From the Sidelines
K-56 clash begins new era in MCAA
Sports reporter
It's amazing how rivalries work.
Growing up in Virginia I paid about as much attention to Kansas vs. Missouri as I did in my freshman geology 101 class.
One week in Kansas and it was obvious they hated each other worse than the Coyote and Roadrunner.
One week at KU and I realized Mizzou was the scum of the Earth. I had to ask myself If I still wanted to root for the Detroit Tigers just because of the name affiliation.
It also didn't take me long to realize the rivalry between Marion and Hillsboro. While there isn't really a thick cloud of hatred floating over Highway 56 like there is the Kansas-Missouri border, it isn't hard to see the two teams want to beat each other.
When two towns sit just 10 miles apart, competition, and not just athletic competition, is natural.
With Marion joining the Mid-Central Activities Association this year, the rivalry should only strengthen, and remind fans of the days when Hillsboro was a part of the Cottonwood Valley League.
Instead of just bragging rights, a victory for either team in any sport also could mean a league title. Talk about rubbing salt in the wound.
Rivalries are good though. For all the trash-talking, mean- spirited moments, there are twice as many good ones. The level of competition heightens just a bit when two rivals collide. It gives residents in the towns something to talk about for years on end. And when the athletes' playing days are over, those are the games they remember the most.
The stories they tell their grandkids might be of a football season that ended 1-9. But that one victory came against the town that sits just a stone's throw away.
The 2004-05 school season is the beginning of a new era in the cross-county rivalry.
Hillsboro had Marion's number in volleyball, while the Warriors took care of the Trojans on the football field. Friday night will be the first MCAA basketball game between the two schools.
Let's get it on.
