Here’s a game I’d like to see tonight

By Drew Champlin

Published: January 18, 2008

Northside Methodist plays Chilton Christian Academy not here, not there, but at a neutral site in Montgomery at Calvary Christian.

These two have battled it out in ACEAA and are perhaps the top two teams. NMA beat CCA in two straight championships in 2005 and 2006, but things got testy last year. It’s fair to say that both teams have a heated, very heated rivalry that stretches even to the fans.

Last year, Chilton won its semifinal game in the state tournament. Before NMA was going to play, during warmups, NMA players and coaches said a CCA coach taunted one of NMA’s players. NMA won its semifinal, but ACEAA officials decided not to play the championship game and declare the two co-champs out of safety fears.

There had been plenty of events, numerous technical fouls between the schools in recent games, and plenty of fan interaction that wasn’t so christianlike, so I’m told.

I wrote a long follow-up to that a couple of days later that I wish I could find online, but it may have expired. It was almost a year ago. NMA players spoke in great detail about the event, as well as coach Mike Johnson, so I got some pretty good stuff.

It’s a shame that it had to end like that, but it did. The two teams decided to play at a neutral site this year and, even in Montgomery, it should be a packed house. If it were in Dothan, I’m certain we would be covering it tonight.

It sounds like a good rivalry and I hope it stays clean tonight. NMA always has a good team and I’m certain it could beat some teams in our coverage area in the public school system, but AHSAA won’t let their schools play AISA or ACEAA schools. ACEAA and AISA teams can play each other and ACEAA teams can play public schools in other states.