Myrtle Street Rivalry set for March 12

Aberdeen and Hoquiam schedule state’s longest-running rivalry for second week of adjusted season

By Ryan Sparks • August 19, 2020 3:30 pm
Daily World File Photo Aberdeen’s Ethan Morrill (20) carries the football against Hoquiam during the 114th Myrtle Street Rivalry game on Sept. 13, 2019. The two schools will re-ignite the state’s longest-running rivalry game on March 12 in Aberdeen.
Daily World File Photo Aberdeen’s Ethan Morrill (20) carries the football against Hoquiam during the 114th Myrtle Street Rivalry game on Sept. 13, 2019. The two schools will re-ignite the state’s longest-running rivalry game on March 12 in Aberdeen.

The state’s longest running high school football rivalry has a date set for the 2021 season.

The Aberdeen Bobcats will face the Hoquiam Grizzlies in the 115th Myrtle Street Rivalry game at 7 p.m. on Friday, March 12 — the second week of the adjusted season — at Aberdeen’s Stewart Field, Bobcats Athletic Director John Crabb confirmed on Tuesday.

The game was originally scheduled for the first week of September, but the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association made a decision in July to move to an altered schedule for the upcoming 2020-21 school year amid coronavirus concerns, pushing traditional fall sports such as football to the spring.

“There were certainly some doubts (if we’d be able to schedule the game),” said Crabb, who is entering his first year as the Aberdeen AD. “In the back of my mind, I thought I might be the first AD in 100 years to let the tradition go down the tubes. Luckily, the rivalry of Hoquiam and Aberdeen is always there, but our relationship of the districts always working together is very positive.”

Crabb said he got plenty of feedback from alumni about how meaningful the Myrtle Street Rivalry is to both communities.

“I actually had some alumni call me and say, ‘Hey, I want to make sure you understand how important that game is.’ And I said, ‘Yes, I know. I’m a Bobcat, too,’” he said. “I’m sure there is a bunch of people (in Hoquiam) that have the same feeling. … They call me and just want to make sure that we know there are a lot of people counting on this game.”

Crabb explained the Bobcats were scheduled to host a game on that date against the Foster Bulldogs (Tukwila) and that he and Hoquiam AD Annette Duvall had to jump through some hoops to make sure the longtime rivalry game got on the schedule.

“I had Foster on the schedule and it just so happened that Annette is good friends with the AD there. That is where she worked prior and has a good, strong relationship with (Foster AD Harvard Jones),” Crabb said. “We both know how important this game is. (Foster’s) feeling was that they wanted to keep their games in the Puget Sound and I-5 area. So for sake of travel, they didn’t have a problem letting go of that game.”

After some reshuffling of both Aberdeen and Hoquiam’s tentative football schedules, the game was confirmed for the second Friday of the football season, and the latest date in the school year that the game will be played in its storied history.

“Elma was willing to move the Hoquiam-Elma game from Week 2 to Week 1, which provided us the open week to schedule Aberdeen,” Duvall wrote via email, explaining how the Grizzlies had to reshuffle a league game against Elma to open up room for the rivalry game. “I’m thankful Foster and Elma worked with Aberdeen and Hoquiam to ensure this game would continue.”

Though the upcoming high school football season promises to be anything but normal, the sight of Aberdeen and Hoquiam re-igniting the rivalry will be a welcome one to prep football fans, not only in the Twin Harbors, but those across the state. Fans that have long awaited the return of high school sports and look toward tradition to bring about familiarity in a time of uncertainty.

“With everything that’s going on in our communities, we need something that’s familiar,” Crabb said. “Not that it’s going to be familiar playing in March, but at least the opponent and the excitement will be there.”