蘑菇视频

Aug 25, 2016 By Bill Hughes for The 3 min read

Friday night, the biggest sports rivalry in the Mon Valley is renewed for the first time since Aug. 31, 2007, when Monessen hosts Charleroi at Memorial Stadium in the football season opener for both.

Monessen won the last match-up, 28-17.

The layoff will end at eight years, 11 months, and 26 days, or 2,283 days for those keeping track.

While both programs have diminished in recent years, will the hatred and mutual respect be at the same level as in the past?

I grew up in Monessen and as a kid, a win over the Cougars gave the town bragging rights over the Charleroi community.

The players who will be on the field Friday night were in kindergarten through third grade the last time the two teams faced each other.

I remember going to the games as a little kid with my dad, who was a photographer at the time, and I would either watch the game on the sideline or play in the pickup football games that took place at both stadiums.

I will cover the rivalry for the third time Friday night, but my situation is a little different than most who have covered the rivalry or who will cover it in the future.

Before I transferred to Belle Vernon Area heading into my junior year, I played for the Greyhounds in a game at Charleroi.

We lost, and I remember the sting of coming up short against 鈥渢hem.鈥�

After we lost in the WPIAL Class A semifinals to Rochester later that season, I almost had as bitter of a taste in my mouth as when we lost to Charleroi as I did knowing we were one game from playing at Three Rivers.

The feeling of disdain was ingrained in us as little kids in elementary school, and I am sure it was the same way at Charleroi!

But my unique connection doesn鈥檛 end there.

I also coached for two years for Monessen as its strength coach and special teams coach, and we went 1-1 against Charleroi.

The game we won ended short because of lightning and we shut out Charleroi, 14-0.

We returned one punt for a score and returned another inside the five-yard line.

So while the communities will once again support their respective team against their bitter rival Friday night, I will cover the game knowing that I am one of the few people to have been a part of the rivalry in three different aspects.

For outsiders who never grew up a part of the rivalry, it may not seem like a big deal.

But when one fan base bleeds black and white and the other black and red, to them it is the only game that will be played Friday night in the entire WPIAL.