Don’t count out Rancho in Bone Game against Las Vegas

Justin M. Bowen

“Sir Herkimer’s Bone” currently resides at Las Vegas High School. The winner of the Las Vegas vs. Rancho game gets to keep the infamous Herk’s Bone.

By Ray Brewer (contact)

Thursday, Nov. 5, 2009 | 2:10 a.m.

Francis Valerio knows he will be playing in his last football game tonight.

You won’t, however, hear the reserve linebacker and running back from Rancho High complain about his career coming to an end. This final game, you see, is one full of history and tradition — a game seniors like Valerio wait their entire careers to be part of.

Valerio’s Rams will face host Las Vegas High in the annual Bone Game full of optimism that their underachieving season can be fixed with one magical performance.

Sure, Rancho hasn’t beat Las Vegas since 1995, a string of 13 painful defeats that several — not me — argue have turned Southern Nevada’s most significant rivalry into a game of little importance.

But for players like Valerio — gritty performers who truly cherish each minute on the field — simply being part of the Bone Game will produce memories to last a lifetime.

A victory would literally be a dream come true.

“We look at this as our state championship game,” said Valerio, a 5-foot-4, 140-pounder who plays mostly on special teams. “We want to prove everyone wrong. We can win this game and prove we aren’t one of the worst teams.”

The schools, two of the original in Las Vegas, have played against each other since the 1930s. The bone, a cow bone donated to the rivalry by a butcher whose son played for Rancho, was introduced in 1957.

Now bronzed, the bone has been in Las Vegas’ possession since 1996.

All signs point to it staying at Las Vegas another year. The Wildcats, winners of the last six Sunrise Regional championships, have already won the Northeast Division title to clinch the No. 1 seed for this year’s regional.

Rancho, on the other hand, sports a 2-7 record and will only dress 20 players for its final game.

It has the makings of a blowout. Or does it?

“We know we are out of the playoffs, we know we haven’t won the bone in 13 years and we know our season hasn’t gone the way we planned,” Rancho coach Elvin Dick said. “But for everything that has gone wrong, we can make it all right by winning one game and bringing the bone back.”

It would be the upset of all upsets — something desperately needed to revive the rivalry. Anyone who follows high school football in Las Vegas, excluding those associated with Las Vegas High, is rooting for the Rams.

It’s because players like Valerio, undersized athletes with oversized hearts, symbolize everything that is good about the rivalry.

“This is our championship game,” Rancho wide receiver Harvey Yarbrough said. “If we can bring the bone back, we would be treated like Gods here.”