What the Gators Say About Warren Central...

The game with Warren Central is an absolute war, both physically and emotionally. It takes until Wednesday of the following week to either get our players to come down off the high of a victory, or to pull them up out of the dumps after a loss.
Alonzo Stevens
Vicksburg Head Football Coach

 

We’ve had some really, really good teams come through Vicksburg High School in the past. For some reason, it took us a while before our kids realized that Warren Central puts their pants on one leg at a time just like we do.
Stacy Sizemore
Vicksburg Defensive Coordinator

 

I graduated from Warren Central in 1989, and now I’m the principal at Vicksburg. I have friends from high school that rag me about being a Gator now. I correct them and say, “I am not a Gator, I am THE Gator.”
Derrick Reed
Vicksburg Principal

 

This rivalry is made up of folks that really want to win. Families split on that Friday night. You still love each other afterwards, but that night is magical.
Pastor Robert Green
Former Vicksburg Football Player

 

My grandchildren are in elementary school in the Warren Central school district, but they still have a Gator mindset in enemy territory. During football season, they wear green and white shirts under their school uniforms that say, “My Granddaddy is the head football coach.”
Linda Stevens
Wife of Vicksburg Head Football Coach

 

They’ve dominated the series. I can’t take anything away from them. There have been years where we knew we had the better team and they found a way to win. Some people say we have had a monkey on our back, but I say it’s more like a dragon. Some teams have your number; Warren Central had our whole phone book.
Sammie Rainey
Vicksburg Booster Club President

 

When we play Warren Central, I tell our players that we know exactly what to expect out of them. Warren Central is not going to do anything to surprise you. They are going to play with intensity and hustle, and they aren’t going to make many mistakes.
Alonzo Stevens
Vicksburg Head Football Coach

 

I love beating Warren Central. I could be playing ping pong and I would want to beat them. I created Warren Central and Vicksburg on “NCAA Madden” so I could whip the pants off them every day.
Delmon Robinson
Vicksburg Football Player

 

My sophomore year was the first time we ever won in Viking Stadium. After the game, I saw a Vicksburg man that was so happy he was throwing money in the air.
Christian Price
Vicksburg Cheerleader

 

The players at Warren Central are cocky. They act like they know they are going to win. I guess that’s because they have won so many times in the past. But I bet they are second guessing themselves a little bit and not feeling so cocky since we have won the past two out of three. The tide is turning.
Adam Farrish
Vicksburg Senior Class President

 

One year they came over and spraypainted a “WC” on our field house. We painted over it, but the paints don’t match and you can still see it. We’ve never done anything to them. We’re the nice ones.
Claiborne Bryant
Vicksburg Cheerleader

 

Eventually they will combine these two schools. When they do, it will be like trying to combine good and evil.
Sammie Rainey, Booster Club President

 

What the Vikings Say About Vicksburg...

People can try to sugarcoat it as a friendly rivalry. It’s not a friendly rivalry. You do not want to lose that game. That’s what makes rivalries.
Josh Morgan
Former Warren Central Football Player
 and Current Assistant Football Coach

 

There were a lot of hard feelings between the people who came to WC and the Big Eight Conference, who looked down on everyone. Those first six or seven years it wasn’t a rivalry, it was a war.
Curtis Brewer
Warren Central Head Football Coach

 

We certainly try to be cordial with this rivalry, but there is an urgency to beat them. We have to beat them in everything. It’s not just football.
Pam Wilbanks
Warren Central Principal

 

I had butterflies two weeks before this game. You never knew how things were going to go, and this was a game we simply could not lose. I stayed focused and didn’t talk to anyone during the week of the game. I told my girlfriend we had to get a divorce for that week.
Corey Wilson
Former Warren Central Football Player
 and Current Junior High Football Coach

 

For the players at Warren Central, the winning streak against Vicksburg and the one-sided series history got to be somewhat of a burden. Instead of being excited about the game and the atmosphere surrounding it, you were so worried that you were going to lose and be remembered as ‘the team that lost to Vicksburg.’
Joel Neely
Former Warren Central Football Player

 

The joy of beating Vicksburg is nowhere near the pain of losing to them.
Josh Morgan
Former Warren Central Football Player
 and Current Assistant Football Coach

 

The players at both schools know each other well, because many of them live so close to one another. When we as coaches watch film of Vicksburg, most of the time it’s the first time we’ve seen their players since last season; but for our players, they may have seen those guys earlier in the day.
Curtis Brewer
Warren Central Head Football Coach

 

The only thing that could stop this rivalry is consolidation of the two schools; but there are a lot of people in this area that would have to die before that would ever be allowed to happen.
Sidney Beauman
Former Warren Central Football Player

 

We have to beat Vicksburg. It’s just not right when we lose to them. We have been winning every year up until the last few years, and Vicksburg has beaten us two out of three. It can’t happen again. It won’t happen again. It just can’t.
Amanda Suell
Warren Central Cheerleader

 

We lost 7-0 to Vicksburg last year and our senior class had a really hard time dealing with that. No one wants to be remembered as a class that lost to Vicksburg. The underclassmen work extra hard to send the seniors out the right way, but we just couldn’t get it done last year.
Clay Koestler
Warren Central Football Player

 

I remember the Vicksburg teams that had Michael Myers and Mark Smith. During those years they had some real war daddies.
Josh Morgan
Former Warren Central Football Player
and Current Assistant Football Coach

 

For Vicksburg to even the series history with Warren Central, they would have to win every year until I’m 85 years old. By then somebody will probably be feeding me and I won’t even know about the rivalry.
Curtis Brewer
Warren Central Head Football Coach