The Rivalry That Isn't

The angst accruing between the two towns finally came to a head on a brisk Friday night in the fall of 1969. Quarterback Jack Fisher led Garden Plain to a romping victory at Andale, giving the Owls their fourth consecutive win in the series. He remembers the scuffle that ensued. "The Garden Plain fans went for the goalposts and got the first one down," says Fisher. "A few fights broke out. "Then the Andale fans surrounded the other goalpost in order to keep our fans out, but we got that post down too." Paul Schmidt, an assistant football coach at Andale that season, recalls a different tale. "I didn't see a fight, but I did see the Garden Plain folks go out to tear down the goalposts," says Schmidt. "But as I remember, the posts were set in eight feet of concrete and it was really hilarious watching their fans unsuccessfully try to pull those posts out. They wouldn't even budge." Call it another cloudy situation lacking answers in the turbulent 1960s. But one thing was certain in the game's aftermath: Garden Plain and Andale had played their final game against one another. The reason for the rivalry's end, however, is also up for debate. "The state stepped in because there were rocks thrown at buses and windows broken by both schools," claims Fisher. "Those were big games back then and there were a lot of angry people." Fisher would go on to play bigger games at Wichita State, returning a punt 88 yards to maintain a third-quarter lead over heavily favored Louisville in the 1970 season, weeks after a tragic plane crash had killed 14 players on the team. Schmidt cites a different reason for the end of the annual fall ball game. "After the 1969 season, Andale joined a new league," he says. "And that just ended the series because we didn't have Garden Plain on our schedule anymore." It's assumed that the reason for the end of the intra-district series was a combination of the two. The state sternly suggested one of the schools join a different league to fill out their schedule. Family Ties Garden Plain's four wins over Andale from 1966 to 1969 were a rarity in a normally competitive series. Before the win streak, Andale had won the majority of the matchups, usually going down to the wire. Schmidt, still on the Andale staff after all these years, remembers the local skirmish's roots. "The Sedgwick County League formed in the '40s and '50s and included teams like Bentley, Viola, Maize and Goddard, along with Garden Plain and Andale," says Schmidt, an Andale football historian and former television repairman. "In the '40s and '50s, Andale dominated most of the series, but in the '60s Garden Plain had many athletes and they took control." Fisher was the top talent for the Owls teams in the late 1960s, leading Garden Plain as quarterback in their final four wins over Andale, setting passing records along the way. But he was not the only heralded talent from those years. John Hoheisel and Bob Renner, two Shocker football players who survived the 1970 plane crash, were seniors on the 1966 Garden Plain team which began the streak. Since the goalpost incident, the turmoil between the two schools has subsided. Many people in the communities of Garden Plain and Andale share kin and religious backgrounds, and the intermarrying between their citizens over the years is evident at the high schools' separate football games. Over 15 players on Garden Plain's team have relatives on Andale High's team. Tempers have been tempered by family consolidation. Their cooperation still has its limits, though, as was evident in April of 1994. The Renwick School District hired a new superintendent from out of state who proposed a $12 million bond issue that would consolidate the two high schools. It never produced legs among voters. With over 100 kids out for football at Andale last season and 80 or more at Garden Plain, Schmidt cites the lack of enough roster spots on the football team as one of the positives in voting down the bond issue. "We would have had 200 kids out for football in 2007," says Schmidt. "Now what are you going to do with 200 kids? We would have had to eliminate half of them." But the scenario of having had one football team in the Renwick district in the fall of 2007 remains intriguing. Based on last year's student population from grades 10, 11 and 12 (which determines a school's classification), Andale-Garden Plain High's combined enrollment would still would have made it a 4A school - Andale's current classification. (Garden Plain is 3A). Imagine a combined Andale-Garden Plain squad with Owl Zack Puetz and Indian Calin Archer paving the way for Logan Dold at running back - with not only Daniel Capul backing him up, but also Kyle Horsch and Levi Neelly of Andale. Brett Macari would have thrown the deep ball to his speedy Andale teammate Ethan Ungles as he did last fall, but 6'3" Austin Hubert of Garden Plain also would have been an option. And how about lining up both Matt Fairchild of Andale and Ryan Patterson of Garden Plain at linebacker? The question is not whether the team would have won 4A. Rather, would they have been the best team in the state? Combining the two teams' players on one team was a reality in their childhoods. The Colwich Cougars youth club football team was formed in the late 1990s. The Cougars fielded teams beginning in fourth grade all the way up through eighth grade, preparing them for high school ball. The sixth grade Cougars in the fall of 2001 featured Dold, Horsch and Macari - and former Goddard quarterback Logan Watkins. Not surprisingly, that team went to a four-state tournament in Kansas City and dominated. The Renwick Bowl Consolidation aside, what if Garden Plain and Andale would have reunited instead last fall for the first edition of the Renwick Bowl in 38 years? You can bet that Corey Harp and Daniel Capul have had that discussion many times. Harp, a senior Andale linebacker and fullback this fall, and Capul, who mans the same spots for Garden Plain, happen to be good friends. "Harp and I have been friends since we started playing football together in fourth grade for the Cougars," says Capul, a 215-pound bruising back. "We have always been similar in size and position and we've always just been linked by our passion for the game of football." Each was one of only two returning starters for their team this season coming off state titles. Their similarities in size, school and position are remarkable, and the specter of their meeting on the field at the top of their game makes a prep sports fan froth at the mouth. There's no shortage of trash talk about who would do what to whom. "Capul and I talk about who would have beaten whom [last season], but in the end, nobody really knows," says Harp. "We have played 7-on-7 against each other in the past, but that doesn't really show who would win a real game." Unfortunately, the question will likely remain unanswered. But even though these two programs may never play each other again, with two state championships currently residing in one school district, a once sticky situation has turned out golden for Renwick.