Maryland
Students fired up about crosstown football showdown
HAGERSTOWN — Students at two Hagerstown high schools are gearing up for their annual football showdown.
“The kids all get up for the North and South game,” Mike Tesla, South High’s athletic director, said Thursday.
Students had only three days this year for spirit week, but they’re making the most of them, school officials said.
That includes Friday, the end of spirit week and the day of the game.
At South High, students will wear green, a school color, and hold a pep assembly during the last period of the day.
At North High, a school band will stroll the halls at about 3:10 p.m. and play the fight song. Students and staff will step out to join them, a tradition Principal Valerie Novak called “just awesome.”
“The kids will be hyped tomorrow,” Novak said Thursday.
Both football teams are having down years — North is 3-6, South is 2-7 — but the rivalry draws in students and alumni.
“We had a heckuva crowd last year,” Tesla said. South High’s bleachers were filled for last year’s game, the best turnout of the season, he said.
North leads the series 27-24-1 and has won six straight games.
The winner gets the Hagerstown Gridiron Championship Classic trophy.
The game will begin at 7 p.m. at North High’s Mike Callas Stadium.
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Comments:
It is time and much overdue...for the football coach at South High to move on. The players need a fresh start, and they deserve better. Loyalty is a wonderful thing, but when will the loyalty be shown to the players, to the alumni??? When the S.H.H.S. baseball coach moved on, it was then that the team rose to victory. Change is a good thing and very much needed in this case. There are many out there who feel the same way. Give the kids a break from the same plays, the same rhetoric. It is getting old, and so disheartening to the many fans of the South High Rebels. Good luck to the big green machine...I'm rooting for you!!! (Report this comment)
I see where north and south is in the paper about Fridays game , What about the Boonsboro and Smithburg game it is just important has the north and south game. There is other schools in Washington County. (Report this comment)
At last check "The Herald Mail" is the Hagerstown newspaper, the North and South game is a city game and longer in tradition, try 54 years. Not to mention it is two schools from the same city, it is not two county schools, then again why didn't you ask about coverage Clear Spring and Williamsport. This has nothing to do with who has done more or gone farther in play offs. It boils down to citizens of Hagerstown diving up and rooting for their favorite, another Hagerstown tradtion like the Mummers Parade. (Report this comment)
Forget the game, I wanna see the fights in the parking lots afterwards! (Report this comment)
Lou says it's going to be a chilly evening for football. Bundle up and GO REBELS! (Report this comment)
I'm with you smithcar69. The whole town will travel to Boonsboro tonight - GO SMITHSBURG!! (Report this comment)
It's the Hearld-Mail not the Hagerstown Paper. They publish everything else about the surrounding areas so why not the schools. One school is no better than the other they are ALL Considered Washington County. And yes i do have a child that does go to one of the school in Hagerstown, But it would be nice to hear about the other schools Football or sports like they do North and South (Report this comment)
At least the paper covers all local games, NBC25 dosen't even do that. I don't understand why in your mind this 54yr tradion/rivalry doesn't desrve the coverage. Ther are articales in todays paper about the Smithburg/Boonsboro game along with Williamsport/Clear Spring. I take it that you don't feel that is good enough,an article today and one tomorrow. I grew up in Winchester, the JW vs Handley game is still the biggest tradion in the area. The paper and TV6 cover it and no one seems to have an issue at the other county schools. No one seems to whine about not covering other school activity/games. I guess thye just have the idea that the tradition is important for the school and students. (Report this comment)