Pre-game dinners with the high school team are a fall tradition in many towns. And the Pembroke Hill High School football team from Kansas City, Mo., is no exception. Recently, the team gathered for a pig roast in the backyard of one player’s home. Breaking bread together not only fuels the athletes’ bodies, it nourishes their camaraderie.

“These dinners are a way for our team to bond,” Patrick Freitag, a senior at Pembroke Hill, told the Kansas City Star. “It’s a way for seniors to interact with freshmen players away from the football field, plus it’s really good food.”

Pembroke Hill H.S. football player Billy Humphrey, right, piles on the smoked pork at the team's season kick-off pig roast in Kansas City, Mo. (Photo by TAMMY LJUNGBLAD, Kansas City Star)