Two of the most dominant high school football programs in Texas state history played in the Class 6A state championship for the sixth time since 2018 on Saturday. The crowd that gathered to watch North Shore defeat Duncanville at AT&T Stadium put college football bowl games to shame.
(The Playoff games do not count!)
It is not a secret that high school football just means more in the Lone Star State. These numbers really drive that point home.
Duncanville lost to North Shore.
North Shore Senior High School is located in greater Houston. It enrolls more than 4,500 students in Grades 9-12 on three different campuses as part of the Galena Park Independent School District.
Duncanville High School is located in greater Dallas. It also enrolls more than 4,500 students in Grades 9-12 on the second-largest campus in the United States.
These are two of the largest high schools in the country by total enrollment. They also have two of the most dominant football programs in the country— certainly over the last decade.
Duncanville won back-to-back state championships in 2022 and 2023 against North Shore. North Shore won back-to-back state championships in 2018 and 2019 against Duncanville. It also won in 2021.
The Mustangs and the Panthers played again in the state championship on Saturday for the sixth time in seven years. There has never been a hotter ticket!
Texas high school football crowds are different.
The high school football championship games in Texas are played at AT&T Stadium. Every single person in all of the small towns show out to support their local teams.
A six-man football game between Gordon and Rankin drew a bigger crowd than the total population of both towns combined. Think about that for a second. More people were at the game than every single person who lives in the places where the schools are located. That’s crazy!
Duncanville vs. North Shore VI drew a crowd of 39,464.
The lower bowl was completely packed out.
There was not an empty (open) seat in the house!
It is even crazier when put into perspective.
The Texas 6A Division-I high school football championship game out-drew every non-CFP bowl thus far. That includes the LA Bowl at 23,269, 68 Ventures Bowl at 17,234 and Idaho Potato Bowl at 17,031, all of the way down to the Bahamas Bowl at 4,610.
And the people who showed up got their money’s worth. North Shore forced a turnover on downs with less than one minute remaining to beat Duncanville by three points.