When it comes to high school football, nobody does it bigger than Texas. Literally.
That goes for the size of the stadiums, the size of the players and the size of the rosters— which also trickles down to the middle school level.
A recent middle school game in the greater Dallas-Fort Worth area serves as a great example of why the Melissa Independent School District recently built a $35 million high school football stadium. One of the teams had more than double the amount of players on the sideline as its opponent and they are all huge.
Melissa is one of the fastest-growing cities in the United States.
Melissa, Texas is located in Collin County, just north of McKinney. It sits along the US-75 corridor in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. The city’s earliest inhabitants were Paleo-Indians, with archaeological finds dating back to ~9,500 B.C. Settlers arrived to the area in 1853. A railroad was built in 1872. The first school was built in 1882.
A lot has changed in the last 144 years. Today, Melissa is one of the 10 wealthiest cities in Texas based on median household income and the fourth-fastest growing city in the entire United States.
Melissa had a total population of approximately 4,000 in 2010. That number jumped up to 13,000 in 2020 and 18,000 by 2022. It has more than doubled to approximately 33,000 in 2026.
The highly-rated Melissa Independent School District (ranking top 50 out of 965 school districts in Texas) draws families to the area with strong academic performance and state-of-the-art facilities. Most of the newest residents are young, middle-income families who are drawn to relative housing affordability in master-planned communities.
The middle and high school enrollments reflect the rapid population growth. Melissa High School saw a 234% increase in enrollment since 2016 with ~2,200 students in Grades 9-12.
East Cardinal Middle School opened in August 2025. It was intended to serve only 1,200 students.
The campus is already over the designed capacity with ~1,300 students in only Grades 7 and 8. The school district is already considering a second campus as a result of the boom.
Texas high school football is serious business!
It was first announced in 2022 that Melissa High School was set to build a new high school football stadium (and facility) at the total cost of $35 million. The 9-12 high school school enrolled less than 1,200 students — total — at the time.
To spend that kind of money on a football stadium for a school with such a small enrollment seemed kind of crazy. However, the blueprint was designed with the future in mind. Melissa was going to explode. The school district new it had to plan ahead.
Sure enough, the $35 million high school football stadium opened two years later in 2024 as one of the premier stadiums in the state. Enrollment hovered around 2,000 at the time. That number has already increased by 200. It will only continue to get bigger.
East Cardinal Middle School played a mid-week game against Lovejoy that provides a better understanding of why the new stadium actually makes sense despite the smaller enrollment. The Melissa-based program had (more than) double the amount of players on its sideline than its opponent.
When your middle schooler plays against the fastest growing city in the country, and all they have are 12 year olds. pic.twitter.com/j236vd0eYz
— Chris Koerner (@mhp_guy) September 9, 2026
Those guys will eventually funnel into the high school. They will get to play at a brand-new(ish) stadium. Melissa saw the growth coming and decided to be prepared instead of getting left behind. The Cardinals are going to be a powerhouse program in the Dallas-Fort Worth area for years to come.