January 8, 2009

The second half played a little bit more like a basketball game and the final score in regulation was 31-31. Like any legendary game should, this one was headed for overtime.

Hesston won the tip in overtime and went back to holding the ball. Hillsboro's hopes of a state championship ended with a 36-33 Hesston victory that vaulted the Swathers to the state tournament.

In that one game, the rivalry had gone from nonexistent, to one of the most intense in the state. Hesston had to march in front of the scorers table during the start of Hillsboro's consolation game to make its way to the locker room in preparation for the championship game against Inman. The Swathers were met with a loud chorus of boos and hisses from Hillsboro's home fans.

It wasn't until several years later that Boyer felt safe enough to show up in Hillsboro.

"It took a lot of guts for (Boyer) to do what he did in that community, not knowing if the numbskulls he was coaching would be able to pull it off," said Weaver. "We were just kids so we didn't care. But when you are the adult, it's different. He took a big risk."

In a letter to the editor in the Hesston Record, a Hillsboro parent detailed the good relationships and experiences she had in the nine years her family lived in Hesston before moving to Hillsboro.

"However, what we saw Friday evening at the Hesston-Hillsboro game was unbelievable and made me ashamed to think that your school would allow itself to use unfair tactics (I understand they were legal) to rob another team of the opportunity to play a good game of ball," wrote the author.

After expressing her concern about the Christianity of what took place, or the lack of it, she ended the letter with a paragraph that had the foresight to predict how the game would affect the two towns in the long term.

"I can't believe that the people of Hesston are proud of what happened," she wrote. "What can we do now to mend the strained relationship between the two schools?"

Hillsboro Star-Journal sports writer Don Wipf wrote a column after the game that said credit must be given to Boyer for having a plan and getting his team to execute it to perfection.

But the sting of the loss hurt the Trojans just as deeply as their expectations were high.

"It was un-Christian," said Unruh with a laugh. "Hat's off to (Boyer), that he came up with a way to win the game. But you can still go, There was something cheating about that. That just wasn't right. It's not the way the game is supposed to be played.'"