It’s no secret that Glenbrook School and Claiborne Academy aren’t the best of friends.
The Apaches and Rebels have shared some classic battles on the gridiron, and both schools have enjoyed plenty of success over the years.
This year, the success hasn’t been up to the standard of either program, but throw out the records. This game is about bragging rights.
“Anytime you’re playing a game like this you forget the records,” Glenbrook head coach Caleb Carmikle said. “It’s something that a lot of people around here are really passionate about. I can’t even tell you how many people have come up to me this week and told me how much this game means to them. The energy level has definitely risen.”
Glenbrook and Claiborne met in the jamboree before the regular season in a tune up that ended in a brawl.
That’s nothing new to the two schools, but it’s not something Carmikle wants to see repeated.
“Its an emotional game,” Carmikle said. “You want to play with a lot of emotion or you’re going to get beat, but we won’t tolerate that extra-curricular stuff and our kids know that based on how we’ve handled some situations this year. We’re going to get after it between the whistles, but after the play get back in the huddle.”
Carmikle said the Rebels have changed their offensive philosophy since that early season meeting.
“The past couple of weeks they’ve made a commitment to the ground game,” Carmikle said. “At the beginning of the year they were a spread-based team, but they’ve shifted some personnel and started trying to run the football. They have a couple of kids who can really go.”
Glenbrook has had a hard time putting points on the board in a new system, but saw progress last week by putting up 13 points in the first half against River Oaks. With their biggest rivals coming to town, Carmikle hopes this is the week it all comes together.
“We hit on the positives of our first half performance against River Oaks,” Carmikle said. “We’re trying to build off of that and combine the different positives we’ve seen from each week. Putting it together for a whole game is the key. I really feel like we have some advantages this week out on the edge with our skill guys. If we can just be consistent and make plays for four quarters I feel like we’ll score a lot of points this week.”
Against a new-look Claiborne offense dependent on running the ball and controlling the clock, the gameplan doesn’t change much for the Apache defense.
“Pretty much everybody we’ve played this year has been run heavy,” Carmikle said. “We feel like the strength of our team is our linebacking core. This week we’ll be leaning on Lyle Reagan, Drennan Keen and Garrett Sanders to make some plays.
We’re excited about playing this game at home and have been doing some things to try and get a larger crowd out for this game. It should be an exciting night.”
The Apaches and Rebels will kickoff at 7 p.m. from Apache Stadium.