NEW MANCHESTER — Last season, when Oak Glen won for the third-consecutive time in the long-standing rivalry with Weir High, the Golden Bears were the last to put their names on the old Carl Hamill Trophy, which was retired following the game.

Tonight, the rivals will be battling to be the first to etch their names onto the new trophy at the Bears Den.

“I’m all about high school rivalries,” Oak Glen head coach Doug Taylor said. “It makes it interesting and gets not only the schools and student body involved, but the communities. I really look forward to rivalries like this.

“We talked the other day about the trophy. The old one was retired last year and I’m sure Weir High wants to get their name on the new one first, and so do we.

“Our seniors have been here and had pretty good success against (Weir), I’m sure their really looking forward to writing their story this season and getting their names on that trophy first.”

“Both teams definitely want to be the first on the new trophy,” Weir High head coach Frank Sisinni said. “It was retired last year and to lose three in a row is not a scenario we wanted to be in. Oak Glen has been blessed with some talented teams the last few years.

“To get a fresh start, and start over with a new Carl Hamill Trophy is an opportunity. Our seniors don’t want to lose to them every year of their career, they want to win this one and get their name on the new trophy.”

There are new faces on both sides, including Taylor, the former Madonna grid boss who is coaching his first game in the rivalry set for the Bears after taking over this year following Ted Arneault Jr.’s successful run leading Oak Glen.

“It doesn’t matter where you’re coaching, whether it’s your first game there or not, every coach is excited for the first ball game of the season,” Taylor said. “You’ve been practicing all summer, beating on each other, seeing improvement in the kids … we’re just happy to get the opportunity to go head-to-head with someone else finally and have it mean something.”

While Oak Glen has had the bragging rights of late, ending the Bears’ streak in the rivalry series has been at the forefront of the minds of the Red Riders since last season’s defeat.

“It’s fighting time for our boys, they are really looking forward to this game,” Sisinni said. “We had a really energetic practice (Wednesday) and that is a carry over from how we ended last season (win over Brooke) and went into the offseason. There’s not a whole lot that needs to be said when you’re playing a rival like Oak Glen, there are a lot of relationships between the kids and the schools. The motivation is naturally built in between two schools in the same county.”

While Taylor might be new to the Oak Glen side, he’s no stranger to what the rivalry means.

“Weir and Oak Glen have been playing since 1963 or 1964,” he said. “There have been a lot of really good games, hopefully we can make this another one.”

Taylor is also not unfamiliar to Sisinni and company.

“He had a lot of success in the past as an ex-Weir High coach and a lot of success at Madonna,” Sisinni said. “Coach Taylor is a well-respected coach throughout the Valley and I saw him coach a lot through the years. He was around a lot doing radio for our games, so I’ve actually got to spend some time with him the past couple years.

“He’s made the jump back out of the booth into the football arena. There is a lot of respect.”

As for the Red Riders, he knows they bring back a lot of skill.

“They are very deep at the skill positions,” Taylor said of Weir High. “They have a lot of team speed and they are well-coached. That is always an issue when you’re dealing with a team that has good speed.

“We’re really working hard to be ready to contain that speed.”

Sisinni expects the Golden Bears to pick right up where they were despite the coaching change.

“He has an opportunity to pick up where coach Arneault left off, and I know coach Arneault is on the staff, so they’re not going to skip a beat when it comes to preparation and how they do things,” Sisinni said.

As for the key to the game, the Red Riders grid boss knows its to keep his team even keel throughout the highs and lows of what is a much-watched match up.

“The main thing is to not get too high or too low in a game like this,” Sisinni said. “Especially it being the first game, there is a lot of emotion and a lot of energy. The emotions come in to play.

“It’s the opener, it’s kicking off for the state of West Virginia on a Thursday night, it’s live on TV. That’s the biggest thing is not to get too caught up in it and stay even keel to play a balanced football game.”