Valpo Bowl under the lights in Atherton for first time

ATHERTON — Menlo School and Sacred Heart Prep are literally neighbors on Valparaiso Avenue, but instead of trading turns by hosting their rivalry on each campus the preferred option was a neutral site to support Peninsula Bridge, which seeks to “break the cycle of poverty and greatly increase each student’s chance for success in school, life and career.”

For the past decade, it was Foothill College twice, Woodside and Sequoia each three times, Oak Grove once.

The only exceptions for other locations? Unbeknownst matchups in the Central Coast Section playoffs, with Terra Nova the setting for a Division IV championship game in 2012. SHP won 13-7.

Prior to that, an unforeseen meeting in the quarterfinals of the CCS playoffs in 2008 which forced SHP to invite Menlo only a week after their regular-season finale at Woodside. SHP won 49-21.

Ten years later, the Valparaiso Bowl — or Valpo Bowl, for short — sort of returns to Atherton on Friday night, except for the first time under the lights on campus as SHP (8-1, 3-1 PAL Bay) welcomes Menlo (4-5, 1-3) for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff.

“It’s going to be wild,” SHP coach Mark Grieb said. “We usually have it at night, so that’s not anything different. But having it at home, at our place. I think will kind of have some added significance. And, on top of it, it’s a rivalry.

“We know it’s going to be a zoo on Friday.”

Menlo is under new management with first-year coach Josh Bowie at the helm.

“Everybody is preparing like this is the biggest game of the year,” Bowie said. “We set goals way back when I got hired initially, and one of the goals is we want to be able to compete with SHP. And, so, here we are. We have that opportunity to go out and compete. They’re 8-1, they are a good, quality football team with a lot of really good kids and excellent coaches and they run what they do well.

“We have a tall task ahead of us, but we’re expecting to come in and compete.”

In 2011, he was an assistant coach at SHP.

“I’ve had a chance to see it on both sides,” Bowie said. “I know a little bit about what the Valpo Bowl is all about, but this will be my first time experiencing it as a head coach and in charge of my own squad.”

Again, in 2011, Menlo quarterback Jack Heneghan — signed this past offseason by the San Francisco 49ers as an undrafted free agent — led the Knights to a 26-0 rout at Foothill College.

A year later, after Bowie was hired as the head coach at Woodside, he held a team meeting just as the Gators stormed into the locker room during the Valpo Bowl.

It’s a reason he understands the meaning of this rivalry.

“I think the pageantry is one of the things that makes high school football so special, not just in this area but all across the country,” Bowie said. “It’s the crosstown rivalries, a lot of our kids know many of the kids on their team. I teach in Hillsborough, so a lot of my kids from Crocker Middle School are now playing at SHP, so it will be great to see those kids and watch those guys compete.

“I just think that the whole thing is going to be fun and I expect our crowd to show up in force.”

Grieb is in his second season the helm at SHP after a 14-year stint by Pete Lavorato, now the head coach at The King’s Academy in Sunnyvale.

Since the inception of the Valpo Bowl, proceeds from this rivalry have raised nearly a quarter of a million dollars for Peninsula Bridge.

SHP finds itself ahead 8-7 in the rivalry.

“It wasn’t our intent to go this route and have it here, it was really out of necessity,” SHP assistant principal of athletics Frank Rodriguez said. “We’ll see how it goes, we’ll see how everything works, we’ll see how both schools feel about it. We’re super excited to host it. It is a unique opportunity.”Expect it to be loud. Expect it to be frenzied. Expect the unexpected.

“The emotional factor for this game is not necessarily something that you can simulate and practice,” Bowie said. “I have a feeling this is going to be a game of momentum, where it’s going to be which team is going to make the big play, what running back is going to bust one, what defense is going to step up and cause a turnover, special teams is going to play factor.

“I don’t think anybody should blink on the sideline.”

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