Terrell Lester
Sports Editor
SALINA —
It was a question that Matt Williams faced several times in his first few hours on the job.
“Coach, can we beat Locust Grove?”
It was January 2008 and Williams had just been hired as Salina’s head football coach.
He laughed the other day as he recalled fielding that first query. It was not during his interview with the Salina school board, as the waggish might have suggested.
But it was not long afterward. “As soon as I was hired and began meeting people,” he said.
“That’s what everybody talked about. ‘Coach, can we beat Locust Grove? Coach, you go 1-9, but if that one win is against Locust, then everybody’s happy,’”
Williams was taking over a program that had lost five straight season openers to its nearest and fiercest rival. That played a part, a big part, in the community passion that was surfacing two-plus years ago.
It was downright urgent that Salina find a coach who could put an end to the bleeding and could put a hurt on Locust Grove.
In the three previous years, Locust Grove had beaten Salina by a combined score of 135-12.
And the first question Matt Williams heard as he walked out onto the streets of Salina: “Coach, can we beat Locust Grove?”
Well, Williams let his actions speak louder than his words.
His answer came some nine months later. In the season opener. His Wildcats served notice to the citizens of Salina that the right man was on the job.
In his first game as head coach of the Wildcats, Williams defeated the rival from right down the road, 21-20.
That set the stage for a breakout season. The Wildcats went on to win nine games and reach the Class A playoffs. It was their first winning season since 2001, their first playoff appearance since 2002.
Still, the question of besting Locust Grove continued. The locals wanted more.
And Williams gave them more. Then some more. He beat Locust Grove again last year. And used that win as a springboard to the state quarterfinals. The Wildcats finished with an 11-2 record.
He goes for three in a row tonight, when Locust Grove comes a’calling in the curtain-raiser on a new season.
It is not the most appealing way to open, playing a nearby rival in an emotional contest fueled by the giddy expectations of two communities.
“Personally, it’s just a tough first game,” Williams said this week. “No matter whether you win it or lose it.
“It’s hard to get back up week two if you win it, and if you lose it, sometimes it hurts the rest of the season.
“It’s easy if you win to get complacent and think, ‘Well, we beat our rival and it’s a great season no matter what else happens,” he said.
“And I think it’s easy if you get beat to duck your head and tuck your tail and say, ‘Hey, we’ve got to wait another year to play these guys again.’”
In other words, Salina-Locust Grove is a big game for fans, less of a big game for coaches.
Beating Locust Grove means little in the overall portrait of a team’s success.
Coaches play for championships, not rivalry wins.
“This is a non-district game,” he said. “It has no bearing on the playoffs. The first three games of the year are just preparation for your district. Similar to an NFL preseason ball game.
“I know the community, both communities, it means a lot to them.”
