High school football in Texas is different. If you have watched ‘Friday Night Lights,’ you know exactly what I mean.
Much like college football in the Southeastern Conference, high school football in the Lone Star State is more of a religion than a silly child’s game.
The European mind would be unable to comprehend why there are two massive football stadiums in the same parking lot at the same high school in Katy. However, this is not a one-off thing!
Where is Katy, Texas?
Katy, Texas is located just 30 miles east of Houston. It was first formally settled as a railroad town in the mid 1890s as an attractive rural location for rice farming because of how it sits on the fertile floodplain of Buffalo Bayou.
However, Katy became heavily urbanized as the rapid growth of Houston moved westward along the new I-10 corridor in the 1960s. The suburb population today hovers around 27,000 in just 15 square miles.
The Katy Independent School District is one of the busiest school districts in the entire state as a result of its density. Katy High School enrolls approximately 3,500 students in grades nine through 12.
Why do the the Tigers have two high school football stadiums?
With high school football being as big as it is in Texas, most young boys dream of one day leading their team to a state championship. They grow up playing the sport with the goal of winning a ring.
In some instances, a state championship in Texas might mean more to an athlete than a conference championship on the collegiate level. It is truly that important to the community.
High school football rosters are massive because of this. Hundreds, if not thousands of kids try out for the team each summer. They are typically split into three different teams: Freshman, JV and Varsity.
Three teams of 100+ players (on the low end) requires more than one field. Katy has two!
Rhodes Stadium was the original. It can fit a capacity of 10,000. Legacy Stadium was built in 2017 at the cost of $70 million. It can fit a capacity of 12,000.
The two different stadiums at Katy High School are located in the same parking lot.
Believe it or not, this kind of thing is not uncommon! Multiple high schools in Texas have more than one stadium for its two or three different teams.
Melissa High School recently built a $35 million stadium for a high school with a total enrollment of less than 2,000 students. McKinney High School spent $62.8 million back in 2016.
And this phenomenon is not only specific to Texas! Buford High School in Georgia recently spent $62 million on its sixth different football field within a mile(ish) radius.
The European mind could never understand…