Friday, May 7, 2010

My take on the Orion/Oxford Game

Written Friday May 7th, at 11:20 PM

Ah one fall day will change everything we seek when it comes to the words three miles apart, only these three miles separate Lake Orion and Oxford, but the rivalry is starting back up again, and memories for me, spill to the bottom of my heart about how this rivalry is one of the most nastiest in the state of Michigan, when it comes to history, and also school pride is on the line as well.

Well I recall the good old days of going to the Orion/Oxford football camps, wearing my dark green football helmet without pads, seeing those blue helmets with the gold trim and it lit a fire in me seeing them. I always wanted to beat them so bad, in my first ever scrimmage against Oxford I recovered a fumble, and made a key stop on a fourth down, preventing a touchdown. My teammates stormed on me, when I made that recovery, and it gave me a sense of pride that day at the old Oxford High School (Now Oxford Middle School.) However as time flew, I always wondered when will there ever be a time when Orion and Oxford would play in a regular season football game?

Well Orion and Oxford is about to go at it again, only this time Oxford enters the Oakland Activities Association from the Flint Metro League, and for the first time since 1984 these two football programs will meet in a regular season tilt. That tilt is opening Friday night when the Wildcats will travel to Lake Orion and face the Dragons.

There has been a lot of bad blood between the two programs, even at the camps don't get me wrong. There were fights all over the place, everybody wanted a piece of each other, especially when we lined up to battle, being a defensive lineman during my three years of playing football. You knew that once you saw the yellow and the blue, that you wanted to hurt them, and they wanted to hurt you back, because you were a Dragon, and you wore the dark green helmet.

Only time will tell how this old rivalry will renew in a twist, nobody knows if there will be riots or pure hate, but for the first time these two rivals will get it on in 26 years. Who will win? we'll know August 27th that's for sure.