Stallworth Stadium has been a part of
Baytown’s life for a long; to some Stallworth stadium is just a football field
but to most it’s a source of memories and opportunities involving the
community.
Stallworth Stadium has been the
center of many memories made by the people of Baytown like first high school
football game, the meeting of a new friend, marching onto the field for the
first time and many more. My parents used to take me to the Ross S. Sterling
football games years ago; when we walked in all you could hear where loud and
screaming fans it always felt exhilarating, heart pumping just to hear all of
the fans cheering for their team. It was like the whole crowd where together as
a community just to cheer on the home football team. When I got into high
school I was in the marching band so every Friday night we had to perform a
marching show at halftime. I remember the first night we marched at Stallworth
stadium that same feeling from when I was a kid came back to me, my heart
pounding about to jump out of my chest from being nervous. When we got on the
field the crowd was so loud that I couldn’t even hear the band director giving
us instructions on what we should be doing. Though I knew that the crowd wasn’t
there for us it felt good to think that they were. Stallworth stadium is a huge
part of Baytown life it has been allowing great memories like this to be
created all the time to everyone that shows up there and hopefully to everyone
who attends in the future.
During the day the parking lot of Stallworth
stadium is used as a bus barn for the busses of Goose Creek independent school
district, but by night the stadium becomes full of loud and crazy sports fan
from all over Baytown. Stallworth
stadium houses multiple different events like football, soccer and many other
ceremonies. Before the stadium was built
they used to play all of their games at Sultis stadium but the stadium became
too small trying to house both Lee and Sterling High school. So in 1969 they opened up a huge stadium on a
neutral site that was not on either of the school’s grounds and named it
Stallworth stadium. This stadium holds about 16,500 people, made almost
entirely out of concrete and has an artificial turf field making it the perfect
field for Baytown. This stadium has been home to many events, but the biggest
one is good old American football. Three
local high schools claim the home side of this field, Ross S. Sterling, Robert
E. Lee, and Goose Creek Memorial high school.
Every Friday night during the season there are hundreds of people there
watching the game under the massive field lights cheering on their school
team. Sometimes they even get special
guest like, on October 29, 1976, President Gerald Ford attended a Robert E. Lee
football game, which the Lee Ganders one thirty four to zero against
Aldine-McArthur. Stallworth stadium also used to host the Bay area Relay for
Life but due to the parking lot being a bus barn they were forced to move it to
the Royal Purple Raceway. Stallworth
stadium is has been a huge part of Baytown’s life since 1969 and hopefully will
stay in their lives for many more years to come.(Sports Staff Reports)(Texas
Football Stadiums)
As
I drive down Archer road I can see the sun hanging in the sky and just
underneath that I can start to see the stadium lights peak over the row of
trees and houses almost greeting me to Stallworth stadium. I pull into the
parking lot where it is extremely difficult to navigate through the busses, as
it is used for a bus during the day, and I am finally able to find a spot to
park my truck. I get out and I walk to the front gate, the wind blowing in my
face and the gravel shifting back and forth underneath my feet as I walk up to
the huge black metal gate. I put my hand on the gate and push as hard as I can
to open it but unfortunately its locked so I get back in my truck and decide to
try back that night when I know it would be open for the football game that night.
So I go through the same process again but this time instead of the parking lot
being filled with busses it is filed with all of the vehicles of high school
football fans from all over Baytown. So
I go to buy a ticket from the ticket booth and am finally able to go inside
Stallworth stadium. When I walk in to the stadium all I can hear are the
screaming fans cheering for their team; I walk up the extremely steep concrete ramp
up to the stands with all of the fans. I get to the top and I see all of the
fans screaming and cheering for their football team on the field, almost every
one of them all together on wanting the same thing, for their team to win the
game. This stadium is bringing them all together, whether they know it or not,
for a common goal to cheer on their team to victory. I find a cold metal seat
to watch the game from and through the course of the four quarters I saw all
kinds of reactions and emotions come from the fans, some boos, cheering,
grunting, screaming, and some verbal acknowledgment of which I probably shouldn't repeat in this entry. Its half time and the football team leaves the
field and people start to leave to try to get last minute snacks from the
concession stands but there are others who are still glued to the field to see
the bands perform their show for the audience; halftime is over and the game
continues. The fourth quarter is over and the stadium starts to clear out so I
start to head out too, trying to get out of this parking lot was almost as bad
as the busses just sitting there earlier that day but I am eventually able to
get out. I take a quick glance back toward the stadium through the rear view
mirror of my truck seeing the lights slowly start to shut off as Stallworth
stadium is slowly emptying and closing down the gates until the next week.
Work Cited
1.Sports
Staff Reports. “Stallworth’s Top 10 at 35.” The
Baytown Sun. Baytown. Aug. 25, 2005
2.Texas
Football Stadiums. “Stallworth.” Texasbob.
March. 25, 2010
No comments:
Post a Comment