around. So you can bet when it comes time for the playoffs, the Vikings and their fans will be there.
Lee’s Summit North is widely considered the best team in the state thus far in 2023. They finished as runner up in 2022, barely falling to powerhouse CBC. This year, the Broncos have already played some of the toughest teams in the state through four games and have won all four. One coach told us that the noise from the crowd “just doesn’t stop… all game long.”
So when you combine a program with this much success and a student body with this much passion, you truly have something special on Friday nights. And this season may go down as one that the students and alumni will never forget.
It’s safe to say that these two schools would hate being mentioned in the same breath. It’s a rivalry that has gone on for decades, but there is no way you could separate the two schools from the history books.
Both cities lie just south of Springfield and are separated by six miles from east to west. Both cities have seen massive growth over the past few years. And both high schools have sports traditions that are legendary. The two stadiums are packed on most Friday nights. But when the two play each other, it’s not just about the record, it’s everything. It’s about playing for pride as generation after generation of their family members also likely played in this game.
This rivalry, dubbed “The Backyard Brawl,” has been evenly matched over the years. As a Nixa coach told us several years ago, “it doesn’t matter what the records are going into the game. You might as well just throw everything out because this is the most important game of the year for the players. It’s likely more important than winning a state championship.” Yes, that is basically the definition of a good rivalry.
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