BATON ROUGE - Belaire High School's football team took the field Friday night, less than one week after their head coach was suspended for a plan to play an ineligible player.

The scandal may have cost Belaire a chance at a championship, but as new head coach Kevin Jackson said, there's a lot more to this game than just winning.

The recent coaching scandal is still fresh in the minds of the Belaire High team. What had been a respectable season so far was stripped away by the High School Football Association.

"They were disappointed," Jackson explained, "because they were on the path to going to the playoffs. But things happen and we're going to get throught it."

Despite the set back, the young men played hard. The coaches say they were impressed, and the parents in the stands say it's what they've come to expect.

"They're playing the way I expect them to play because they're winners," Belaire High parent Tamika Edwards said. "In my heart I believe and know they are winners."

While the team won't make it to the playoffs this year, Coach Jackson says there is a larger lesson for them.

"Teaching them this is more than football in life," he says. "Sometimes you have bumps in the roads in life. If you can overcome the little things, you can handle the big things.