Eight months ago, I wrote within this blog's space about change. I watched change take place as a college student when Eastern Michigan University unceremoniously ditched their Huron identity in 1990-1991. Change is messy and sometimes, not for the best.

So when Royal Oak dismantled it's prep sports legacy brick-by-brick starting in 2005 by combining Kimball and Dondero High, I wondered what the aftermath might leave in the immediate years to come. It was a costly, controversial decision that embittered both school cultures. The Detroit News described the two schools as historic rivals when the paper wrote a recap of the first merged year as Royal Oak High.

I think I may have an answer.

Royal Oak High School is 0-7 in the current football season. The Ravens have been close in one game, but the others? Monumental blowouts, and with two games remaining, Royal Oak's gridders have just two more chances to avoid the first winless season in the history of the city's high school at 1500 Lexington. Royal Oak has new uniforms, new colors, new coaches and new field turf but there's something missing. There's no tradition, because the past two seasons were teams made up mostly of the remaining Kimball players coached by the former Kimball coach, Terry Powers. Powers told me during the first year of the combined school (2006), 21 of the 22 starters were Kimball players. That team went 8-3 and won the district playoff opener.

Many newspapers still referred to the Ravens in those first couple years as Kimball. There was a lot of Kimball tradition and just because it was pulled off the walls, it doesn't die in the memories and minds of prep sports fans. Just like Renaissance was still Catholic Central for many years, and the De LaSalle Pilots were still from their old campus off Connor.

I know football is just a game among many different sports at the area high schools, but it's important to have a good football team in Royal Oak, just like it's part of the culture at Pershing, Fordson, King, John Glenn, Harrison and Allen Park. I watched Kimball suffer it's first losing season after 27-straight seasons without a losing ledger starting in 1984 as a high school freshman and it set an ugly tenor for our four years. Three years later, the district plucked Powers from Detroit Catholic Central to mold the Kimball program as the Shamrocks were built. There was a palpable spirit at Kimball and having a good football team was an important part of the building's culture for the 49 years it was open.

The other day I was in Royal Oak to get my haircut at, ironically enough, the Kimball Barbershop. One my way I drove past Royal Oak's football field where the signature blue n' gold K has been missing for three years. As I passed the baseball field, there was a gold, block-letter "K" hand-painted onto the dugout facing Normandy. On the other side of the building, the school's signature rock was slathered in gold with blue letters reading "KHS ROCKS".

I've talked to several familiar with the culture in the former Kimball building. There's a bit of a rebellion going on. Last winter the old Kimball gear started to show up. First it was a shirt or two, then a varsity jacket, and then a few more noticeable references. It's lead to dissension. This is possibly the bitter aftermath of tearing the district schools' good names to their foundations and combining two distinct cultures.

Good memories die hard. Change doesn't guarantee continued success.

Polar Bears Are Back! Less than a week after declaring the season over at Highland Park, head coach Cedric Dortch said yesterday in Detroit Free Press that the season will go forward for the final two games. This week the Polar Bears will face the rising Phoenix of Ypsilanti High, followed with a season-ending battle with top-ranked Dearborn Fordson.

The Parkers will have to win both games to qualify for the playoffs, as does Ypsilanti, so for all intents, this is the season for Highland Park. Even if they win Friday versus Ypsilanti, the monumental task of toppling the Tractors in Week Nine awaits. Fordson is preparing this week for the game of the year in metro Detroit, as Southgate Anderson and Fordson will meet tomorrow night for the final MEGA Red championship.

Speaking universally, this is a good move by Coach Dortch. That would have been an inglorious way to end a season and with his school and many others looking for a new place to park their athletic fortunes when the MEGA disbands this upcoming spring, people need to know Highland Park won't throw in the towel.

Two years ago Highland Park signed a contract to go play the Howell Highlanders in Howell. It was something I took notice of immediately when the prep football schedules were released. It took a lot of guts to agree to put his kids on a bus and go to a place that hasn't always been associated with, shall we say, tolerance. Howell is working hard to break that image and Highland Park is working hard to rebuild the honor and pride that used to be signature staples of the school's athletic department. Playing the rest of the season is another step in that direction.

