After a one-year hiatus, the Columbus-New Hope High School football rivalry looks like it is set for a return — next month.
If everything falls into place Monday, plan to be at New Hope High School”s Trojan Field at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 10 to watch the Falcons and Trojans renew their rivalry.
Columbus Municipal School District Superintendent Dr. Del Phillips said Saturday that while details remain to be finalized he said when asked about the game: “I think it is going to happen.”
Phillips said he worked Thursday and Friday with Lowndes County Schools Superintendent Mike Halford after West Point High School officials contacted Columbus High about a scheduling problem. West Point, which opened its season Friday with a 39-14 victory at home against Shannon in a “Classic” game, was scheduled to play at Columbus on Sept. 3. But the Green Wave, who will travel to Daytona Beach, Fla., to play Mainland (Fla.) High as part of the Gridiron Challenge at Daytona Municipal Stadium, discovered they had 12 games on their 2010 schedule. The Mississippi High School Activities Association only allows football teams to play 10 regular-season games and one “Classic” game.
As a result, Phillips said the Columbus Municipal School District worked with the West Point School District to cancel the game. The opening on Columbus High”s schedule meant the Falcons would have had two weeks in a row off after playing in the first two weeks of the season.
Initially, Phillips said he didn”t know if many football teams in the state that had a schedule that could accommodate Columbus High”s. When he looked closer at the situation, he discovered New Hope High would be a perfect fit, so he contacted Halford. He said Halford and New Hope High football coach Michael Bradley were excited about the chance for the teams to play, and he shares their enthusiasm.
Phillips said he and Columbus High football coach Tony Stanford didn”t tell the players of the impending schedule change earlier this week so as not to distract them prior to the game Friday at Aberdeen, which Columbus won 8-6.
“It just worked out where Mr. Halford, coach Bradley, coach Stanford, and I were in agreement and thought that it would be a great thing to see happen for the kids and that it would be good for the community,” Phillips said. “It”s just good for the community as a whole. The kids all know each other, and I think it is a chance for the Columbus and New Hope communities to support their respective teams in an appropriate way and in a way that is good for sportsmanship, football, and the community.”
Phillips also said he was glad everyone in Lowndes County could come together to work to help West Point High avoid the problems of having a 12-game schedule. The MHSAA Handbook states “games scheduled between two member schools in good standing may be canceled by one of the following methods: 1) mutual consent of the two schools, 2) by authority of the State Executive Committee, 3) by the payment of the cancellation sum set up in the contract, or 4) if a school has been suspended from the MHSAA, all of its existing contracts become null and void.
The MHSAA Handbook also states a school that is responsible for canceling a contest will pay the other school $100 if the game is canceled prior to 24 hours before the contest or $200 if canceled less than 24 hours before the contest.
West Point High School Athletic Director and football coach Chris Chambless said Saturday that Dennis Allen, the school”s former athletic director, had a message Wednesday evening from MHSAA Executive Director Dr. Ennis Proctor. He said he had a call from Proctor on Thursday morning when he arrived at his office. He then joined with West Point School District Superintendent Steve Montgomery to talk to Proctor, but Proctor said the team would not be allowed to play a 12th game.
“Everything worked out in the end and Columbus and New Hope will get to play each other,” Chambless said. “They need to be playing each other.
“I am very grateful to Columbus and to coach Stanford and to Dr. Phillips and to Mike Halford and to coach Bradley. I am very appreciative to them for working all of this out.”
Montgomery couldn”t be reached Saturday for comment.
“They would have had to have done something or cancel somebody else”s game,” Phillips said of West Point High. “They were really in a precarious spot. New Hope was pretty much the only team we could play with 10 games.
“Nobody had to do anything. West Point could have just been out of luck. In the spirit of sportsmanship we put our heads together and it was just a very fortunate thing that New Hope had only 10 games scheduled. What I heard from Mike Halford and from coach Bradley was that they would love to play the game. We”re really excited about it.”
Stanford, who is in his first year as head coach at the school, and third overall, also expressed excitement about the matchup. Even though starting quarterback Cedric Jackson and tailback Damian Baker (hip pointer suffered against Aberdeen) will be out indefinitely, he said no coach likes to have an open date, and missing two weeks in a row would have thrown his team out of its routine. He said Saturday he hadn”t talked to Phillips since Friday and that he didn”t know if details for the game had been finalized.
“We should have been playing (New Hope) because as much traveling as we do it is kind of ridiculous to go away when you have someone sitting right here,” Stanford said. “Even if we don”t (play the game) this year I would like to do it next year.”
Bradley said he wasn”t prepared to comment about the return of the rivalry, while Halford declined to comment until Monday. He did say if the game is played at that it goes well the schools would discuss the possibility of keeping the rivalry alive with a long-term contract.
New Hope defeated Columbus 16-7 at New Hope in its third game of the 2008 season. The victory was the Trojans” first against the Falcons since 1998. Columbus had won games in the series played the past three years.
The teams renewed the rivalry in 2005 after a six-year hiatus that dated back to an 11-7 New Hope victory in 1998.
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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