Carson-Douglas: When did it become state’s best rivalry?

When did Carson-Douglas become the best high school rivalry in the state?

It’s nearly an impossible question, but everyone feels like they have a theory.

Several coaches and former players said The Rivalry was the best in the state long before they first took part.

“The Carson rivalry I can remember that from when I was little,” said Douglas County Sheriff Dan Coverley, a 1988 Douglas High graduate. “It was always one of the biggest games of the year and it was two communities that were close together.”

Was it in the late 1940s, when the Tigers won four of six games after Carson had won 17 of the first 21 meetings?

Is it later on, as players, coaches and community figures switched sides? The answer likely lies somewhere in the abyss of time.

“There’s nobody else that goes back as far as we do. There’s no schools that represent their communities the same way that we do,” said current Douglas High head coach Kyle Mays, who is also a Tiger alumni. “We tell the kids every single year, ‘You will remember this game for the rest of your life.’”

It’s possible that the 13-year gap from 1966 to 1979 was the catalyst in the state’s most heated matchup.

Surely, the magnitude of the game has grown exponentially in the 31 times the two teams have ended in a one-score game over their 100 years of history.

Maybe its teams seeking revenge for getting blown out that has shaped The Rivalry into what it’s become.

It could be even simpler than that.

“It has the most tradition,” said Carson High defensive coordinator Justin Barlow. “I think that if you look at the number of participants, you look at the disparity of the scores … I think it has to be (the top rivalry) with how much time is in (it) and how close these games are, always.”

(Carson High graduate and assistant coach Justin Barlow. / File photo)

KNOW YOUR FOE

With less than 20 miles separating the two schools, the athletes almost had no choice but to get to know each other.

Sure, in pads and a helmet makes it less personable, but there’s too much intermingling between both sides to not run into someone on the opposite side of The Rivalry in everyday life.

Coverley, who also wrestled while at Douglas High, felt he started to get to know Carson athletes in the gym.

“The guys that you wrestled against at Carson, you kind of got to know them. Whereas in football everyone is in a jersey or a helmet,” Coverley said. “It was always fun to play against the guys I had also wrestled with. There was a lot of banter back and forth. Trash talking during the game.”

Stories, of course, can grow into fairy tales. Sometimes, memories are so clear — until they’re not.

“When I was a kid I worked for a local rancher who has since passed away,” said Coverley. “He played football for Douglas in the 50s. He said when he played Carson one year, they had a bunch of guys who had been in the military and gone off to Korea and they had come back and were finishing their high school diploma. … These guys had been to war. They just crushed us.”

COMMUNITY CONNECTION

The two communities remain connected through The Rivalry Game.

Did it become the best in the state post-WWII? Was there every really a moment in time that can be defined as the point in which it became the best rivalry in the state?

You might never get a real answer, but as the games continue to be played every year and the two communities continue to pass down stories of their memories around the game, it only grows in lore.

Longtime Douglas head coach Mike Rippee says he will be crossing the Highway 395 threshold, as his grandkids will be at Carson High.

“Now I have grandchildren at Carson, so I will be on the other side of the coin,” Rippee said. “Blood is thicker than water.”

Regardless of rooting interest, Rippee says he gets out to as many Carson-Douglas games as possible and he won’t miss one now.

It’s the best rivalry in the state, according to Rippee, and has been since he was first introduced to it.

Now, he and many others are part of multiple generations etched into the fabric of the Carson-Douglas rivalry.