SLIPPERY ROCK — The temptation was there. The loyalty won out.

So 2010 Butler graduate Eli Christy remains defensive coordinator for the Slippery Rock High School football team. He could have been an assistant on older brother Eric Christy's staff at Butler.

“As soon as he got the (head coaching) job at Butler (in 2018), Eric asked me to join the staff,” Eli said. “I figured I was going, for sure.

“My quarterback from high school and my best friend, Cole Harvey, is on his staff. Eric was my role model growing up. Butler is my alma mater. There were a lot of reasons to go.

“But I went to school that next week and realized how special a situation I had at Slippery Rock. I just couldn't leave that,” he added.

Eli Christy is a high school social studies teacher at Slippery Rock. He is in his ninth year on the football coaching staff, fifth as defensive coordinator.

Eric Christy is in his third year as Butler head coach.

Now the two will be coaching against each other as Slippery Rock takes on Butler at 7 p.m. Friday at Art Bernardi Stadium. The Rockets will be in the District 10 playoffs the following week while the Golden Tornado will be wrapping up their season against Erie.

“This game may seem meaningless in the overall scheme of things, but it's big for our family and both communities,” Eli said. “I'm excited for our team to get the challenge of playing a 6A school and I'm excited for myself having a chance to coach on the same field I once played on.

“I never thought I'd be coaching against my brother. The only time we've gone up against each other is on video games.”

While Eric wanted his younger brother on his staff, he understands why he's not.

“He wants to coach at the same place he teaches,” Eric said. “I respect that a lot about him. At the same time, the energy and enthusiasm he brings as a coach, it would have been awesome if he brought it here.”

The brothers are fans of each other.

“I pull for Slippery Rock all the time,” Eric said. “Coach (Larry) Wendereusz and myself have a great relationship. I wish nothing but success for them.”

Well, maybe not this week.

“Butler is where I played. I could be all the way across the country and I'd be following the Golden Tornado. That program is a part of me,” Eli said.

“But for two hours Friday night, I won't be pulling for Butler and Butler won't be pulling for me.”

Eric Christy has children attending Slippery Rock. He has a daughter in the band and lives in that area.

“I know a lot of people up there and in that school,” he said.

Slippery Rock head coach Wendereusz described the brother vs. brother scenario as “awkward, but it's fun to have that going on.”

Eli Christy's playing career ended his sophomore year at Slippery Rock University when he suffered the same shoulder injury he incurred his senior year in high school.

Good friends with then-SR assistant coach and former Rocket quarterback Jono Powell, Eli said Powell encouraged him to join the high school staff at Slippery Rock.

“They took me on as a volunteer coach at age 20,” Eli said. “I'm so glad I did that back then.

“Eric never gave me the cold shoulder or anything when I declined to come back to Butler. It was so hard turning my brother down. He never had any ill feelings about it and I appreciate that.”

So will Eli Christy someday follow in big brother's footsteps and become a head coach?

“I'm just playing that by ear,” he said. “On one hand, I'd like to challenge myself. On the other hand, I love being an assistant because that means all I have to worry about is coaching football. I see some of the other stuff Eric and Larry go through.

“One thing I won't rule out is coaching with my brother somewhere some day. I'm not ruling that out at all.”