By Kathy Chaffin
kchaffin@salisburypost.comFriday night, two high schools finished up their annual “Battle of the Cans.”
Salisbury and North Rowan high schools have been competing for at least 10 years to see which student body can collect the most cans of food, according to Salisbury High principal Dr. Windsor Eagle. Salisbury High was this year’s winner, after losing to North last year.
“It has been alternating back and forth between the two schools for years, usually with one school winning one year and the other the next,” Eagle said.
This year, the two schools collected a combined total of 3,825 cans. Eagle said the total was down from previous years. “In an economic turndown like we have this year, it’s a struggle for us to maintain the level at both schools that we’ve done before,” he said.
Students at Salisbury High usually wait until the week before the North football game to start collecting cans. “The athletic rivalry is important,” he said, “but this is a way that the student bodies can get into the rivalry as well with the Battle of the Cans.”
Dana Jordan, science teacher and Student Council adviser at North, didn’t take this year’s loss too well. “Let’s put it this way,” she said. “It’s definitely on for next year.”
Jordan has been in charge of canned food donations while at North and previously at A.L. Brown High School in Kannapolis. One year, she said, a single class at A.L. Brown collected 17,000 cans of food.
North’s total collection was off this year, Jordan said, because the Battle of the Cans finale came on the heels of homecoming instead of before. “So the excitement was a little bit less than usual.”
Jordan said North will accept its defeat on the football field (Salisbury won 52-8 Friday night, continuing its undefeated season), “but we won’t accept our defeat in matters of the heart because we have bigger hearts than Salisbury.”
“The gauntlet is thrown down,” she added.
Eagle said students from both schools look forward to the competition every year. “It’s a longstanding tradition of us providing food to Rowan Helping Ministries,” he said.