From the land of million-dollar high school football stadiums comes one Texas prep team and its “sideline tank” that celebrates after touchdowns.
Yeah, over the years, cheerleaders and fans cheered teams with pom-poms, memorable songs, and dances after touchdowns. But for the past 20 years, one high school’s cute little tank has pumped up the fans with its unique presence.
One Twitter commenter said it best when he Tweeted, “I love Texas HS Football so much.”
Texas High School’s Tank Toy
Waco Connally High School is near Fort Hood. The school, which has a “Cadets” sports mascot nickname, is a 4A school in nearby Lakeview.
The school’s dress code doesn’t permit tank tops, but this fancy metal tank is totally allowed.
The school takes pride in its military affiliation, and the cheer team even wears fatigues.
Every Cadet touchdown comes with a miniature military tank’s emergence from behind the endzone.
The shop class or a couple of football parents did a bang-up job on this fast tank. Don’t expect mortar shells that go boom, but it’s pretty realistic with its long-nosed barrel and camouflage paint job. It even comes with blue-light ground effects.
You can’t hide the lawnmower engine whirring, but the tank’s modifications are a sight to see. To see the tank’s skeletal frame and other mods, visit the school’s website here.
Just from those photos, it looks like the driver needs those two fans in the back to keep things cool.
Once, the tank caught on fire as it drove down the sidelines. Since then, it has come with a fire extinguisher.
There’s no word if the tank has a name or if it takes part in local Christmas parades. But you just know that does. You can’t hide that tank. You want to show it off.
Texas High School Football Stadium Fun
The Lone Star State is home to several high-priced football stadiums.
According to the Houston Chronicle, the state has nine stadiums that cost at least $40 million to build, including five in the Houston area.
Who pays for these football palaces? The Dallas News reported that several of the elaborate stadiums get funds through big-money bond packages.
One in Houston suburb Katy, Texas gets $2.5 million over ten years from Academy Sports + Outdoors for naming rights. The student activities complex includes the $72.2 million, 12,000-seat Legacy Stadium, and Rhodes Stadium, its nearby neighbor.
“We had seven teams playing in one stadium, so we had Friday night lights and Thursday night lights, Saturday night lights and Saturday afternoon,” stadium maven Robert McSpadden told The (London) Guardian in 2017.
Legacy Stadium has a $1.8 million scoreboard, too.
Want To Drive Your A Tank?
There’s a Texas tank farm for that.
Drive a tank with DriveTanks.com at Ox Ranch, an 18,000-acre ranch in the Hill Country in Uvalde near the U.S.-Mexico border. Roughly, this tank ranch is about an hour and a half west of San Antonio.
But go on Groupon first.
Usually, you can drive a tank there for $1,850. But with the Groupon rate, you can get a Sherman “Cobra King” Tank Driving Experience for One for $799.20. There’s also an excellent flame thrower rate of $157.60.
