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In smack talk, it's the ultimate trump word. Yeah, yeah, whatever, we won. Scoreboard.

Lakeland High School and its football booster club turned that edgy metaphor literal this season. They built a $400,000, 40-by-40-foot scoreboard and high-definition video screen behind the south end zone of Lakeland's Bryant Stadium, home of the three-time defending state champion Dreadnaughts.

The scoreboard, the first of its kind for a Florida high school, features a 15-by-20-foot video screen. It shows live action, replays, commercials and student video productions. As the team prepares to take the field, the screen plays a slick montage of Dreadnaught players practicing and lifting weights.

The scoreboard is the flashiest sign yet of widespread public support for the LHS football team, which hasn't lost a game in more than three years. There's been national television and interstate travel for games. Last year's team sent at least eight players to Division I universities on football scholarships, seven to the University of Florida.

LHS also felt the sting of a modern media scandal, driven by the exposure the program normally welcomes. It turned a teenager's loose talk about the team's close relationship to the Lakeland community into a week of talk radio, newspaper and blog fodder. In the end, no wrongdoing was found.

The experience left scars. They're part of what Principal Mark Thomas called "the double-edged sword" of fielding one of Florida's best-known prep football programs.

Still, if anything, the popularity of LHS football seems to be growing thanks to the new scoreboard.

On a recent Friday night, it was the talk among the Bryant Stadium crowd. "It's really cool," said Beth Rousseau, a 10th-grade cheerleader. "I think fans this year are more into the scoreboard than the game."

Castle laughs when asked if he envisioned video scoreboards, televised games and all the orange-strewn pageantry of a Dreadnought Friday night when he took over in 1976.

"Oh no, I'm not that smart," he said. But he welcomes the scoreboard and mass exposure of his program. "What better experience for their growth and development as people than to learn early about how to handle yourself?"

There's one other video scoreboard in Florida, at Union County High, but it's not high definition. How good is Lakeland's picture? You can clearly read the players' numbers from behind the opposite end zone.

"I think it's a huge thing for our fans and adds a lot of entertainment to the game," Castle said. "It's not as much for the team as for our fans."

Advertising will pay for the scoreboard, which is being financed by a local bank and managed by the Lakeland High football booster club. The school expects to pay it off within a few years and sees it as a long-term fundraising vehicle, maybe even the way to buy an artificial turf field for Bryant Stadium someday.

The field is used for more than 100 youth and high school football and soccer games each year.

The Dreadnaughts have won three straight 5A state championships. They were named USA Today national champs in 2005 and finished third in 2006. You can learn more about LHS football on its Web site, www.lakelandfootball.com, which rivals many college sites. There's even generous corporate sponsorship.

"You never apologize for success," Castle says.

The exposure hasn't always been welcome. In the week before last year's state title game, LHS star running back Chris Rainey told a reporter from The Miami Herald he received gifts from people in Lakeland. When the reporter dropped that into a feature story, a scandal ensued.

A state investigator found Rainey's "gifts" amounted to an offer of a T-shirt and shorts from a street vendor, which Rainey never accepted. Rainey was cleared to play and starred in his team's overtime championship victory. He's now a freshman on the UF football team.

Rainey received moral support and practical help from the Lakeland community during his week of scrutiny. One of Lakeland's best-known lawyers, Robert Puterbaugh, provided pro bono legal representation.

The incident still rankles Castle. Rainey, he points out, came from a broken home. "I don't know if that kid ever got a Christmas present," he said. He managed to stay out of trouble, excel on the football field and qualify for college. "Chris Rainey is a success story."

Castle said the Rainey incident taught him not to trust the media. He and Thomas say they've tightened access to players, with school-affiliated adults present for any interview. There wasn't one present during Rainey's Herald interview.

But while criticizing those who "want to focus on the negative" in athletics, Castle said he understands that attention and hype is increasing in high school football.

"Society's changed. You can't try to stop time," Castle said. "It's just another experience of the kids learning to handle success and failure. They've both got their hardships."

Many of the 5,000 or so people who turn out for each home game do so for the entertainment value of Dreadnaught football, not because there's nothing else to do.

Rather, the Lakeland High football team is more a beloved civic institution, like an art museum or a symphony, or a successful semi-professional team.

Start with the stadium. LHS is the only Lakeland high school that doesn't have its own on-campus place to play. Instead, its games kick off a few miles away at Bryant Stadium, owned by the city of Lakeland.

Unlike many high school stadiums, the venerable Bryant is a closed-in concrete structure that looks and feels like a stadium, rather than a collection of metal bleachers. It's bigger than many high school stadiums and it's maintained by city groundskeepers.

"We're not a typical high school program," Thomas said. "Our booster club is made up of community people as much as parents or alumni."

The scoreboard idea started with the booster club. School officials embraced it and vetted the idea with the Florida High School Athletic Association. They agreed that the video screen would show only one replay after each play. That will keep the screen from heightening tensions or embarrassing officials after controversial calls, said Gary Pigott, the association's football administrator.

At last Friday's game, band members, cheerleaders and fans often waved and smiled when the camera turned toward them and flashed their faces on the screen.

Rousseau and a fellow junior varsity cheerleader talked about how neat it was that the scoreboard operates at the far less crowded junior varsity games, too.

The older faces of Dreadnaught nation seem just as sold on the new device.

Aundra McGriff, decked out in a Dreadnaught jersey, said he's been coming to LHS games for 30 years. It's his high school, and he loves football. The scoreboard is just further validation. "Anytime you can step up to that level, it's impressive," McGriff said.

Andy Mastalski and his wife have been coming to games since 1982, when their daughter graduated from LHS. Now their grandson is in the marching band.

"I just enjoy the program," Mastalski said. When he started watching football games, "there were still guys putting the numbers into the scoreboard."

Reporter Billy Townsend can be reached at wtownsend@tampatrib.com or (863) 284-1409.