By Randy Stevens
Sports Editor
San Marcos —
It’s hard to believe that two of the most prominent high school football programs in Hays County haven’t met on the gridiron since October of 2003.
That’s the last time the San Marcos Rattlers and the Hays Rebels faced off, with the Rattlers claiming a 33-7 district win at Bob Shelton Stadium.
Since, the two teams have found themselves in different districts or class after several UIL bi-annual realignments even though the campuses are less than 20 miles apart.
And since there was always a chance of the two being placed in the same district after realignment, scheduling a non-district game between the two schools has been tough to accomplish.
That will no longer be the case Friday night when Hays and San Marcos renew their Hays County rivalry at Shelton Stadium.
Back in the late 1990’s the Hays-San Marcos rivalry produced huge crowds and closely-contested games, some with playoff or district title implications. Such was the case when the revitalized Rattlers met the Rebels in a district game in October of 1998.
The Rattlers were in their second year under former head coach Bruce Bush, and purple fever was rampant throughout San Marcos, as Bush helped turn around a program which had recorded only one win before his arrival.
Over at Hays, it was Bob Shelton’s Rebels taking care of business as usual, putting forth another strong team two seasons after a 1996 Class 4A state championship appearance.
Both teams were boasting undefeated 7-0 record and a win would guarantee the victor a playoff berth and the inside track for the district title.
The parking lots filled up three hours early and the crowd turned out to be one of the biggest to ever see a football game at Bobcat Stadium, numbering close to 18,000 fans. With the seats filled, some spectators had to result to watching the game through the chain-link fence that used to surround the north and south end zones.
The atmosphere was electric, and so was the game.
The Rattlers wound up on the short end, 28-21, but were very close to coming up with the game-tying score with less than a minute remaining. On fourth and nine, SMHS quarterback Chris Harris did something the Rattlers’ rarely did back in those days — throw the ball.
With no other choice, Harris found wide receiver Tyrone Luckey open in the end zone, only to have the ball batted down by Conroy Swan and Beau Robertson, protecting the Rebels’ win and propelling Hays towards a district title.
The series moved back and forth until 2003, and the Rattlers got their revenge by winning two of the next three meetings. But none of the games ever lived up to the hype or matched the excitement of that 1998 tilt.
Coach Bush, who is currently coaching at Pharr-San Juan-Alamo, said it was a game which he vividly remembers. Not necessarily because of the standing-room-only crowd, but because of the final result.
“I still look at that game as one that got away,” Bush recently said. “I’ll never forget that game though. It was a great night for high school football.”
This year’s meeting doesn’t sport as much significance, since it is a non-district contest with both schools competing in different classifications. Both teams are also coming off losses.
But that doesn’t mean there will be a shortage of pride. After all, players on both side have grown up playing against each other from youth football through junior high. And now, after eight years, the rivalry is back at the varsity level.
“Anytime Hays and San Marcos play it’s a special occasion and you can expect a competitive game,” Shelton said. “There’s no reason not to expect the same this weekend.”
Current SMHS head coach Steve Van Nest was Bush’s assistant in 1998 and has been wanting to get the game back on the schedule ever since he took over the team in 2005.
“It’s an emotional rivalry between two schools, which is what high school football is all about,” Van Nest said. “We’re glad that we were able to get Hays back on the schedule.”
Randy Stevens is Sports Editor of the San Marcos Daily Record. Contact him at rstevens@sanmarcosrecord.com
