Prep rivalries: One fall Friday generally more special than all the others

When Tony Perkins played football at Marion High School in the late 1970s, there was no question which game mattered most.

It was the opener. It was Linn-Mar.

“It was a very, very good rivalry,” said Perkins, who returned to coach at his alma mater 10 years ago. “The community really got into it, and there were no negatives to it.”

Three decades have passed, and the annual Marion/Linn-Mar grudge match has long since died. The advent of district football has left Marion without a bona fide archrival.

Geographic rivals like Benton Community and West Delaware seemingly are in the Indians' district for one cycle, out the next. In fact, Marion's chief football rival these days is 60 miles away.

“We've developed a good rivalry the last 10 years with DeWitt (Central),” Perkins said. “That game is a bull's-eye game for us. It's intense, but it's one of the best sportsmanship games we play all year. We'll hit each other hard, then we shake hands at the 50-yard line afterward. There's a lot of respect there.”

Beginning Monday, The Gazette will take a five-day tour that examines the area's most intense football rivalries.

A handful of them are no-brainers, like the Battle for the Boot between Iowa City High and Iowa City West and the Highway 1 skirmish between Mount Vernon and Solon.

Almost all schools have an archrival - and with it a Friday on a calendar colored in red every fall.

If you grow up in Anamosa, you ache for bragging rights against Monticello. A player from Waukon lifts and runs in the off-season with Decorah on his mind.

Linn County small-school rivals Central City and Springville shared a program from 1990 through 1999 before opting to go their separate ways.

Central City has owned the subsequent “Tractor Bowl” rivalry - one that features a traveling trophy - winning every year since the split.

“It's a game that we want to win, and we want to win big,” said Central City Coach Matt Weis. “I'm sure they feel the same way.”

In the Metro, it's a little more blurry.

Take Cedar Rapids Kennedy, for example. There's Washington. There's Jefferson. And there's those Xavier Saints who reside two miles to the west on 42nd Street NE.

“We get up for all of them, but this year, we'll get up most for Xavier,” said Kennedy's Max Martino. “We lost twice to them last year, and it's our homecoming.”

Kennedy Coach Tim Lewis said the respective staffs “actually get along very well. When Xavier made (its state championship) run (in 2006), we did everything we could to help them. The coaches get along well, and a lot of the kids are friends. I think the rivalry is more between the parents.”

Well, not completely.

“It's the kids, too,” Martino said. “In the weight room all summer, you heard a lot of kids saying, ‘Beat Xavier.'”

-By Jeff Linder-