They played who in the playoffs?

Looking at area schools who faced much bigger programs a couple decades ago

Melissa’s football stadium cost $35 million, but even though the Cardinals are a 5A Division II program, there’s still some rural elements to the town. photo by Zach Duncan

I spent most of last weekend at a youth club soccer tournament in the Metroplex.

While I was driving through Melissa looking for its sports complex, my backseat passenger asked, “Which college plays in that gigantic football stadium?”

“It’s Melissa High School,” I answered. “Holliday played its last playoff game there back in December. It’s really nice on the inside.”

But if that didn’t surprise the backseat passenger enough, my next statement did:

“Did you know Melissa and Holliday used to be the same-sized towns? They played each other in the playoffs a couple decades ago.”

As we passed by Melissa’s Kenny Deel Stadium, you could see a cross between a burgeoning metro development and its rural roots. The stadium and a new housing development on one side of the road, some open land and horses on the other.