Friday Night Lights in Allen

I have heard about the craziness around High School Football in Texas, but I really had no idea how big it was until we moved to Texas. A friend of my husbands gave us tickets to see the Allen Eagles play and I was blown away. Allen High School is the 4th largest high school in the state. They have 4855 students in grades 10-12 and 1605 students in the Freshmen Center.

An aerial photo of the Allen High School Stadium. Look at the parking lot, the 5035 spots fill up fast, and then you have the school's student parking lot, and from there you need to be creative. 

First let's talk about the stadium. The stadium was built in 2012 with a price tag of $60 million and seats 18,000 people. It is the largest stadium that serves a single school. This stadium is nicer than some college stadiums I have been to in the Midwest. It has a 75 x 45 foot scoreboard with a 38 x 23 foot high definition video board. The home side seats 9000, the visitors side has 5000 seats, and the student section seats 4000. It has 6 concession stands, lots of restrooms and information stands throughout.  The facility also holds locker rooms for the Golf team and a place to hold wresting meets. This stadium is beautiful and is full most every Friday night.

Pre-game view from the visitors side of the stadium. Our seats were in the upper deck on the other side, 4th row from the top at about the 50 yard line.

Scoreboard during the first quarter. The final score was 45 to 7, Eagles with a decisive win.

Just one of the concession stands in the stadium, This place is unbelievable for a High School Stadium.

The Football team is amazing to watch and is ranked 4th in the nation this year. They have won several state championship the last few years and a National Championship in 2014. Then there are the fans, Parents, Alumni, Parents of Alumni, Students and Community Members. These fans come every week and fill the stadium to watch high school football. Season ticket holders have to wait years and go through a lottery to get tickets. This is Texas High School Football!

What a way to enter the field. The cheerleaders are dressed in Halloween costumes.

The Eagles take the field! There is a group of guys that carry flags that run on to the field and circle at the 50 yard line after every Allen score.

Now let's talk about the Allen Eagles Marching Band. Our daughter was in the marching band in Fort Wayne, Indiana for R. Nelson Snyder High School. There were about 150 kids in the band from a school of about 1800 students. They would compete against schools that had a 300 member marching band and struggle because smaller bands have a hard time covering the whole field and it is easier to see any mistakes. The Allen Eagles have a band of over 800 members, the largest high school band in the nation. They cover the entire field and play beautifully. The night we went to the football game they were playing Guyer High school that has a band of about 150 students. Allen's band was over 5 times the size of Guyer's band, not a fair competition. This night Guyer did their competition show and were very good. Allen had a special night for the band and all the kids were dressed in Halloween costumes, so it was hard to compare shows. As far as sound is concerned there was no comparison, Allen rocked the field! They were really very good musically and it was hilarious watching some of the kids do their formations in their costumes.

The Guyer High School Marching Band.

The Allen Eagles Marching Band!

The Eagles fill the entire field, 800 strong!

The dinosaur in the picture was hilarious to watch do all the formations. He/she did not miss a step, played his/her instrument and we were totally entertained watching, listening and laughing. 

We had a great time at our first Texas High School Football game. The fans arrive early, tailgate and try to get a parking space close enough so they don't have a hike to the stadium. I was apprehensive about going to this game, after all it was a high school I have no connection with. My husband said we needed to check out the whole "Friday Night Lights" thing at least once. I am sure glad we did, because everyone that loves football should have this experience at least once. 

Go Eagles!!!!!