Moniteau and Karns City’s rivalry is special.

It’s the only one in Butler County that lights up the phone switchboard in the Butler Eagle office.

There’s almost legitimate pro wrestling-style heat between the two sides.

Just ask Karns City freshman Emily Hegedus about the anticipation, who had to wait an extra day to participate in the Gremlins’ 52-4 win due to a snow out.

After years of watching her sister, Annie, play Emily was ready to take her turn.

“I’m Annie Hegedus’ sister and I’ve watched her through the years and have watched every single game,” Hegedus said. “It made me so excited to watch in the bleachers and to know that I’m coming up to play.”

That’s a big reason why the Keystone Shortway Athletic Conference needs to reevaluate the way it does its basketball scheduling.

Most KSAC South Division games are scheduled as home-away doubleheaders.

The Moniteau boys played at Karns City last Saturday afternoon, while the girls played at Moniteau at night.

Typically, they are both played at the same time of night.

Right now, people who may have a son and daughter on each team have to pick which game they want to see.

Scheduling conflicts are nothing new to people at these schools, which had the district baseball and softball games played between them scheduled at the same time on fields next to each other last May.

There are several ways to avoid this conflict:

Playing varsity doubleheaders. This option is less popular due to conflicts with junior varsity.

A better idea may be adopting a WPIAL type of schedule. In that format, boys games are typically Tuesdays and Fridays and girls games are Mondays and Thursdays. Each school could decide if they want to flip days so that both teams could play on Friday. It gives everyone more flexibility.

As a note, this argument isn’t to argue that more people should go or that the current setup currently takes fans away from the game.

It doesn’t.

People no longer flock to high school sporting events like they used to.

There are plenty of alternate entertainment options to keep people busy.

That’s fine, everyone should spend their time how they want.

But for the KSAC, it’s time to drop the home-away doubleheader. Don’t make people choose sides.

There are plenty of other ways to set up a schedule.

Josh Rizzo is a sports writer for the Butler Eagle.