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FAYETTEVILLE – As Jack Britt High School prepares to square off against Butler for the state football title, some players will do so without their No. 1 fans.

A handful of players on the 15-0 Jack Britt team have parents deployed overseas. For senior wide receiver Robert Pradia, that means there's always something missing.

"I'm a mama's boy, so it's always hard with my mom being gone years at a time, being deployed," said Pradia.

His mom is currently serving in Iraq with the 82nd Airborne Division.

Quite a few on the roster have to balance football, schoolwork and worrying over the safety of their parents.

"He's going to be gone one minute and here the next, so you just have to get used to it because there's nothing you can do about it," said senior Eric Johnson.

But DK Sports is making the distance a little less vast with an online broadcasting program that allows parents to tune into the games.

"A lot of sacrifices go on, and I just hope this brings them a little closer to the ball game, listening to us on the Internet," says DK Sports Announcer Don Koonce.

Robert Pradia's mom won't make it home from Iraq in time to see him play in the state championship game, but he says he's going to play hard to ensure his mom is as proud of him as he is of her.

"The way I work through that is to try and do the best I can do at everything so that I can know that my mom is proud of me, even when she's overseas and so that when she gets home she'll be able to realize how well she raised me, and be proud of me," Koonce said.