BATON ROUGE - A local high school football team is being praised as one of the best in the entire country.

USA Today released its rankings of the top 25 high school football teams for the 2018-2019 season. Among them was one team from Louisiana: Baton Rouge's University Lab. The team comes in ranked at 21, just behind Warren Central in Indianapolis. 

"It's definitely something to be proud of," said senior Mark Coppola.

Coppola says his team's bond gives them an advantage. Head Coach Chad Mahaffey agrees.

"Defensively, I feel like we're playing well as a team and hopefully we continue that throughout the season," said Mahaffey.

A dominant junior class last year are now seniors. Mahaffey isn't just expecting a lot of wins this year, but for some of his players to continue on in college ball.

"This year it should be a pretty big group," he said.

U High plays Mandeville High in its first game of the season Friday.