GO TIGERS!!!!!!
A little more than a year ago, the Eagle-Gazette dissected, analyzed and detailed the peculiar situation surrounding Pickerington North and Pickerington Central High Schools after the district's 2002 split. A natural rivalry if ever there was one, the district's administrators and even some associated with both high schools remained leery of a Pickerington civil war.
Naturally, the athletes - Panther and Tiger - looked forward to an eventual rivalry like college football fans yearn for a playoff system. But the powers that be kept the schools at arm's length, putting Central in the Cardinal Division of the Ohio Capital Conference and North in the Central Division.
Then came last season's regional tournament. Perhaps fittingly, the two schools met for the first time in the major sport that helped put Pickerington on the athletic map - girls basketball. Central earned the first victory - 54-47 - in a game that left many fans wanting more. Round two is tonight at Otterbein's Rike Center as Central (21-3) faces North (20-3) in the regional semifinals.
Why not open up a rivalry much the same way the Westervilles, Hilliards and Dublins have done? Why not throw both schools into the same OCC division, watch them battle it out twice a year and rake in money hand over fist in what surely would be a cash box-busting gate?
The answer, ironically, could be boredom and apathy.
Too many times - especially in basketball - rivalries get watered down faster than a rum and coke at an open bar. Throw both teams into the same conference, and that chance doubles. Sure there are rivalries that work - Lancaster/Newark, Bloom-Carroll/Canal Winchester, Amanda-Clearcreek/Fairfield Union - but very seldom do those games carry the weight of a state tournament game.
What Pickerington's girls have now is their own Ohio State/Michigan football game. Tonight's game means something. It's a regional tournament game that will showcase two powers playing their best basketball of the season. It's not a mid-December conference game that will only be repeated a month later. It isn't a game that will decide a measly division title, which most coaches would trade for a regional tournament berth at the drop of a basketball, anyway.
It's tough to fault proponents of an all-Pickerington basketball rivalry. The two girls programs have risen to the elite status that the former Pickerington High School once achieved. It seems only natural that one should be crowned queen of Pickerington each year. But why does that coronation have to happen in January?
(Joe Arnold is a sports writer at the Lancaster Eagle-Gazette. He can be reached at 740-681-4358 or at jarnold@nncogannett.com.)
A little more than a year ago, the Eagle-Gazette dissected, analyzed and detailed the peculiar situation surrounding Pickerington North and Pickerington Central High Schools after the district's 2002 split. A natural rivalry if ever there was one, the district's administrators and even some associated with both high schools remained leery of a Pickerington civil war.
Naturally, the athletes - Panther and Tiger - looked forward to an eventual rivalry like college football fans yearn for a playoff system. But the powers that be kept the schools at arm's length, putting Central in the Cardinal Division of the Ohio Capital Conference and North in the Central Division.
Then came last season's regional tournament. Perhaps fittingly, the two schools met for the first time in the major sport that helped put Pickerington on the athletic map - girls basketball. Central earned the first victory - 54-47 - in a game that left many fans wanting more. Round two is tonight at Otterbein's Rike Center as Central (21-3) faces North (20-3) in the regional semifinals.
Why not open up a rivalry much the same way the Westervilles, Hilliards and Dublins have done? Why not throw both schools into the same OCC division, watch them battle it out twice a year and rake in money hand over fist in what surely would be a cash box-busting gate?
The answer, ironically, could be boredom and apathy.
Too many times - especially in basketball - rivalries get watered down faster than a rum and coke at an open bar. Throw both teams into the same conference, and that chance doubles. Sure there are rivalries that work - Lancaster/Newark, Bloom-Carroll/Canal Winchester, Amanda-Clearcreek/Fairfield Union - but very seldom do those games carry the weight of a state tournament game.
What Pickerington's girls have now is their own Ohio State/Michigan football game. Tonight's game means something. It's a regional tournament game that will showcase two powers playing their best basketball of the season. It's not a mid-December conference game that will only be repeated a month later. It isn't a game that will decide a measly division title, which most coaches would trade for a regional tournament berth at the drop of a basketball, anyway.
It's tough to fault proponents of an all-Pickerington basketball rivalry. The two girls programs have risen to the elite status that the former Pickerington High School once achieved. It seems only natural that one should be crowned queen of Pickerington each year. But why does that coronation have to happen in January?
(Joe Arnold is a sports writer at the Lancaster Eagle-Gazette. He can be reached at 740-681-4358 or at jarnold@nncogannett.com.)
