By PAMELA SCOTT JOHNSON

Sports Editor

The “river rivalry” might have already begun but the game everyone has been waiting for takes place tonight on the mountain.

The Belfry Pirates are set to invade Mingo Central for the first meeting of the basketball teams since the little rift this summer. Emotions ran high in a game that coaches said meant nothing during the summer league and emotions are off the scale as the one for the record books prepares to tip off.

The two schools have been at each other’s throats on Facebook. Taunts, finger pointing, muscle flexing and of course a lot of jawing has been filling the pages as the rivalry between the Miners and Pirates comes to a boil.

But this is a completely new era all due to the Internet and one senior’s abilities.

MCHS student Wes Wilson has developed an introduction to the 2011/12 Miners’ basketball squad. It is very inventive and displays Wilson’s vision and ability to create with effects that appeal to everyone…if they are a Miners’ fan.

Wilson set a heated discussion in motion with his humorous depiction of what are supposed to be Miners chasing a Pirate. A creation he said he threw together for the game. He used a scene from “The Pirates of the Caribbean” which depicted Captain Jack Sparrow (Belfry) fleeing a mob of natives (Mingo) trying to kill him.

The clip has well over 100 responses with even more FB followers beginning their own status taking one side or the other.

“Being a senior and having only one year at MCHS, I see this as being a great rivalry,” Wilson said. “Even though some people don’t believe this game to be significant, I see it as beginning of something great for our area. People will talk about these games between the two schools for years and it’ll be a great story to tell down the road.”

Central also sold shirts stating “I’d rather be DEAD than RED!” The school quickly sold all 140 they had on hand to the student body known as the Mingo Maniacs.

It is close to impossible to pick a winner for the game. Mingo Central is 1-1 on the year and Belfry is 0-1. But it wouldn’t matter if one team was 10-0 and the other 0-10. With this type of atmosphere…it is anybody’s game.

The fun starts at 7:30 p.m. at Mingo Central’s gymnasium.