Harrison A Victim Of An SI-Like Jinx? Two weeks ago Farmington Hills Harrison lost a 20-19 heartbreaker to Farmington High, the first time in 31 years the Falcons escaped the clutches of the Hawks. The last time that happened? 1977, when Farmington defeated the defending state finalists by an identical 20-19 count.

What's on the front cover of Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries? A picture from that 1977 Harrison-Farmington game, with the same score and result of the game played this year.

What are the odds of that?

~ T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries, and is working on a follow-up title, Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries!

The Northwest Suburban League looks like a strong candidate to come back to fruition in 2009-2010. Whether or not the schools in negotiation keep the retro moniker remains to be seen, but there's a historic union being forged and a couple rivalries to be saved by these discussions.

I've learned that Dearborn high schools Fordson and Edsel Ford would join Dearborn Heights' Annapolis, Crestwood and Robichaud along with Garden City, Redford Union and Redford Thurston in a league for the 2009-10 year. That Dearborn Heights and Dearborn could become neighbors in the same small, cozy league is quite a concept given the history of each city squabbling with the other. It's not the same as being in the MEGA, which by comparison was like 30 schools parking their respective cars in a massive shopping mall parking lot.

The high school football success this season for the neighboring public schools of Dearborn and Dearborn Heights is something not seen since the early 1990s when Tyrone Wheatley ran with All-State success for state champion Dearborn Heights Robichaud (1990) and Dearborn Fordson was building towards the 1993 Class AA championship under Jeff Stergalas, a product of the Riverview football tree of Don Lessner. Five of the six schools are enjoying some of their best football success in recent memory this year, with Edsel Ford (3-1) enjoying a significant revival and Dearborn High (3-1) and Fordson's Tractors (4-0) on a collision course for one another next week. In Dearborn Heights, Annapolis is having one of its best seasons in 25 seasons at 4-0 and Robichaud is holding their own at a very respectable 3-1. The possibility that all three Dearborn schools could qualify of the Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA) tournament along with two of the three Dearborn Heights teams is legitimate.

Now the two neighboring districts could be housed in the same, quaint league, an idea that was eased into serious discussion when the MEGA began to crumble last year and the Downriver League was formed. The original Northwest Suburban League folded in 1992-93 when the MEGA was formed under auspicious conditions. Those blessings quickly deteriorated into a quagmire of legal wrangling and overbearing travel requirements.

The obvious question is where does this leave Dearborn High School? In the past 18 months it was made clear to all three Dearborn schools from Dearborn Superintendent Brian Whiston that no one school could leave the other two schools behind with complete autonomy. With permission of Superintendent Whiston, Dearborn High School would be allowed to pursue membership in the Kensington Lakes Activities Association (KLAA) and form a division with Livonia's Stevenson, Franklin and Churchill, Wayne Memorial and Westland John Glenn. The KLAA is in need of one more school because Howell's Parker High School never opened due to financial constraints and enrollment issues.

There's a significant caveat to this possible new league alignment: Dearborn and Fordson would continue to play an annual football rivalry game, something that was promised by Whiston as a condition to Dearborn possibly joining the KLAA. In another twist, Ypsilanti High School joining the Southeastern Conference (SEC) would open the necessary date for Monroe High School to renew their long-standing rivalry with Fordson in 2010. The two rivals won't play next season because Monroe, which already agreed to accept membership for 2009-10 in the SEC, has no date to offer Fordson with the current alignment in the SEC.

That's good news for area football fans. One casualty of the MEGA's demise is the loss of Allen Park-Fordson game, one of the more compelling contests from the past handful of seasons. That the long history of the Monroe-Fordson game and the heated Pioneer-Tractor game could be salvaged keeps a lot of tradition going forward.

This news leaves the remaining schools from the ill-advised MEGA power conference to scramble to forge a union by the end of this year in this final, lame-duck season. The most likely scenario? A revival of the old Southeastern Athletic Conference (SAC) with Belleville, Highland Park, Romulus, Inkster, River Rouge, Ecorse and Willow Run.

~T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries, available now from Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and Borders Books