BY MARK HUBER

Just 27 miles separates Wilmington High School with Kings High School. As for the basketball programs, that’s about the only difference.

Tonight, these two Fort Ancient Valley Conference Cardinal Division rivals collide on the KHS hardwood with the winner earning at least a share of the division championship. The game will be broadcast live on the Ohio Locker Room website (www.ohiolockerroom.com, see WEBCAST SCHEDULE).

This is not new ground for either team. Kings wore the FAVC crown in 2005 and 2007 while Wilmington reigned in 2006. U.S. 22/state Route 3 is clearly paved in FAVC gold and marked “You are currently on the Championship Highway.”

Craig Osterbrock

“Friday night is the first of many tough games against tough opponents,” said WHS head coach Mike Noszka. “It is do or die as far as the conference (title) goes. Two weeks from Friday night (in the post-season tournament), it’s win or your season ends.”

Though there have been a few tenuous moments over the years between players/coaches from Kings and Wilmington, the rivalry has been mostly friendly and evenly matched. The numbers back that up as do the comments from the rival coaches.

“My first go-round at Kings, Mason was the rival,” said Knights head coach Mike Stevens, who coached Kings from 1993 to 1997 and again from 2003 to the present. “There was hatred there. I don’t see that with Kings and Wilmington. This is more of a competitive rivalry than it is a hatred rivalry.”

Coming into the season, the teams split their last six games. Wilmington took a 4-3 series lead since 2004 with a 59-56 overtime win Dec. 21. Taking things a step further, emphasizing the nearly identical stretch of success for these two rivals, Kings is 52-29 overall and 33-10 in the division the last four seasons. During that same time, Wilmington is 53-27 overall and 31-13 in the division.

“I don’t think there’s a lot of animosity in this rivalry,” Noszka said. “It’s a rivalry in the way a high school rivalry should be. This is more of a rivalry of respect.”

Because of the schedule, tonight’s battle royale is sandwiched between a loss for both teams and another division opponent to finish out the schedule. The two teams come into tonight’s game having lost Tuesday night — Kings to West Carrollton, 59-48, and Wilmington to Loveland, 55-51.

“It’s kind of interesting,” Stevens said. “Wilmington had to play Loveland, which wasn’t an easy match up for them. We had to go to West Carrollton.”

Stevens wouldn’t use the Tuesday/Friday scheduling format as an excuse though.

“It does make it a little more challenging,” he said. “You know and your players know you have Wilmington coming up Friday and it’s going to be real important to play well against them. I don’t think we were flat (Tuesday), sometimes the other team is just better. I think Tuesday night, they (West Carrollton) were just better.

“You play every Tuesday/Friday. Last week, we had Lebanon Tuesday and then played Turpin on Friday (and won). You try to focus on one game at a time.”

Stevens acknowledged the focus of his players may have been altered, given the glare of the non-conference loss shining in their eyes.

“Last night’s (Wednesday) practice was better than Monday’s practice,” he said.

Noszka said his squad takes a different view when it comes to preparing for foes in conference and those out of conference.

“From a coaching standpoint, we are certainly not going to prepare for a non-conference game the same when you have a big conference game coming up,” he said. “We prepared, don’t get me wrong, But we had some illness last week, so we did not want to practice on Saturday. We don’t practice on Sunday, so that gave us one day (to prepare for Loveland).”

But preparation wasn’t as much a factor in Tuesday’s loss to the Tigers as was the way the Hurricane played.

“Tuesday night, we simply didn’t play hard,” he said. “I think people saw what kind of team we are when we don’t play hard.”

Neither coach has lost sight of the fact that the season doesn’t end — win or lose — with tonight’s game. Kings plays Little Miami and Wilmington faces Walnut Hills to complete the Cardinal Division portion of their schedules.

Said Noszka, “I think what everybody is forgetting is those are not gimme games for either one of us. And our season goals don’t end with the conference championship. The expectations in our lockerroom far exceed the expectations anywhere else … but we’re not overplaying Friday night’s game. We’re approaching it like we would any game.”

Said Stevens, “We play Little Miami at Little Miami. It will be senior parent night. Our players have played in the same youth leagues together. They’ve been around them all their lives. We struggled down there last year. For their seniors, to knock off Kings in their last game their senior year … that would be huge.”

When discussing Stevens and the program he’s built at Kings, Noszka speaks in nothing but glowing terms. And though he may be feeling a bit of the aftermath of the flu-bug that has wormed its way through WHS, Noszka is looking at tonight’s game in just one way.

“I don’t like losing to anybody,” Noszka said. “And sometimes when you respect somebody you want to beat them even more.”

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