In rural Texas, six-man football is more than touchdowns and wins : NPR
The Marfa Shorthorns take the ground with the “Shorthory Stampede” before each match during the fall football season.
Carlos moral / for NPR
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Carlos moral / for NPR
Marfa, Texas – From his point of view inside the press box of Martin Field, Jay Foster saw generations of fans Marfa Shorthorns. But the game he has announced for the past decade is not your typical football match.
In the rural pockets of Texas, secondary schools like Marfa with less than 105 students can choose to play a small town version of Friday Night Lights: Six year old football.
While for many football in high school in Texas means dollars’ several million stadiumslarge -scale coaching jobs and five -star coveted talentThe game of six people are more than affected and championships – this is the small community pride.
“It’s not like the 11 men’s ball, but you still have the basics,” said Foster, who led to Marfa High School. “You must always block, you attack, you have to run, you have to pass, you have to kick and all that you do normally in American style football.”
Friday evening Lights in Marfa, Texas. In rural regions of the State, secondary schools with low registration can choose to play a specialized version of football.
Carlos moral / for NPR
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Carlos moral / for NPR
This grill game 200 teams play in Texas is distinct in several ways: The land is shorter – only 80 meters long, instead of 100, and it is a little narrower too.
The goals on the field are worth four points, not three. And it takes a little more effort to get a first drop – 15 meters rather than 10.
And there is even a rule of mercy: at any time after half-time, if a team is ahead of 45 points or more, the game is over. This is called “Getting 45’d”.
And these rules make a unique game.
“It’s like 11-man [but] On steroids, “said Bobbie Brown, who founded the website Fan 1aA reference to the smallest school classification in Texas. “It’s so fast and fast and it’s so pleasant, because there is not a boring second in a six game.”
In 2012, Marfa High School went from the 11 typical men’s match to six football. Fans of this city in western Texas say that it took a certain adjustment, but he is happy to still have football during the fall.
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Carlos moral / for NPR
For Brown, Six-Man’s football game is part of the culture of the small town of Texas. “It’s like an identity,” she said.
“In small towns, there is really not much to do,” said Brown, “but the school is the hub of the community. We know what we are doing on Friday evening in the fall.”
During a recent game, between the cracking plated and the sprints out of breath at the background area, the school’s cheerlers and a mascot called “Bull-Ette” lead the crowd in songs.
“You have people who do not agree on all kinds of things, but they can agree on their team,” said Gregory Victor Meads, a preacher in the region, who watches the match from the stands. “It brings people together.”
Spectators look at that the Marfa Shorthorns play a match against a private school in El Paso, Texas, as part of the fall of the six -men’s lycée.
Carlos moral / for NPR
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Carlos moral / for NPR
The acting superintendent of the district, Arturo Alferez, says that the generations of fans who fill the school stadium every fall help on Friday evening to transmit school traditions – such as the “Stampede Shorthory”, the bell of the bell after each touch and the song of the school song after each match, winner or loser.
“This simply allows the community to meet and exchange stories,” said Alferez, who watches the match with his grandson. “Even if Marfa has changed, the city has changed, you come back here and that brings you back to these traditions and roots.”
But in MarfaLycée registrations have tended to descend for years, and some fear that the student population can become so low that one day, they will not even be able to align a team of six.
“I can’t even understand that what’s going on,” said Lori Flores, who frequented school, as is her parents and children too.
“We all have a broken heart,” she said. “Many things would be lost.”
Martin Field in Marfa, Texas, is the ideal place to be Friday evening during the fall season, where fans encourage the shorthorns in competition in the six -football season.
Carlos moral / for NPR
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Carlos moral / for NPR
This year, a handful of schools on the Côte du Gulf du Texas jumped the football season Because they did not have enough players.
On the field after a recent victory at Shorthorn, Garry Webb embraces his family. The high school student was transferred from A neighboring neighborhood With only 28 pre-K students at 12th year.
But now, even in Tiny Marfa, he says that he has found a community in the field and in the stands.
“According to the stands, we see our parents, our cousins, our former teammates,” said Webb. “And what they see here is only a number or a player, they see my little brother, my cousin, my old friend with whom I played.”
For Webb, playing under Friday Night Lights looks like a rite of passage in Texas, and in one way or another – even if it is the six -men version of the game – it had to experience it.
“It looks like the world is watching,” said Webb. “Not the whole world, but our world.”
