Its Football in Texas!

Wow! I just had one of the most unique experiences I have ever had on a fire assignment! We spent about a week in the little town of Magnolia working the Riley Road fire. There were over 60 structures lost. As I mentioned in a previous post, it was more complicated than usual since it involved three separate county jurisdictions. However, we did manage to get things organized and under control in pretty short order. The communities were extremely grateful. OK, so that's the set up.
 
Saturday morning we were told that one of the local Judges (that's the elected executive at the county level, sort of like the Governor at the state level, and the Mayor at the city level) wanted to treat some of the team to a high school football game. I didn't exactly jump at the chance, but since it was an early afternoon game, and my boss said it was very important for us to accept this offer of gratitude,  I volunteered to go with about 7 others. After I had made the decision, I started looking forward to seeing some of the "legendary" Texas high school football.

We got in the vehicle to make the drive to the town of Katy. It was about an hour and fifteen minutes south west of our home here in Conroe. We were told to meet one of the county commissioners at a Bar-B-Que steak house there in town. Stan was his name and he was the most polite, and laid back man I think I have ever met. His slow deep Texas drawl just put you at ease immediately. We went inside and right away the aroma of smoke, beef, and sauce hit me between the eyes like a 2 X 4! The restaurant was decorated with mounted animal trophies. There were elk, moose, deer, bear, fish, fowl, and even a woolly mammoth. Now, I am not sure where the mammoth was taken, but there it was mounted right above the soda machine!
The food was absolutely delicious. I had barbecued beef brisket, beans and cole slaw. We were not allowed to pay for anything. We sat there eating for about an hour having a wonderful and relaxing conversation with our host Stan. Finally, we got up and into the vehicles to head to the stadium.

Midway Texas Barbecue and Steakhouse!

Quite a trophy!!

Our gracious host Stan, the Waller County
Commissioner for Precinct 4

Rhodes Stadium, I think the seating capacity is around 15,000 to 20,000 people! We parked and started toward the stadium. As we got closer, more and more people converged, every single one of them wearing a red shirt! I remembered I had a red t-shirt in my suitcase, and was wishing I had known to bring it, when a very sweet lady came up with a bag of red "Katy football" t-shirts for us! We all eagerly donned the shirts over our Team 4 polo shirts, and felt a little better. As we entered the stadium I was blown away! Not only was the facility comparable to most college and university football fields, but there on the far end of the field was a "jumbo-tron" video screen! It was huge!!

Our first impressive view of Rhodes Stadium.

I was starting to wish I had brought my red shirt!

No worries! Our hostess and escort supplied the shirts!

OK, I figured they would probably announce us while we were there at some point (that had happened on Friday night at another game some of our team members attended), but what happened next was over the top! It was Parent's Night, and each player walked with his parents from the goal post at one end of the field, to the 50 yard line to be recognized. Well, they told us to follow the last set of parents. We waited as a group at the goal post, then I heard my name being announced over the PA system. "Go on ahead, go on!" our local escort urged me out on to the field. I stumbled forward and waved as I made my way to the center of the field. They introduced each one of us: name, agency, position, and home town. We all gathered up at mid field, and they gave the one female member, Carolyn, of our group a rose. The crowd was giving us a standing ovation. I glanced over at the jumbo-tron and there we were, on the big screen. I quickly snapped a picture, and we started to leave. But it wasn't over! They stopped us, and asked if we would pose for a picture with all the Katy team captains who had come out for the coin toss. So, the young men came over and politely thanked us, shook our hands and took a knee in front of the group as the photographer snapped away.

Here we are all outfitted in our Katy t-shirts!

Parents and players file past photographers and
on to the field. We had no idea we were to follow!

Carolyn, Tom, Kit, Frank, and Sig follow me onto the field.

Here is a picture of us all at mid field as seen on the jumbo-tron.
I am on the right with arms outstretched taking a picture of the
jumbo-tron!

The home stands.

Finally, we made it off the field and moved into the "spirit line". This was basically two lines of parents with a lane in the middle for the players to run through and on to the field. What a blast! There we met the Judge of Waller County who was our host. What a neat guy. Turned out his youngest son was the kicker (quite talented I might say). He put on his red t-shirt and red "Katy Football" ball cap and cheered his head off with the rest of us. We hooted, hollered, and whistled as these serious and very large young men passed down the "spirit line" and onto the field. Afterwards, we were escorted to our reserved seats!

The big boys come out of the chute!

Rocky Opliger, our Commander, watches the action.

Instant replay on the jumbo-tron!

The bands and drill teams from both schools (the opposition was from Beaumont Westbrook HS that evening) were very large and impressive. Probably more kids than in Portola high school! Really, it was like watching a major college football game!

Katy High School Band and Drill Team!

Beaumont Band (in white) plays while their drill team
files through the formation. Majorettes are up front!

Well, it was a good night for the home team as they played an almost flawless game, and whipped Beaumont soundly 42 to 7. The score would have been 48 to 0 except for two mistakes on the part of the home team. They took out the first string after about midway through the third quarter! I had a difficult time adjusting to the availability of instant replay on the jumbo-tron, but after a while I got used to it. The folks all around us in the stands were very gracious and friendly. It was truly an exceptional experience that I will never, ever  forget.

That's All!