Dream Matchups

[coachsloup]

Curious to hear from everyone on this one! I got to thinking the other day about dream matchups that Did or DIDN’T happen. For instance I would of loved to play any of my former teams when I had gone somewhere else. Not many people think that way but I thought in a big/little brother way, you have so much respect but would love to beat them. When I went to Sutherland I would of loved to play Hartington in the playoffs or play Sutherland when I was at Red Cloud. Fun to think about especially with not much going on in the world of sports. Two stories I always loved to hear about from my dad were; 1) when he was at Monroe in the late 70’s. They had the states longest losing streak when he got there and the 2nd longest streak was Palisade. It took one phone call and the game was set. The teams would play on a neutral court in Loomis and someone was going to end the losing streak. Mother Nature intervened and a snow storm forced a cancelation but a fun side note was both teams ended their losing streaks on the same night that season! 2) The other story was as the HC of Raymond Central he coached against his brother (who was a senior) at Seward. I’ve actually listened to the recording of this game. My grandma taped it because she couldn’t bear to go to the game and watch her two sons go against each other haha. RC had a comfortable lead going into the 4th. My uncle (Nick Sloup, who’s son Brevin just became an All American at Concordia this year in MBB) dropped 16 in the 4th and beat RC. My dad always remembers there was nothing they could do, Nick simply would not lose to his brother.

Who would you of loved to play or did play that was a dream matchup? Either because you hated them, loved them, had some sort of connection. I’d love to hear the stories!

 

[4xAllConference]

Back in the mid-late 2000s I think a matchup of Pierce and a class B school would have made for one heck of a football game. I remember when Ravenna play Bell West in a basketball matchup and from the sounds of it the atmosphere and game itself was spectacular.
Back when I was in high school (small D2 school) I always wanted to play Howells in football as I’m sure a lot of other people wanted to at that time. Both teams always had size, strength, speed, and athleticism during that time.
On the hardwood during those same years I think a small school (Spencer-Naper, Loomis, or Ewing) against a team like Ainsworth, Ravenna, etc (a C1-C2 size school) would have made for a great matchup. Those three small schools really had some great teams and made some big runs during that time. I remember a couple times we got invited to play in the heartland classic but never did because of schedule conflicts, of course after I graduated that’s when they finally got to play in it.

 

[northeastNebraska]

When I was in school we always wanted to play Howells. Being a smaller C2 down the road, we were good but we were jealous of Howells.

Games I would have loved to see...

Football:

-2007 Wakefield vs 2007 Pierce
-2007 Elgin vs 2007 Pope John

Basketball:
-2007 Wauneta-Palisade vs 2007 Ainsworth

 

[4xAllConference]

When I was in school we always wanted to play Howells. Being a smaller C2 down the road, we were good but we were jealous of Howells.

Games I would have loved to see...

Football:

-2007 Wakefield vs 2007 Pierce
-2007 Elgin vs 2007 Pope John

Basketball:
-2007 Wauneta-Palisade vs 2007 Ainsworth

I played against both Elgin and Pope John in 2007. Pope John was definitely the better team but if that game was played it would definitely make for an interesting matchup. Town pride, bragging rights, and a lot of good football would have made for one heck of a game.

 

[northeastNebraska]

Bump

 

[Artfour3]

I graduated from Valentine in 2005. In 2003 we lost in the semis to Chase County, who lost in the finals to Neumann. If we would have won, the other matchup was St. Cecilia vs. Fillmore Central, who had Mike Brower (St. Cecilia won). I thought if we both could have won it would have been a great game for our communities. We had a great run defense and they had a great back.

 

[fbnut999]

In 2011, there was plenty of talk in Norfolk about wanting to see Norfolk High battle Norfolk Catholic in basketball.

Norfolk High finished 23-5, losing to Omaha Central 70-59 in the state semifinals. The Panthers bounced back to beat Prep 76-59 in the 3rd place game.

Norfolk Catholic finished 26-2 and won the state C-1 Championship. The Knights got into the state tournament as a wildcard because Wayne smacked Norfolk Catholic by 20 in the district final.

Catholic was led by 6'7 Ethan Brozek and 6'7 Ben Uhing. Luke Lyons was the point guard. Drew Farlee was another guard and Erik Becker was a 6'3 kid who worked hard hard, defended well and rebounded well. I think talented and athletic underclassmen like Conner Ketter, Riley Knake, and Jordan Bellar came off the bench for NC.

I think Jalen Bradley was a junior on the Panther team. I see that they lost to South Sioux City right after Christmas. Would that have been to a Mike Gesell-led SSC team?

 

[nenebskers]

Gesell graduated from SSC in 2012. The loss to SSC your recalling I believe eas when Gessel and Austin Groth, pitcher for Creighton, were seniors. If I remember right the game was in Norfolk and Bradley hit 2 threes in last few seconds to send game to OT then SSC pulled out the win in OT. Those were some very talented SSC teams. They had a 6'11 kid in the post and Nate Roger's was a tremendous athlete coming off the bench. They won state Gessels sophomore and junior years then were upset his senior year. Losing all that talent SSC shocked everyone by winning state the next year led by Rogers.

While not a team matchup, I remember this site being full of Central and Akoy Agua fans at that time. One of the big discussions was who is the better player, Gessel or Agua. Also discussed was who was going to have the better college career. Safe to say the four year starter Gessel one that award.