Kansas Pregame Feature: South collides with Central
By: Huey Counts Jr.
For Kansas Pregame.com
Posted: October 15, 2009 - 12:58 PM

One is a father to two young children and the other is a newlywed, and they adore their families like teens adore texting. But this is Mayors Cup week, so forgive Mike Hall of Salina Central and Sam Sellers of Salina South if their think tanks are more occupied than normal with thoughts of each other's teams. When you're talking about South vs. Central, there is no such thing as too much preparation.

Nothing seems to rile up football fans in the city like this game. The entire town gets crazy. "You always like to say it's just another game, but it's not," said Sellers, a former Cougar player (1996-98) and assistant coach who was suddenly thrust into the captain's chair when Dave Dunham resigned unexpectedly after three games. "We couldn't convince the kids of that if we even bothered to try.

"The unique thing is, at least with the South teams I've been around, is that it's the biggest game of the year but it doesn't seem like the kids feel extra pressure about it. And looking from the outside I think it's the same for Central's kids.

"There are always kids that step up and make plays. There is never any timidness that you usually see in kids who tighten up for big games."

Friday's 7 p.m. hook up at Salina Stadium between the 5-1 Mustangs and 3-3 Cougars (92.7 FM) isn't only for maneuvering in the Ark Valley Chisholm Trail Division I standings. There are long-range effects, such as community and alumni pride, and a new twist of late: postseason positioning.

This is the second of what will be at least four consecutive years in which the game is a late-season District 5 matchup. Before last season it was a regular season contest, typically played as early as Week 2 with a postseason rematch often coming later.

"It's a little bigger now because it's a district game regardless of whether it is South," said Hall, who is in his 11th season as a Central coach, this being his fourth as head coach. "It's kind of a win or go home time now for both teams."

Hall is 1-2 in the matchup as a head coach, a 2007 victory sandwiched between defeats in his 2006 rookie season and 2008. This is obviously Sellers first go around, but as a player the Cougars lost in his first two varsity seasons before breaking through for a win in 1998.

"We lost in '97 but for our program it was a turning point for us," the former lineman said. "It was a tight game and we just thought we left a lot of points off the board. That was the first time we got past that Central and coach (Marvin) Diener mystique thing."

South, under former coach and current activities director Ken Stonebraker, claimed 5A state titles in 2000 and '04, while Diener's Central clubs hauled home 5A hardware in 1993, '96, '99, '01, '02 and '05.

Both coaches have been pouring over statistics and videotape in preparation for the opening-round district game, but each took a few minutes from their busy schedules to answer a few questions about the rivalry, which stands in Central's favor all-time, 30-15.

How does this rivalry different from some others in the state, such as Dodge City vs. Garden City or maybe Junction City vs. Manhattan?

Mike Hall: Salina is very rare in the case that you have two schools that are 5A. You go other places like Blue Valley or Olathe and they have five or six schools and each game can't really be a rivalry. It sets up that there are two schools in this town that are in the same classification and most other towns have either one or several. You look across the state and just don't see a two-school only town with the same classification.

Sam Sellers: I was telling our guys the other day how lucky they are to have something like this because, you know, there are great teams in the state like Hutchinson and Gardner and they would love to have something like we have. Nobody else really has that. It's very, very special. Growing up I went to preschool with some of the Central kids and then you play YMCA sports and Salvation Army football with them and you're good friends with them. There is a NASCAR commercial I saw where it says something like 'you love your competitors but you hate the thought of losing to them.' I thought that perfectly summed up South-Central because you have to live an entire year of talk if you don't win.

For the most part, it seems like the rivalry doesn't involve bad blood. Would you agree?

Hall: The kids react and handle themselves well. I think fans and parents sometimes get involved and make it a hatred type deal.

Sellers: I think that's what makes it special. Our coaching staffs work together with each other's kids at Salvation Army football camp. We have so much respect and stuff like that for each other. It's what makes the game what it is. There's no hatred, which makes it special. If you got the wrong head coach in at either school then it could be a bad deal.

Looking at the scores over the years, why do you think the games have usually been low-scoring close affairs, even in the seasons when one team would seem to have a significant edge?

Hall: The familiarity between the schools makes it really difficult to score a lot of points because we know each other's offenses so well. It becomes hard for the offenses to move the ball to get any type of separation in terms of points and scores.

Sellers: Both teams play way above their heads. I wish we could get that performance every Friday night (laughs). The craziest things will happen for both sides. All of the sudden this kid who has caught one ball all year makes an unbelievable catch and breaks three tackles and scores. It just seems like every game there are kids from both sides that play way above where they've played before.

Does the matchup now doubling up as a district game change the rivalry?

Hall: In the case of this game, just like last year's, the game is even bigger. When we played each other in Week 2 for several years, if you lost it wasn't the end of the season. There was time to regroup and get it together to possibly see them later down the road. Now there is less likelihood of that happening because it's less probable that both keep winning to reach the state semifinal game.

Sellers: I don't know if the players feel it, but it puts more pressure on you to win. No disrespect to Emporia or Topeka West, but the winner of this game is in the driver's seat of the district. There is definitely a lot more at stake. In the past it got to the point where you kind of knew there would be a rematch in the playoffs. A loss in Week 2 when you knew you'd get another shot wasn't so bad. But now, it's do or die.