In The News: NHS answers Sherwood's challenge

Written by: Seth Gordon, Newberg Graphic 

Newberg wins latest iteration of 'Rex Hill Rivalry' by collecting more items for holiday supply drive

When Newberg High School's Associated Student Body (ASB) students challenged their counterparts at Sherwood High School to a relay race during halftime of a fall football game, Mark Brown's leadership students admit that they stacked the deck a little bit in their own favor in how they set up the competition.

The whole idea was that Newberg could expect to receive a challenge in return and the ensuing back-and-forth over the course of the year would be friendly way to foster what the schools are deeming the Rex Hill Rivalry.

Newberg's ASB students fully expected Sherwood to return the favor with a challenge in which the Bowmen would be the favorites and that sure seemed to be the case when they invited the Tigers to join in their annual holiday canned food drive shortly after Thanksgiving. Not only are Sherwood's students well organized after years of hosting the drive, which has been known to fill up moving trucks with donations, they also gave Newberg's ASB team a limited time to plan their own efforts.

Despite the perhaps built-in disadvantages, Newberg won the competition, gathering just over 7,000 items compared to Sherwood's 6,005.

"It's just cool because everyone in the school came together and made it happen," Newberg sophomore Stella Byles said. "No one really saw it coming that everyone was going to get so into it, but they did."

All the donations -- from non-perishable food items, personal hygiene items to new or gently-used clothing -- collected at NHS have been donated to the school's resource room, which has also received a lot of support from parents, teachers, businesses and local nonprofits since opening in September.