by Wilbur » Sun Sep 17, 2017 10:20 am
Rivalries are different now, and it seems there are no more true rivals since the implementation of co-ops, and the fact that your rival may change from year to year based on who is in your way to win the region or make the playoffs.
Whatever semblence of a rivalry that is left in Region 3 would have to be between the towns that made up the “old” South Central Conference, which are now all part of a co-op (not just for football, but for all or most sports). In 1980, the SCC consisted of Ashley, Emmons Central (parochial school in Strasburg),Kulm, Linton, Napoleon, Steele, Strasburg, Wishek and Zeeland. Rivalries were started or continued based mainly on the proximity of the towns—Napoleon vs. Wishek, Wishek vs. Ashley, Ashley vs. Zeeland, Zeeland vs. Emmons Central, Emmons Central vs. Strasburg, EC and Strasburg vs. Linton, etc.
Linton seemed to be everyone’s rival in the 1970s, even though they were rarely the favored team in the SCC. I can’t explain this, but maybe it was the fact that Linton had the largest school in the SCC, and it made everyone feel good to beat the biggest bully on the block, and not necessarily the strongest.
That all changed in the late 1970s, when Linton started an incredible streak that would span six years (1979-84), where they won 46 straight SCC games, and of course, six straight outright SCC titles. In each of those years, Linton’s main rival was its closest challenger for the SCC title and the ONLY playoff berth. That included Emmons Central (1979 and 1980), Strasburg (1981), Zeeland and Ashley (1982 and 1983), and the Strasburg/EC co-op in 1984. It took a newcomer, Edgeley, to finally end Linton’s conference winning streak in the opening game of the 1985 season, but Linton’s local rivals kind of faded when Linton went back and forth to Class B 11-Man (1987-92) and Class A (2005-14).
It is hard to say there is a fierce rivalry when one team dominates the series, and that has been the case with Linton’s rivalries with Napoleon, Ashley and Wishek, and Steele over the years.
Since 1974, Linton is 30-2 vs. Steele, Steele-Dawson and Kidder County co-ops, and 25-2 vs. Napoleon and the Napoleon/Gackle-Streeter co-ops. Steele-Dawson defeated Linton in 2004 and 2005, but Linton has won the last 7 meetings, including Sept. 15 over Kidder County. Napoleon defeated Linton-HMB in 1998 to stop an 18-game losing streak against the Lions, and did not beat them again until last season.
Linton has won 32 of its last 33 meetings with Wishek, Ashley, or the Wishek-Ashley (South Border) co-op. I don’t know when the last time Ashley beat Linton on its own, but I am guessing it was in either the late 1960s or early 1970s. Wishek defeated Linton in 1977, but Linton won the next 9 meetings, and Linton defeated Ashley 7 times between 1980-86. The Wishek-Ashley co-op was established by the time Linton returned to 9-Man in 1993, and Linton has won 16 of 17 meetings since. W-A’s only win in the series came in 1997.
If there is an old rivalry left in Region 3, it would have to be Linton-HMB vs. Strasburg-Zeeland, mainly because three of the schools are in the same county and another is near the county line. Since EC and Strasburg combined in 1984, Linton (HMB) and Strasburg (Zeeland) have met 20 times, including twice in the playoffs. Linton is 13-7 in those games, but each team has won a playoff game against each other. Linton-HMB won at Strasburg in the 1995 playoffs, and Strasburg-Zeeland won at Linton in the 2001 semi-finals. It was estimated that there were 1,500 fans at that game, which is amazing, since both towns combined don’t have many more residents than that. Strasburg-Zealand won its only State title that season. However, Linton again went to 11-Man for 10 years, which kind of fizzled the rivalry a little, and Linton has won the past 5 meetings while outscoring S-Z, 187-36, in those games (over 30 pt. margin per game).
I thought Linton and Edgeley would become a big rivalry, but realignment has moved the two teams up and down and into different regions, and was too sporadic. The teams met a dozen times in the regular season from 1985-2004, with each team winning 6 times, and Edgeley-Kulm won the only playoff meeting between the two teams in the 1996 quarterfinals. Linton-HMB played the Ellendale/Edgeley-Kulm co-op in 2013 and 2014 and won both meetings, but I would guess it would be a different story the last two years or so, since E/E-K is a powerhouse in Class A.
Sorry this is such a long post, but I love the history of high school sports, especially the area I am familiar with, and once I get writing, I start babbling with my fingers.