By Michael Adams
michael@otssports.com
When friends from West Virginia, the state where I attended college, ask me about Texas high school football I always mention the stadiums. That’s one big difference between high school football in Texas and high school football in West Virginia.
Trying to describe the atmosphere? That’s just something you have to experience.
There may not be a better atmosphere than the one that will be at Cavalier Stadium in Lakeway on Friday when rivals Westlake and Lake Travis face off for the 18th time in one of Texas high school football’s best rivalries.
I’m no stranger to the Westlake-Lake Travis rivalry. Friday will be my 6th as a reporter or photographer. There is even an infamous video floating around the internet of me putting on a Chaparral mascot headgear in 2015 to predict the winner. Lake Travis won 35-14.
My bad predictions and ill-advised decisions aside, trying to describe the atmosphere of the Battle of the Lakes is not that easy of a task.
Regardless of whether they play at Cavalier Stadium in Lake Travis, Chaparral Stadium in Westlake, or Daryl K. Royal Memorial Stadium at the University of Texas, this game is more than worth the price of admission. However, there is a stark difference between playing the game at Cavalier or Chaparral Stadium and DKR.
On the latest episode of the On the Sidelines with Michael Adams podcast, I asked seasoned Lake Travis football writer Jay Plotkin (he’s covered all 17 meetings) if moving the game back to DKR would be a good idea. After all, tickets for Friday’s game at Cavalier Stadium sold out in three minutes …three minutes, for a high school game.
My point was this: Westlake and Lake Travis drew 30,000 at DKR Memorial Stadium when the games were held there in 2010 and 2011.
For reference, Burger Stadium in South Austin is the largest high school stadium in Central Texas and seats 15,000. The attendance at the 2011 Westlake-Lake Travis game at DRK would sell out Burger Stadium twice.
When the games were played at DKR, Lake Travis was a significantly smaller high school than it is today. The student population has almost doubled in the last 13 years. Westlake’s student population has also increased, yet not as significantly as their rival.
The current seating situation looks like this: Cavalier Stadium seats 7,000, according to texasbob.com, while Chaparral Stadium at Westlake seats 10,000.
Does the Battle of the Lakes game need a bigger arena? In my own personal opinion, I believe moving it to a place like DKR would take away from the ambiance.
Part of what makes this game so special are the parts of high school football that are just as big of part of the game as the game itself – the student sections, bands, drill teams, and cheerleaders. They create that atmosphere. That would get lost at DKR, as Jay pointed out in our conversation.
It’s possible that you might see one or both schools upgrade stadiums in the near future. In fact, Lake Travis ISD voters will consider a $143.1 million bond on Nov. 3 that will provide a new stadium complex at the future, already approved second high school.
In the meantime, playing the games at Lake Travis or Westlake is the perfect situation. The stadiums are loud, the atmosphere is electric and you cannot create that in a bigger stadium, at least DKR. We’ll just have to deal with the traffic and parking situations.
I’ll see you on the sidelines!