As the Gordon football team set up for its team photo after winning the Class 1A Division I Championship game, the AT&T Stadium field crew was already hard at work on preparations for the first 11-man football game before the slated 7 p.m. kickoff.
For those unaware of why there was a three-and-a-half-hour delay between the second and last games of the first day of the UIL State tournament, six-man football is played by a few different sets of rules that adjust the dimensions of the playing field.
In six-man football, the field dimensions are 80 yards long and 40 yards wide, so the field crew needed to paint chalk lines on the AT&T stadium turf ahead of the two Class 1A games.
So, as the teams left the field for the end of Texas six-man football, the crew came out with its leaf blowers, field carts, and vehicle, which looked like a mix between a Zamboni and a street sweeper, quickly transforming the field.
As the Zamboni and leaf blower tandem cleaned the chalk lines, the rest of the field crew worked toward dismantling the six-man field goalposts 10 yards in front of the 11-man field goalposts.
Within 20 minutes, there was no sign that two of the biggest six-man football games in Texas were played at AT&T stadium.
After cleaning the field, the crew brought the six-man football equipment to a storage unit inside the concourse where other relics of past sporting events were held at the stadium, waiting another year for their chance to witness the next big six-man football games in Arlington.
More:How do field goals work in six-man football? What is the longest kick ever recorded at state?
Paul Witwer covers high school sports and Angelo State University sports for The San Angelo Standard-Times. Reach him at sports@gosanangelo.com. Follow him on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, @Paul_Witwer.
