PRINTCrosstown competition
Competing schools and barbacue battles
September 24, 2009 | 12:00 a.m. CST
Twenty-five, and already I can feel myself turning into the cane-wielding curmudgeon who will one day shout at kids to get off his lawn. Every year, the high school world I once knew seems to slip away that much more. Text messages have replaced handwritten notes, iPods have replaced portable CD players, and I’ve learned (as you probably will) from "Say what?" that I clearly don’t even know the teenage lingo anymore.
The high school rivalry has remained a constant though, I guess because there’s something universal and timeless in uniting against a common foe. When I was 17 years old, back in Mount Vernon, Iowa, it was our mighty Mustangs against the hated Solon Spartans. And here in Columbia every year, every season, every sport (probably even a schoolyard game of kickball or tetherball) offers another chance to match a Rock Bridge Bruin against a Hickman Kewpie.
Tonight is the Providence Bowl, the schools’ annual head-to-head on the gridiron, but this week’s issue of Vox takes the coverage beyond the confines of Memorial Stadium. Examining everything from long-time teachers to students of yesteryear, from cold, hard statistics to hand-me-down perceptions, this issue offers a complete breakdown of the high schools as they stare each other down from the opposite ends of town.
And if you’re looking for Roots ’N Blues coverage, this week’s feature previews the entire event. Offering details on the annual barbecue cook-off as well as a full music schedule, it’s sure to pique your appetite for everything from pulled pork to pedal steel guitar.
So go ahead and page through the issue before heading to tonight’s big game, or take it along and read it between plays when your voice is worn from cheering (or yelling at the referee). Whether the penant you wave is purple and gold or green and gold, you’re sure to find something of interest within.
- Scenes from the Providence Bowl
- Fast times at Hickman High
- Tech-savvy students
- The young and the reckless
- Rumors and realities
- Overcoming obstacles
- The spread
- The Education of Segregation
- Lifelong leaders
- Edged out
- Roosters, cows and mice, oh my!
- Playing the field
- Say what?
- Where are they now?
- On the Job: High School Custodians
- After-school alliance
- Rival Survival
- Through the Years
- High school mascots go head to head
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