Allen High School?s football team has transformed this once-small Texas town In a state that often boasts about size, no town does big bigger than Allen, Texas.
A suburb northeast of Dallas, Allen is home to the state?s largest high school, both in terms of enrollment (6,664 teenagers) and campus size (roughly 880,000 square feet). The school?s enormous 750-man marching band covers most of the home field at Eagle Stadium, which, yes, has the biggest capacity of any high school football stadium catering to only one team in the state.

And on Texas?s most revered stage, Allen wins big. From 2012 to 2015, the football team won 57 straight games en route to three consecutive state titles, earning national attention for its dominance and a place among the greatest teams to ever play under Texas?s famed Friday night lights. But listening to the old-timers gathered around the counter at Rodenbaugh?s appliance store?the town?s oldest business in its quaint downtown area?one gets the sense that underneath Allen?s king-sized presence on the football field is a community still rooted in its beginnings as a farm town, before Dallas?s suburban sprawl reached Collin County and turned it into one of the fastest-growing areas in the nation.
?It?s been a conscious attempt to keep our city, our community feeling like a small town,? said E.T. Boon, a local dentist who also served on Allen?s school board. ?Everyone?s pulling together. You still feel like you?re connected. You still get ...