COLUMN: Scott City and Chaffee the local embodiment of a friendly rivalry

Combatants on the field.

Companions off the field.

The Scott City Rams and Chaffee Red Devils are the local embodiment of a friendly rivalry. More so now than before.

"It's really different because we know everyone from Scott City on a personal level, not just knowing of them," Chaffee senior quarterback Carson Spies said. "It's kind of different trying to flip the switch from playing against people you don't know to playing against your friends."

There's a different element to this year's edition of the rivalry because players from both teams shared a bonding moment at a car wash on Sept. 23, meant to raise money benefiting the family of Seger Ruiz, a former Chaffee football player who recently suffered severe injuries from a three-car accident as a passenger and was hospitalized in St. Louis.

"We built some friendships from those events," Spies said.

"When something bad like this happens, especially to someone I know, it makes us worry and pray for Seger," said Scott City senior receiver Gavin Venable. "We wanted to try our best to make him feel happy, and he has people who care about him. That’s why it felt really good to come together, the Scott City and Chaffee community will do that. On the field, we’re enemies, but off the field, we respect and care for each other. And Seger is a part of that community, so we had to be there for him."

Spies and other Chaffee seniors played with Ruiz last year. Ruiz was also the captain of the Chaffee basketball team and the mind behind turning the Red Devils' home game with Meadow Heights into a fundraiser for the family of an MHHS student who tragically passed from an ATV accident last December.

"We put his initials 'SR' on the sides of our helmet just to honor him," Spies said. "For these games, we've been playing for him and we dedicate each of these games for him and hoping that he can get better."

The Red Devils enter Friday's contest against Scott City at 3-3 and looking for their first win against the Rams since 2017, the year they last had a winning season. Jack Altermatt has three wins in his second season as Chaffee head coach, which is the amount the Red Devils have amassed in the three years before his hiring.

"We worked a lot harder," Spies said. "Coach Altermatt pushed us harder than we have really been pushed. That's given us the motive to work harder and has given us the work ethic we've always needed."

Regardless of the result, games like this show the beauty of small towns connecting with each other for a common goal of helping their own in a time of need. Both sides wish nothing more than victory but once the clock hits triple-zeros, everyone is back to being friends again.

That's high school sports at its purest.