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Texas H.S. brings fans to cheer for opposing team

Screengrab from CBS News
Screengrab from CBS News

The boys basketball team at Vanguard College Prep (Waco, Texas), recently showed true sportsmanship as they prepared to play the Gainesville (Texas) Tornadoes.

Gainesville is a youth correctional facility for felony offenders, where good behavior is rewarded by a spot on the basketball team. If they're not on the team, students at Gainesville are not permitted to leave the school - i.e., they can't travel to cheer on their classmates. Few parents make the trip, leaving the fan section empty at many Gainesville games.

Vanguard players Ben Martinsen and Hudson Bradley appreciate how hard it is to play in an empty gym, they told CBS News, so they decided that they'd recruit people to cheer for Gainesville.

According to CBS,

The Gainesville players had no idea what was happening. They walked onto the court to find their own signs of support, their own cheerleaders, even their own fan section. Half the crowd was assigned to cheer for Gainesville. But as the game went on, everybody started to cheer for Gainesville.

"I think in a way this is kind of how sports should be. It just kind of showed me the real impact that encouragement and support for anybody can make," Bradley told CBS. It's an impact that the Gainesville players said they'll never forget.

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Danielle Elliot is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact her at delliot@yahoo-inc.com or find her on Twitter.