"When I was your age, we didn't have all this fancy stuff, all these Internet webcasts of games, artificial turf, lightweight shoes, helmets, fancy locker rooms or energy drinks. We played on gravel in front of almost no fans with no water, hardly any penalties were called, and we loved it. But we were grateful for what we had."

Sound familiar? Well, if any modern development for sports screams invention and progress, it's the first one of the items listed above. Live Internet webcasts of athletic competitions is an amazing leap, even from the idea of any video recording of a game, because it's live, worldwide, and doesn't require any tape or disc or chip that touches the open air.

When I started tuning into the New Mexico Activities Association's live webcasts of the state tournament basketball selection shows and games a couple of years ago, I realized the huge potential for that type of coverage in giving the entire state (and the entire sports world) a view of live action.

When I noticed ProView Networks was selling copies of the DVD of the Belen Eagles' 20009-10 football playoff games, I decided it was finally time to sample an entire New Mexico game on a big-screen TV, just to see how the production turned out. What better game to sample than the Class 4A championship football game I had watched in person?

Overall, the DVD was impressive, taking into account how few resources a small company like ProView Networks had for the game between Belen and the Goddard Rockets. It wasn't an NFL or big-time college production, with its dozens of cameras, on-screen stat graphics and a huge support staff, and I took that into consideration.

It took about two weeks to receive the video in the mail, and took a bit of fiddling to get it to play on my laptop computer.

Playing the disc on a DVD player on a 32-inch TV, there isn't any kind of menu or setup. Just hit play. For movie fans used to special features, alternate endings or even scene selections, a captivating, evenly played state championship game will have to suffice.

I'm not into alternate endings for the most part, but this was one movie where I wished the ending would have been different.

It's a little surprising how raw the video is, virtually unchanged from the way it was pesenteded on www.nmaa.tv. The only camera angles are from the press box, providing a decent view of the game action, but missing a great deal of the environment at Belen High from that amazing day.

State basketball coverage, including online videos of the Belen boys and girls teams' appearances in the Pit in March 2009, focuses on high-angle coverage, missing a lot of fan and sideline shots. NMAA playoff football coverage, to date, has the same issue. The crowd noise can be heard and the sound is average, but there isn't footage of the enormous crowd cheering on both sides, the campers, the tailgate parties, the endless screaming everyone remembers if they were there.

One noticeable fact that is reinforced by the video is how much bigger the Goddard lineup was, and how hard Belen had to fight to use its speed, conditioning and anticipation to keep the game close. Just as there is no way to coach speed, there's no way to coach being both big and fast.

The advantages for both teams, as seen in the video, show fans why coaches watch so much game film. It also shows fans why coaches call a certain play to counter a certain formation, such as a quick first-quarter pass to a Goddard receiver when a Belen defensive back was lined up at least six yards off the ball.

The announcing wasn't that effective, but anyone who's ever sat in or near the BHS press box knows the view is not high up off the ground, and that it's hard to track the action (I know the press box looks really small, especially with all the other recent facility upgrades, but athletics only gets one multi-million dollar project every few years).

It seemed difficult for the announcer to follow the action at times, and he ended up giving virtually a nonstop description, with a few chip-ins from a barely-audible commentator. The commercials are annoying but necessary, and a viewer can skip through those.

This is a form of New Mexico sports coverage in its infancy, and I'm sure producers are evaluating and making changes, and the product will only improve.

The videos aren't perfect, but likely worth the $19.95 plus shipping charges for anyone who wants a keepsake, or for anyone wanting a memento of the game that can be shared with others. While many of us on the print side of preps coverage feel we have the superior and most comprehensive means of chronicling the sport, video has its unique way of telling a story, and there's always room for more ways to record young people achieving at a high level.