Ah. “two-a-days.” Those are dreaded words for anyone who has played high school football. (I played one year and that was enough for me). They refer to the ritual of two practices a day — usually in the searing summer heat in the weeks before school starts. So while your friends are still hanging out by the pool, you’re running countlless laps under the sun, pounding your teammates (and getting pounded) in one sadistic drill after another and occasionally barfing all over your cleats. Brutal.

Now, “Two-a-Days” also refers to a gripping new documentary series about prep football that debuted earlier this week on MTV. Set at Hoover High School in Alabama, the program follows the on-and-off-the-field exploits of a nationally ranked team gunning for its fourth state title in five years. Much of the show contains the elements we’ve come to expect: Militaristic coaches, fawning cheerleaders, self-absorbed athletes. …

But fortunately, the series delves deeper to explore relationships, not just between the guys and gals but the students and parents. And it also vividly illustrates the pressure these kids face as they compete at a very high level (think De La Salle in Concord) and battle for scholarships.

It’s an intriguing look into a subculture many of us don’t fully understand (NBC’s upcoming drama series “Friday Night Lights” also does a brilliant job of this). It’s also encouraging to see MTV explore a teen world that has nothing to do with the rich and pampered brats of Southern California. Yea, team!

Can you believe it? MTV is celebrating its 25th anniversary today (Aug. 1). Where does the time go? But the channel isn’t making a big deal out of it. When you’re as youth-obsessed as MTV is, you apparently don’t want to spend a lot of time reminiscing and/or showing your age spots. On the other hand, to mark the occasion, MTV’s sister station, VH1 Classic, began re-airing the entire first day of MTV programming at midnight last night. (I checked some of it out with my teen boy, who, of course, laughed riotously).

Any talk of a major MTV anniversary immediately sends my mind racing back to a summer night in 1981. I was in college back then and my wife-to-be and I went over to a friend’s house in San Jose, where he introduced us to MTV for the first time. (Our cable systems didn’t have the channel yet). One after another, these odd little bits of footage called “music videos” — many of them featuring the crude production values of my dad’s home movies — flashed before our eyes.

And we sat there, absolutely mesmerized, for hours.

In Tuesday’s TimeOut, I have a column about the modern MTV, which of course has de-emphasized music mainly in favor of cheap-thrill reality shows. For the article, I decided to re-acquaint myself with MTV by watching over 12 hours of its programming. I hope you’ll check it out. We’re also running a fun list of MTV highlights over the years.