NEW HOPE — A battle for Lowndes County is set to take place on Friday as two of the school district’s biggest schools meet for the 60th time. The Cavaliers (1-2) and Trojans (1-1) are both looking to shake losses and get right in the latest edition of their rivalry.
“These kids know each other, they go to church together,” Cavaliers head coach Michael Kelly said. “Some of them probably hang out together, they’re probably all friends on social media. At the end of the day, you just hope both teams and both schools have a great game. Do what you need to do to get ready to be successful, let’s put on a great performance for the paying customers and get after it.”
In order to get right, it takes focus. New Hope head coach Allen Glenn knows that on his third stop as a head coach. He took over a team that went 0-10 last year, and though they won in Week 1 to end that streak the Trojans are hungry to build on that.
“I think, for one, you can just turn on the tape and show what needs to be improved week to week,” Glenn said of focusing on the game. “It is a rivalry, between the two communities it’s a fun week, but at the end of the game there’s a football teed up at 7 p.m. and you have to weather that storm of emotions. We’ve told our guys to not get too high or too low, it’s about how you prepare and if we did our job preparing the right way.”
Caledonia is 9-49-1 all-time against New Hope, a one-sided history of results that has gotten closer in the last five years. The Cavaliers currently hold the bragging rights after a 28-14 win last season.
That recent turnaround in the rivalry is in part thanks to the arrival of Michael Kelly as head coach. At 35-37, he is already the winningest head coach in Cavaliers history and has been at the helm for all seven of the program’s playoff wins, leading them to the third round in the last two seasons and the state semifinals in 2021.
The expectation is to improve, but after being shut out in back-to-back weeks, Kelly is looking at more than just the emotion of the rivalry to turn things around.
“I think the key is having focus,” Kelly said. “We challenge our kids every week. We’re coming off of two poor performances and at the end of the day the focus needs to be on us and what we do. We haven’t played well or executed well the last two weeks. We tell our kids to get back to basics and focus on the fundamentals.”
The Cavaliers struggled on offense in their last two games, but their approach always warrants extra preparation from opponents. The run-first option attack takes some tinkering on defense to stop, and it demands a physical approach from start to finish.
“We’ve had two weeks here to get our legs under us and hopefully have some fresh legs going into tomorrow night,” Glenn said. “I think we’ve prepared well. You always worry a little bit about what Caledonia does on offense with the option. You don’t see that often and must prepare for it. We’ve had to prepare mentally and physically for them, and need to be on our Ps and Qs against them.”
It’ll be Glenn’s first taste of the rivalry and Kelly’s sixth time going against the Trojans, but both head coaches are stressing the same things. For them, it’s about maintaining focus, working on themselves, and giving the game the respect it deserves.
“When it’s all said and done we can go back to being friends, but let’s keep it clean and focused,” Kelly said. “That’s the challenge I tell our kids. I think both sides know what’s at stake, they want to win, but none of that matters if you don’t step on the field and do things the right way.”
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