The biggest thing I learned from this past football season is something I knew already.

Neighborhood high school sporting events are the best high school sporting events.

That feeling was reinforced the week Slippery Rock came to Butler to play the Golden Tornado at Art Bernardi Stadium.

The Rockets had two wins heading into that game. Butler had one.

Yet that game was talked about. Anticipated. Filled with intrigue.

Yes, Slippery Rock was a Class 3A program. Butler was a 6A program. So what?

The Rockets were up for the challenge and neither team had to leave the county in this the year of COVID.

Some early mistakes by Slippery Rock helped Butler build a 28-3 lead by halftime. Neither team scored in the second half. The game was competitive.

Why shouldn’t it be?

It wasn’t Butler’s student body playing Slippery Rock’s student body. It was football team vs. football team.

Size of school doesn’t always matter.

A number of years ago, Karns City’s boys basketball team played in the Butler Christmas Tournament and was matched up with the Tornado in the tourney final. The Gremlins won by more than 30 points.

That was a particularly strong Karns City team. There was a lot of anticipation entering that game, too.

It’s only natural.

Karns City plays Moniteau every year in every sport. Slippery Rock plays Grove City. Mars plays Knoch. Seneca Valley plays North Allegheny.

While those teams are in the same league, their matchups are the most enjoyable games of the year for the involved communities.

Non-league games do exist. Why can’t Butler play Knoch? Why can’t Seneca Valley play Mars? Why can’t Karns City play Slippery Rock?

The latter two did play each other in boys and girls soccer and they were great games, beneficial to both teams.

Virtually every high school in Butler County has an outstanding soccer team. Some local matchups would have been classic.

Yet they don’t happen.

High school sports have become all about getting to the playoffs and chasing championships. I get it. That’s obviously what competition is all about.

Great memories, to be sure.

But beating your neighbor, developing local rivalries, in league or out, that’s where bragging rights come from.

I once covered a football team — Catholic Central — in Steubenville, Ohio, that won a state championship, but lost to in-city rival Steubenville Big Red during that regular season.

The coach said he would have traded that state title for a win over his rival that year.

That’s honesty.

That’s high school sports.

John Enrietto is sports editor of the Butler Eagle