Salem Payson Rivalry

        Splitting multiple high schools for the opening of a new school is hard. Friends say goodbye to their old classmates vowing to remain friends, but quickly turning to foes. This is the case between Payson and Salem Hills High Schools, after The Salem Hills student body has really come together to form a united student body. The Salem student body is made up of both Payson students and Spanish Fork students when it opened only a year ago.  Salem has been talking a lot of trash which starts gets tempers flared up; it’s like that itch that won’t go away and keeps coming back. Salem High School has been putting on multiple pranks and tricks, from a sorry attempt to paint the beloved P Mountain, to burning Lion stuffed animals. Rock Chalking the Payson high school student parking lot, and attempting to film our student body in insulting ways are just a few things they have done. When there is this much tension between one school to another, a confrontation is bound to break out. Thus, a rivalry is born, and the Salem/Payson one is a huge one.

The tallies are already being kept and the only way to keep track of a rivalry this big is to keep track of the sporting meets and go from there. Salem is winning the race thus far, winning in volleyball, girl’s tennis, and football, but the Payson Lions still have plenty of time to take back seniority. With matchups in boys and girls basketball, baseball, softball, boys soccer, and boys tennis, there will be more than enough chances to get the status back to where it should be. Our School has shown great class, in not retaliating against Salem. All these pranks and tricks is enough to make someone really mad. We as a student body need to unite ourselves. In a sense this is a call for Payson Pride. We need to show that we are still proud and spirited for our school. There is some bad blood between our schools after the close heated football game on the 9 of October. The Payson Lions will not back down from this battle. Let’s join together and show off our green spirit and show that we are still number one. Salem Hills hear this loud and clear, this means WAR!