The MHSAA hosts the high school football finals at Ford Field in Detroit | Daily News Byte

DETROIT – High school football players will have the opportunity to experience how to play like the pros as the Michigan High School Athletic Association is hosting the finals at Ford Field in Detroit. Teams from Metro Detroit and across the state will face each other.

Just imagine the rush players get from being on the same field as the pros.

Local 4 spoke with some of the players’ biggest fans, including their parents, aunts, uncles, and siblings, and they all said the experience was incomparable.

“Everything is stronger,” Tyler Smart said.

“It’s more than exciting because it’s really real,” said Karen Black.

This Thanksgiving this weekend, high school football teams from across the state will be going head to head for the title of district champs. Warren De La Salle won the finals last year, but that doesn’t make Friday (Nov. 25) any less special, especially for young fans like Smart.

“It means a lot because my brother goes there and plays there, and I’m going there,” Smart said.

To witness this at Ford Field is worthy for any fan in the stands.

“It feels good to think how there is NFL players that play there and how high school players get to play there as well,” Smart said.

The event was so big that one aunt drove several hours to get there.

“I’m from Indiana,” Black said. “I live in Indiana, so I go to Michigan to watch him (nephew) play, to tell you how exciting it is for me.”

You don’t have to know a player for the MHSAA finals to have your heart touched. For example, Joseph and Doreen Bush’s son Brandon is a defensive coordinator for the De La Salle football team.

“It’s very special,” Doreen Bush said. “We’re so proud of him and all the boys who are his mentors. It’s beautiful.”

The Bush family can’t help but get a little passionate.

“It’s amazing these kids who work their butts off every year, and to see them get to the big game and all the pomp and circumstance and everything that goes with that, it’s incredible,” Joseph Bush said.

Congrats to De La Salle on their second straight championship; There are three more games on Saturday (Nov. 26), one of which features the defending Division 3 champions, Detroit King High School.

King’s kick-off is 7:30 pm