It was so now for today's teenagers - all tied into Facebook and other social media, all related to generating online votes, uploading videos, and eliciting "shout-outs" from celebrities on Twitter.
It was so right for Mainland.
Gately, the athletic director at the regional high school in Linwood, Atlantic County, called it "divine intervention."
Mainland needed something, anything, to focus the school community's efforts to come to terms with the events of Aug. 20, when four football players were killed in an automobile accident.
"We were just getting done with the viewings and the funerals," Gately said. "People wonder why this [involvement in the contest] happened, how this happened. I believe it was meant to happen for us. We needed something to help us heal, to help us grow."
A four-month process that began when everybody still was numb from the shock of that tragic day and the incomprehensible sadness of those four funerals ended in joy Thursday night and celebration Friday.
At halftime of the Under Armour All-American Football Game on Thursday night in the Tropicana Dome in St. Petersburg, Fla., Mainland was named the winner of the first "Finding Undeniable" contest.
There's a tangible reward to Mainland's victory. The school will receive $180,000 in Under Armour athletic apparel over the next two years - $100,000 in uniforms and $40,000 a year in footwear and other items.
But that's not the half of it. When Bob Coffey modeled a new football jersey at Friday's pep rally - a formfitting, green No. 12 with puffy shoulders and a tailored waist that was "a little tight" - the veteran football coach wasn't thinking about how good his team will look in new threads.
"This has been overwhelming," Coffey said. "I'm so proud of the community and the kids."
