Denzell Washington starred in the 2000 film Remember the Titans. Photofest

To commemorate this weekend's release of Friday Night Lights, the 10 Spot will interrupt its regular programming to bring you our top 10 high school sports movies of all time. After you check out our choices, go down to the Mailbag and tell us your favorite high school sports flick. Here are some comments from your fellow readers.

1. Hoosiers (1986) If you notice Hoosiers on cable as you're flipping stations and don't stay put, you're not a true sports fan. In fact, you're not a fan of the human race. One can quickly identify it as a great sports film due to the presence of Chelcie Ross, the townie who as fill-in coach tells the players, "You can't score if you don't shoot." Ross, of course, also plays pitcher Eddie Harris in Major League and Coach Dan Devine in Rudy. (The latter film, like Hoosiers, was written by Angelo Pizzo, who later married the actress who played Rudy's crush.) We are filling this space with tidbits about other sports movies because, really, if you need to be sold on Hoosiers' greatness, perhaps you've stumbled onto this site by accident. Just to keep you around, though, how about this: Coach Norman Dale (Gene Hackman) did some of his best coaching when the cameras weren't rolling. Take the case of point guard Buddy Walker (Brad Long). Buddy quit during Coach Dale's first practice, and his sound ball-handling and floor generalship were sorely missed during some early blowout losses. Next thing we know, Buddy is playing again, presumably after some backstage apology and pep talk. By the time the state championship game rolls around, Buddy has so bought into Coach Dale's philosophy that he asks the team to "win it for Coach, who got us here." It was as if Allen Iverson and Larry Brown had actually won an NBA title together. Or an Olympic gold medal, for that matter.

2. Hoop Dreams (1994) The most powerful movie ever made about the role of basketball in the inner city, as two promising young players try to use the game to improve their lot in life with varying degrees of success. Our favorite scene is when Arthur Agee and his parents are meeting with a college recruiter. Arthur's dad, Arthur "Bo" Agee, tries to play the big man by telling the recruiter that even without a scholarship, he would be happy to pay for his son's schooling. The raised-eyebrow look that young Arthur flashes his dad is classic, because the son knows there's absolutely no way Bo could get himself together enough to do that. Those small moments of all-too-real life are what make this movie a classic.

3. All The Right Moves (1983) Starring a young Tom Cruise as Stef, a defensive back in a hardscrabble Pennsylvania steel town who, of course, is hoping to land a college scholarship to escape the mills and make a better future. Craig T. Nelson plays Coach Nickerson in the role that basically made his career, or at least paid for a luxurious existence, thanks to residuals from the TV show Coach. Lea Thompson plays the girlfriend that must have driven the boys crazy at band camp. A satisfying story arc in which Stef starts as a stud, then gets tossed from the team and watches his college offers dry up, before girlfriend Lisa helps Stef regain the coach's good graces to land that elusive scholarship. Most importantly, the movie teaches the biggest fundamental of defensive-back technique: Play the ball, not the man.

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4. Remember The Titans (2000) Yes, it works from the most standard of sports-movie playbooks and is as predictable as death and no-new-tax pledges from politicians. But with Denzel Washington aboard as Coach Herman Boone, this tale of a newly integrated school and football team in Northern Virginia still finds running room despite nine defenders stacked in the box. "We will be perfect in every aspect," bellows Coach Boone. "You drop a pass, you run a mile. You miss a blocking assignment, you run a mile. You make a fumble, I will take you and break my John Brown's foot up your ass, and then you will run a mile. Perfection." Yes sir!

5. School Ties (1992) Written by Dick Wolf of Law & Order fame, this story of a Jewish football player (Brendan Fraser) at a WASPy New England prep school in the 1950s is loaded with future stars. Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Chris O'Donnell are all on hand, with Damon making his feature-film debut. If only Wolf could have brought his L&O crew to get to the bottom of the plagiarism scandal that drives the second half of the film, or at least announce new scenes with a satisfying "chu-chung."

6. Bring It On (2000) What, cheerleading isn't a sport? We say it is, and as Torrance Shipman (Kirsten Dunst) puts it, this isn't a democracy, it's a cheerocracy. The plot is that a champion cheering squad from lily-white Rancho Carne High School discovers that its routines had been pilfered from an inner-city high school and has to scramble to come up with new moves for the championship battle with the tough-talking city girls. But don't worry about that. The best part is that the movie knows it's always bordering on pure cheese and just has fun with it. You will too.

7. Wildcats (1986) Goldie Hawn as a high school football coach. No, really. Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes are among the players, six years before they would team in White Men Can't Jump. Revel in Nipsey Russell as a wise-cracking principal and Jan Hooks in an unlikely role as trophy wife. When the 10 Spot once asked LL Cool J, who appears in the movie as (surprise!) a rapper, whether Hawn or Al Pacino (Any Given Sunday) were better fictional coaches, he took the fifth. We go with Goldie.

8. The Karate Kid (1984) OK, it's not really high school sports, but they were in high school. But the extended scene in which Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) learns that by painting the fence, sanding the floor and waxing the cars of Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita) he's really been learning karate all along is worth the price of admission. Or, at this point, worth sitting through 126 minutes during its innumerable runs on basic cable. But please, don't sweep the leg.

9. Vision Quest (1985) The best wrestling movie of all time, even beating out All The Marbles, in which Peter Falk plays the manager of a female-wrestling tag team. (Catfight!) Matthew Modine plays the improbably named Louden Swain, who aspires to topple the mighty Shute while, even more improbably, landing in the arms of sexy drifter Linda Fiorentino. Toss in Madonna singing Crazy For You, and it's I Love The '80s in technicolor. Don't miss a young Forest Whitaker as Balldozer. (Who named these characters, anyway?)

10. He Got Game (1998) Though it can be ponderous it does have its moments, which can basically be said about any Spike Lee film since Malcolm X. Denzel is here again as Jake Shuttlesworth, who is temporarily sprung from prison to get his son Jesus, real hoops star Ray Allen, to sign with Big State U. The best scenes are of Jesus' recruiting trips, where he is enticed by sins of the flesh, and the many cameos from college and NBA coaches and stars. It's no Hoop Dreams, if only because when Jake and Jesus finally play one-on-one, Denzel can't drop teardrop jumpers and scream, "Let it rain!" like Bo Agee did against Arthur. But for a made-up story, it's worth watching.

10 Spot Extra: We can't close shop for the weekend without our Jeopardy update and Lock of the Week. Ken Jennings had no worries on Thursday's episode, nailing final jeopardy to finish with an even $40K. (Category: Famous Names. A: The last thing visitors see in the exhibit area of the Salem Witch Museum is a huge photo of this politician. Q: Who is Joe McCarthy?) That moves Ken's winnings to $1,778,100 in 51 victories. Meanwhile, the Colts hung on for a cover against Jacksonville last Sunday to move Lock of the Week to 3-1. Let's roll the dice with the unpredictable Saints giving three points at home to the Bucs, who will start Chris Simms at quarterback. Never go with a UT quarterback the weekend of Texas-Oklahoma. And kids, stay in school.