Wichita-area league realignment means we get one of the best rivalries every year
In 2018, Maize hosted crosstown rival Maize South in a Kansas Class 5A football regional championship game, and that showdown brought in more money than all but three state championship sites, according to KSHSAA figures.
This past season, the Maize schools met again in what was billed as the biggest game in the city’s history. That game brought in $16,959.07, and, again, only three other playoff games brought in more.
Over the past two years, Maize-Maize South playoff football games have brought in $31,471.63, and starting in 2020, the rivals will be in the same league and will play every year.
Highest Kansasfootball postseason receipts since 2018
- Derby vs. Blue Valley North - Class 6A state championship (Emporia State, 2018): $25,638.71
- Derby vs. Olathe North - Class 6A state championship (Emporia State, 2019): $22,833.18
- Pratt vs. Sabetha - Class 3A state championship (Hutchinson CC, 2018): $19,620.53
- Wichita Northwest vs. St. Thomas Aquinas - Class 5A state championship (Pittsburg State, 2018): $19,497.25
- De Soto vs. Mill Valley - Class 5A sectional championship (De Soto HS, 2019): $18,056.96
- Wichita Northwest vs. Mill Valley - Class 5A state championship (Pittsburg State, 2019): $17,401.83
- Maize South vs. Maize - Class 5A sectional championship (Maize South HS, 2019): $16,959.07
- Maize vs. Maize South - Class 5A regional championship (Maize HS, 2018): $14,512.56
Every two years, the Ark Valley-Chisolm Trail League (AVCTL) realigns. There are four divisions in the league split into groups based on enrollment.
Five years ago, Maize South was in AVCTL III, competing alongside McPherson and Buhler. After a jump to Division II, the Mavericks are officially members of Division I with Maize, Derby and others. Salina Central has dropped to AVCTL II with its enrollment suspiciously on the decline over the past few years with no end in sight.
“The growth of the school has been totally crazy,” said Curtis Klein, Maize South athletic director. “My first year there in 2013-14, I think we had about 660 in student enrollment, and our enrollment next year will pushing 1,100, almost doubled since when I got there.”
Of course with Maize South and Salina Central leaving the respective divisions, some of the Wichita area’s great rivalries will be lost.
Maize South, Goddard and Andover Central have battled for the AVCTL II football title over the past two years. Maize South and Eisenhower boys basketball is almost always a close finish. And Maize South and Valley Center girls soccer has been one of the must-see games of recent years.
For Salina Central, the Mustangs’ biggest rivalry will stay in tact, Salina Central athletic director Greg Maring said. As one of the biggest sticking points behind the drop into AVCTL II, Salina Central and Salina South will continue to compete against each other in every sport.
“We want that rivalry,” Maring said. “It is the one that everybody talks about — that game.”
A conversation about AVCTL II cannot exclude the word, “parity.” This past school year, even with the spring season canceled, five of the seven schools won league championships. Maring said he is most looking forward to watching that parity in the coming years.
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“We’re all equal, and every game you have an opportunity to win when you’re playing teams with about the same enrollment as you do,” he said. “From the top team to the bottom team in Division II, there’s not much difference.”
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Derby football has created a monopoly on league championships in recent history. The Panthers are coming off back-to-back undefeated seasons in AVCTL I and Class 6A; they are almost without question the best team in Kansas.
Now Maize South looks to climb that mountain and of course the mountain on the other side of town against Maize High.
“It’s great to know we will start building these new rivalries on a consistent basis,” Klein said. “When Maize South and Maize High get together, it’s a packed house no matter what: football, basketball, baseball, soccer. It’s always competitive, so it’s going to be fun.”
This story was originally published July 6, 2020 at 5:00 AM.