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The fans come by the thousands, and it's hard to imagine from where, but many are in their seats an hour or more before game time, eagerly anticipating their team's traditional grand entrance.
And then it begins, a blue-and-gold stream of 80 players, cleats clattering against concrete as they slowly descend from a locker room upon a distant hillside, to be engulfed by cheers and applause from a community that all but shuts down for their games.
It's Friday night in Phelan, a wind-swept, tiny, unincorporated town nestled in the shadow of a mountain ski resort, just above the vast expanse that is the Mojave Desert.
Not just any Friday night, mind you, but a Friday night in the fall, which means the Serrano High Diamondbacks are playing football.
Most of the locals are fans of the team, some of whom, with a little prodding, will admit that they go to games even though they aren't particularly fond of football. It's a social event.
"The place to be," says Chris Johnson, a sophomore baseball player.
And that goes whether you're a county supervisor looking to shake a few hands, a retiree who recalls the day the school's first brick was laid, someone's grandparents visiting from Missouri, or the owner of an after-game fast-food hangout.
There are better high school teams playing before larger home crowds around Southern California, but few like the 8-1 Diamondbacks, the pride, the joy--and, some say, the only real entertainment--of this three-town region at the southwestern edge of San Bernardino County.
"Everybody wants to see the kids thrive," says Rick Weber, whose nephews played for Serrano. "Everybody follows the team."
And almost everyone goes to the games. Serrano's enrollment is 2,056--a figure the Diamondbacks have surpassed in attendance at every home game this season.
Winning helps. With one game to go, Serrano has clinched at least a tie for the Mojave River League title for the fourth consecutive season. But even in down years--there were a few in the 1990s--the Diamondbacks often brought out more fans for a road game than the home team.
There are no shopping malls here, and the closest movie theater is in Victorville, about 15 miles away. Drinking and partying, veiled by the darkness in...