Action 3 News - Omaha, Nebraska News, Weather, and Sports | Old rivals, new friends when schools merge sports
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Associated Press - October 18, 2009 2:45 PM ET
DUNNING, Neb. (AP) - In Nebraska ranch country, where cattle far outnumber people, folks keep a neighborly attitude toward everyone they meet. That is, except when it comes to high school sports.
Kinship ends and rivalry begins on the football field, which makes what's happening at Sandhills High in Dunning and Thedford High so strange.
Declining and aging populations have forced the schools 27 miles apart to merge sports programs.
The Sandhills Panthers and Thedford Trojans became the Sandhills-Thedford Knights last year.
Seth Ray is a rancher and a former Thedford High athlete who graduated in 1998. He said Thedford's biggest rival was Sandhills. He recalled how he and buddies used to go parties after games and have fights with Sandhills boys.
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