The Westside-Creighton Prep rivalry is one of the best and most followed rivalries in all of high school sports. This year several past Westside Warriors gave their input on the rivalry. Each was asked two questions: What does the Westside-Creighton Prep rivalry mean to you? and What is your favorite Westside v. Prep memory?. Here’s what they said:

Matt Connelly Class of 2014

Meaning: “There’s all the rich tradition that comes with the rivalry. Whenever you mention to an alumni or a member of the community that you play football for Westside, and the first question you’re asked is ‘Are you going to beat Prep this year?’ You know it’s something special that will create life lasting memories.”

Favorite Memory: “My favorite memory when playing against Prep would have to be my senior year when we beat them twice in one season. One of those times being in the playoffs, which ended their season.”

Terry Beutler Class of 1987

Meaning: “To me what the rivalry means is passion.  Passion from the players and fans.  But mostly the passion by both teams to play hard and excel. When I was in school a lot of Prep kids grew up in the same neighborhoods as Westside kids, so you knew each other well and sometimes were good friends.  But during Prep week you wanted nothing more than to walk away with a victory.  The passion to win drives both teams to play their best.”

Favorite Memory: “My favorite memory was during my Junior year.  Prep was ridiculously good, I think they might have been ranked tenth in the entire country.  We were both undefeated, going into the game at UNO, but the World Herald said we didn’t have chance.  Coach Larry Morrissey convinced us if we were within seven points at half-time we were going to win the game.  We had the ball at about our 40 and there were 10 seconds left in the first half, enough for one more play.  Rickie Davis from Prep intercepted a pass and it looked like he was going to sprint into the end zone to go up by fourteen.  Now what you need to know is Rickie Davis was the fastest kid in the state and he ended up a track star for Stanford.  But out of nowhere comes Tony Caniglia and chases him down from behind, tackling him at the two yard line.  We were all going crazy because we were still within the seven points coach Morrissey talked about.  Now, I wish I could say we won, but we didn’t…”

DJ Rezac Class of 1989

Meaning: “I think of all the great players that have played in this series, and all the great coaches that have coached.  I think Westside-Prep brings out the best in their talents.  Everyone usually knows each other from growing up fairly close—everyone wants to perform at their highest level possible…and I think that is what it means to me—Excellence from both sides. It is usually the game that defines your WHS career…I run into guys that played after me and that is usually how they get described.  Someone might say ‘Hey this is Tiras Bolton—80 yd run to beat Prep 17-10 in 2010? Or Hey this is Lane Yates, threw the HB pass to beat Prep 14-7 in 2013?”

Favorite Memory: “1986 game that we lost 6-0  was the first Westside home game that Westside wore black pants.  We had always worn black pants on the road…but never at home with the red jerseys.  Terry Beutler was our senior LB captain and some guys convinced him to ask Larry Morrissey if we could wear black pants at home.  We wore em, but it didn’t help.  We lost 6-0. Well maybe it helped with laundry. That game was in the mud.  No turf field back then at Westside.”

Andy Miller Class of 1984

Meaning: “It was a big rivalry. Back in the day you grew up with the kids, then they split, some of them went to Westside, some of them went to Prep. […] It was big because we both took turns playing winning state championships and both had pretty good teams back then, so it was a big slobberknocker usually.”

Favorite Memory: “My junior year when we won state and beat them twice. Once in the regular season, once in the playoffs.”

Biz Jordan Class of 1983

Meaning: “It’s the big rivalry game of the season. It’s kind of make or break your year based on beating Prep. You know, 33 years ago I played in my last game against Prep and whenever you meet anybody they say ‘Oh yeah you played for Westside? Oh, we beat you’, or ‘No we beat you!’ back and forth. It’s something that you are very proud of and hold very dear for the rest of your life.

Favorite Memory: “Beating them. Every time.”

Michael Jernigan class of 1993

Meaning: “It’s always been a heated rivalry, I’ve always hated Prep. I don’t like anything about the school, I don’t like anything about them and I hate the color blue. The best man at my wedding went to Prep and I didn’t speak to him the four years he was there. It’s a heated rivalry, it’s a great thing. […] It’s something I look forward to all the time. You never know what you’re gonna get when Westside and Prep play each other. You could have one of the best teams and one of the worst teams and it’ll be a knockdown, dragged out brawl, which is the way football is supposed to be. I look forward to this game every year, I hope we play them every year. It’s exciting to go into that atmosphere where’s there’s 8-10 thousand people at the game. It means a lot to the community and it’s a pretty neat backyard brawl that we’ve had for years.

Favorite memory: “My freshman year we beat them 7-6 at Prep and hundreds, maybe a thousand people were at the game up at the top on at their grass field, it wasn’t even a stadium back then and people just encircled the whole field. It was an unbelievable atmosphere for a freshman game.”