Great Bend hosts Hays tonight, and with the two now in different classifications, it’ll be the only time two see each other. That doesn’t mean Great Bend is taking the game and the extra factors a rivalry brings lightly though.
In fact, head coach of the Panthers Erin Beck says he’s getting his players to focus fully on the game, rather than the rivalry that surrounds it.
"It's one of those things you do address as a coach. Because if you don't, you're lying to yourself that this game doesn't raise the intensity in that locker room and at practice, just the way that we carry ourselves. It's the reason I try to just let our kids focus on the game, and not ever get wrapped up in the other stuff. Because you do know these kids from down the road so well. This is the fifth time in three years that we've played them. We play them in youth sports, whether it's wrestling against them on the mat, or playing basketball or PKFL football, they just have a lot of familiarity with them. Sometimes that can become a distraction, and you don't want that as a coach with high school kids. We just want to focus on the task at hand tomorrow night, keep them laser-focused. Once that ball gets kicked in the air it's a football game, and that's what we've got to focus on."
Great Bend and Hays kick off tonight at 7PM in Memorial Stadium, with coverage at 6:30 on B104.3 The Point, and online at GreatBendPost.com