Rivalries ain't what they used to be...

Before we get to anything important, I love Detroit girls like this SO MUCH that I married one! Well…mine isn’t quite this spirited, but…

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Rivalry games abound this week! And Legacy Sports Network will be there for them!

High school rivalries used to be a little different than rivalries at other levels of football. In the ‘good old days’, the strength of the rivalry was usually dependent on the proximity of the ‘rival’ school. That was about it.

Years ago, when the earth was young and I was in high school, my alma mater—G.C. Scarborough High School (Spartans fight!)—had an intense rivalry with Waltrip High School. Why? Primarily because the two schools are about 10 minutes apart.

There certainly was no history of great games between the two, nor were those schools two Houston-area football powerhouses. Neither school even had the talent or depth to stand toe-to-toe with district powers like Kashmere and Booker T. Washington.

Reagan and Sam Houston were also in our district, but those schools didn’t inspire the dread that Kashmere or Washington did, and didn’t offer the intimacy that Waltrip did. So, Waltrip was Scarborough’s archrival. And Scarborough was Waltrip’s, too.

The Waltrip game was ALWAYS the final game of the regular season. In what would be considered an inconceivable move these days, the game was also ALWAYS the Homecoming game for both schools, no matter which team was designated the home team. All the games were at Delmar Stadium, which is about 5 minutes from either school, so it really didn’t matter who was on the press box side.

The Waltrip kids were kids that you knew from elementary school or junior high. Maybe they went to your church. Some of them were even related to you. So they were easy to hate! And, it was easy to get to their neighborhoods to ‘wrap’ their houses in toilet paper or do some egging of their cars.

But it was easy for them to get to us too. The only time I’ve ever been genuinely fearful for my life was on a 1978 fall evening trying to outrun a truckload of Waltrip rednecks in my 1969 Buick LeSabre after my little brother screamed a couple of choice phrases at them outside the Pizza Inn on 34th Street. We managed to somehow leave them in our dust. To this day, I believe it was because of my incredible driving abilities.

It’s a different world today. We got an automated phone message at the house this week from the principal at my kids’ high school, which is celebrating Homecoming this week. The purpose of the message was to let parents know that the school and school district would not tolerate any pranks by the Homecoming celebrants in our neighborhoods.

What is this world coming to when—on Homecoming week—you tear up your own neighborhood rather than the other school’s?

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We wrote about Dekaney’s Trey Williams’ impressive performance last week and some of the awe he inspired. Click here to see some video evidence of his prowess. We will admit that he looks like a very elusive runner.

Dude has his own website too. How strong is that?

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We’ll be at the Stratford-Memorial rivalry game at Tully Stadium. This is one of those rivalries based on some good football. But the two schools are also relatively close in proximity to each other. Similar talent on the field; similar demographics in the stands. All the elements are there for a ‘throw-out-the-record-when-these-two-get-together’ game.

I wonder if it’s Homecoming for either one?

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LSN will also be at the Deer Park-La Porte game. That one will be interesting and the outcome should carry some weight in the district race and those two schools, along with Pearland and possibly Pasadena Memorial, figure to fight it out for the District 22-5A championship.

Then Saturday night, our KSEV crew heads out to the Berry Center for a District 15-5A rivalry game between Cypress Ridge and Cypress Creek. These two teams met last season in the second week of district play and both were coming off wins.

Cy Ridge had Mr. Everything, Russell Shepard, and were seen as heavy favorites over Greg McCaig’s Cougars going in—because Cy Creek was coming off a poor 2007 season and were an unknown commodity at the time. But the Cougars shut down Shepard and Company and came out with a 31-21 win that helped propel them to a district championship.

This time the tables are turned, as Cy Creek would have to be considered the favorite. Shepard has taken his talents to LSU, Hassan Lipscomb is now at Minnesota and the 2009 Rams are the unknown commodity. A Cy Ridge win on Saturday night would raise eyebrows the same way the Cy Creek win last year did.

The Rams are coming off a bit of a surprise win over Cypress Woods last week, so it’ll be interesting to see if they’re still riding the crest of that win, or will be jolted back to earth by Jermichael Selders, Chuck Keeton and the rest of the Cougars.

That kind of plot on the field makes for almost as good a rivalry as any egg-throwing spite off the field.