Whether Apple Valley or Oak Hills wins, Friday is a victory for the High Desert

Apple Valley and Oak Hills have both made a point of treating this week, the 10th of the 2022 season, like all the others.

"This week is business as normal for us," said Oak Hills head coach Robert Metzger.  "We get hyped up for every game and tune out the outside noise."

Said longtime Apple Valley offensive coordinator Robert Meras: "We had a really good week of practice. The focus has been so good that it's almost eery."

But it's no ordinary week in the San Bernardino portion of the High Desert, where football reigns supreme. 

When the Sun Devils and Bulldogs go at it on Friday, it will represent one of the most significant high school football games the area has ever seen.

According to Wikipedia, the "High Desert" is actually considered a vernacular region applying to the western Mojave Desert in Southern California. By definition, it's situated just north of the San Gabriel and San Bernardino Mountains, between 2,000 and 4,000 feet in elevation.

The population of the sprawling region is close to 900,000. With more than 70 towns and cities, the High Desert is widely spread out and vastly untaped, thus media coverage of high school sports has been largely underserved.

"If anyone would've told us five years ago that Fox Sports – or now Bally Sports – will feature two High Desert teams playing against each other on a Friday night, I would've asked you what you're smoking," said Meras.

Historic Hype

The battle, picked up by Bally Sports PrepZone, is drawing media interest from across Southern California. It's even on the radar of some of the Northern California football community, which not too long ago was unthinkable for High Desert prep football.

Per Meras, the two biggest games the High Desert has seen were both CIF Southern Section title games. One was last year when Apple Valley fell to Serra (Gardena) in the Division 3 finals after a Cinderella run, and the other was when Oak Hills routed Serrano for a section title in 2015.

Other than that, is it fair to call Friday's Apple Valley-Oak Hills matchup the biggest in region history?

"For regular season, it's the clear number one," Meras said. "Other than those two championships, no one's ever played a game this big out here, absolutely."

Metzger concurred.

The High Desert's top athletes and coaches relish the opportunity to put the region on the map and inspire its next generation. It's something Apple Valley, for example, has been vocal about since the program started pumping out college prospects left and right. 

And the region's golden era of high school football is helping erase stigma that it's long dealt with. Up until the last couple years, just finding top high school teams from other areas to play the best High Desert teams was nearly impossible. Let alone being a hotspot for college scouts.

So, for an area that widely prides itself on a strong sense of community, having football as a means to successfully uplift is not taken for granted. And an event like Friday is a barometer of progress.

Hard workers, tough kids, elements

"We've always had athletes in High Desert," said Metzger. "A lot of tough kids. There's not a whole lot to do out here. Football is one one of the things they have to hang their hats on. Hard-nosed football."

With challenging elements. 

"It's hot as hell, very windy," Meras said. "It's a unique place, because we can't go down 15 minutes to the beach or river, and don't have a gigantic mall or everything they have down the hill. But we make do with what we have, and it's enough for us.

"The community is filled with hard workers. The High Desert raises a lot of hard-grained kids who have to work for everything they get."

The contest is a rematch of Oak Hills' 21-14 win last fall in a hotly-contested comeback. The victory, good for a Mojave River League title, was considered by many to be a major upset.

Many, including SBLive, have recently pondered the idea of the matchup becoming a new high-profile rivalry. However, both sides resist the tag as 'incumbent rivals,' nor do they feel they're on the verge of a new rivalry.

"We don't look at [this] as a rivalry," said Metzger. "I think rival games are overrated. To us, every game is a rival game."

Said Meras: "It's not a rivalry vibe at all. Oak Hills is a big reason for a game to get this much interest. It's the combination of the two of us. It's all great for the community."

The excitement around the game is organic. 

Simply put, it pits two most highly-touted football teams in local history, and they're neck-and-neck competing for a league championship — while simultaneously helping put the High Desert on the map.

"We know it's going to be physical and intense," Meras said. "A lot of people are going to be there. We think we're the best in the High Desert, they think they're the best in the High Desert, and right now, they are (based on the Bulldogs' victory last season)."

Band of brothers

Oak Hills High School has only been in existence for 13 years, and now finds itself ranked in the top 20 in the state. 

The Bulldogs joined the MRL in 2010 and have never finished outside its top three. They won undisputed MRL titles in 2014 and 2018 before doing the same last fall.

Metzger says the biggest key to the Bulldogs' fast rise has been "building the culture beyond football."

It's "how we act at school and around our community," he said. "It's a culture of servant leadership."

What does that exactly entail? 

"Kids will sweep their own locker room, stay after dances or football games to clean up," Metzger said. "And that's our main guys, our starters and studs. We try to build a culture and mentality of serving others before yourself, and the kids buy in. This group has a special bond and plays like a band of brothers."

Apple Valley High School has been around since 1967, and has taken its football seriously for much of the time since. But it's only been since 2016 that the Sun Devils have made headlines across the entire High Desert – and beyond – for their football prowess.

Following back-to-back losing seasons in 2014 and 2015 — they went a combined 7-15 — the Sun Devils have gone 62-13 with double-digit wins in 2017, 2018 and 2021.

No joke

Apple Valley's culture of working hard, playing hard, and hitting hard, while producing numerous Division I college recruits, has been covered in depth. And they've walked the talk in the face of adversity many times throughout this era.

"I hope [games like this are] the new normal," Meras said. "I think there's really good football up here. If you coach in the High Desert and you're OK with a kid going down the hill to play, you don't need to be coaching in the High Desert. I think the [Apple Valley's], the Oak Hills, the Serrano's are proving that kids don't need to go down the hill to play."

Although times are rapidly changing for High Desert football, there's still work to be done, Meras said. 

"Even now, I think some people still look at the High Desert like we're a joke," he said. 

He's not taking Friday's game lightly or with a grain of humor. 

"I want to win this game [badly], but I don't think a lot of people understand how big this is for the area," Meras said. "We play and coach with a chip on our shoulder, or really a boulder. 

"We don't get the numbers or as many transfers as other teams, so we feel overlooked sometimes. It means a lot for us to prove there are good coaches and players... so that recruiters and colleges take the extra trip up here."