High School Rivalry Games

I've got my first high school rivalry game of the year between our two cross town rivals this week, and in addition to the gamer, I was wondering if any of you write another story outside of the gamer?
Any insight would be great.

 

You talking before the game, or from it?
For our big rivalry, we'll usually have a sidebar on some key play or star of the game, something like that. A quick McFeature. And we'll do previews or features for each team leading up to it instead of just the quickie advance.
That's for football though. Our rivals play each other four or five times a year in basketball, and at least twice a year in all the other sports. Nothing special there. For those, we might do an advance and then let the gamer go a little longer than usual.

 

I did my preview of the game, but I was wondering after the game. Do you force a story on a star player or something like that?

 

If it's not there, don't force it. But you should be able to find something you didn't talk about in the gamer. If the star goes off for 40 points (I'll assume this is basketball?) then do a quick-hitter feature on him. Maybe even a second-day story. Or if there was a big stat -- like a 35-20 rebounding edge, a lopsided free throw advantage, or something like that -- do one on the rebounders or fouls. Same with a key play.
There's always something if you look between the lines.

 

It's sometimes interesting if someone with East Bumfuck actually went to and played at West Bumfuck and is on the other side of the rivalry.

Or Dad teaches at East Bumfuck and his son plays for West Bumfuck.

Can I say "Bumfuck?"

 

Do you have a columnist? A column always serves as a nice sidebar for a "big" game.

 

Palmetto, every year the two rivals play a big game on the Canadian Thanksgiving called symbolically, the Turkey Bowl, and bragging rights are at stake. However, the two rivals in my area played the last Turkey Bowl game last season because the schools merged into one mega school this year.

We focused on the history of the Bowl. Also, we talked to alumini and past players from both schools to do a story on the significance, and another on how much the rivalry will be missed. Also talked about the 10 significant bowl games and what took place. It was a major issue last year.

Now two other schools are the rival teams. We are going to be doing a feature sports story about the significance of rivalries and what it really is about. How healthy is it to have in the high school sports scene?

Another story we did was how the two former rival teams is now considered the dominant powerhouse of high school football.

You may want for yours to focus on a key player for each team and do a profile on each one. See, unless something significant happens at the game, you are stuck. Batman's point is right, look between the lines and find a hidden story if you can to help bolster the gamer. Also, if someone is injured during the game, you may want to write something about the injury and how significant the loss of the player was/will be to the team.