It’s rivalry week in Guthrie County. Not only are the boys and girls basketball teams for Panorama and ACGC facing off against each other on the hardwood at ACGC tonight, but last night saw the schools’ wrestling programs hit the mats against each other, with ACGC coming away victorious in a close 39-30 win.
It has been interesting to watch how these rivalry contests pan out between the schools separated by just a few miles. For example, when it comes to girls basketball, the Panthers squad made it all the way to state final two years ago and has, historically, been a dominant program. That pendulum has now started to swing ACGC’s way. The Charger girls are once again firing on all cylinders and have started the season hot. Panorama had won 32 straight games against ACGC before the Chargers swept the series last season. Not all of those games were blowouts, but 30-plus straight victories is impressive, regardless of the margins. I’m not sure if ACGC is going to rattle off another 28 in a row, but this series should be a fun one to continue to follow.
On the boys basketball side, Panorama has led the series 23-17 since 2006. But the record is in favor of ACGC since 2021 with ACGC going 7-4 since the start of that year and dominating the two contests last season. Both teams have fallen on some tough times this season, with the Chargers losing some major talent and the Panthers trying to develop their own. Both teams have suffered several close losses this year and will have some extra fuel to get back on track against their cross-county rival.
For boys wrestling, both squads sent school-record numbers to the state meet last year — ACGC with six qualifiers and Panorama with five. That’s a whole lot of wrestling talent just 10 minutes apart from one another. The two teams had one dual matchup last season with ACGC coming away victorious, 46-33. The result from last night put another W in ACGC’s dual column over the Panthers.
Big high school rivalries for me, being a Des Moines Lincoln High School graduate, were naturally against all of the other city schools: Roosevelt, Hoover, North and, especially, East. Whether it was soccer or basketball, I certainly had some intense times playing against those teams. Hard fouls, red cards, swear words, pushes, shoves, even a punch once (not thrown by me) made the games intense but just that much more fun to participate in. Oddly enough, even though we were all rivals, whenever I saw any of them matched up against a suburban school (e.g., Johnston, Waukee, Ankeny, Norwalk, etc.), you can believe I was rooting for my Des Moines faithful.
For those playing in these rivalry games, have fun and compete hard. The wins feel twice as nice when they come against your greatest opponents. For those of you with strong memories of playing in ACGC vs. Panorama sporting events, feel free to reach out to me at cyote@dmcityview.com and share the stories. If you don’t have one between those two schools, tell me about your own alma mater and the times that stick out to you.
Reach out with comments, complaints, story ideas and more at cyote@dmcityview.com.