Their annual "Backyard Brawl" rivalry opens each football season, and annually serves to define each season for both schools.
They also have spirited matchups in boys and girls basketball, wrestling, baseball, track and field, and other sports.
The Bellwood-Antis and Tyrone Area High Schools are separated by less than 10 miles, and although students from the two schools regularly interact socially and many are friends, the athletic programs from the two schools have traditionally been unlikely athletic allies.
That all changed a few years ago, in at least three sports - boys and girls soccer, boys and girls tennis, and boys and girls swimming - when a co-op was formed in those sports that enabled student-athletes from Bellwood to compete as part of the Tyrone teams.
So far, it's been going very well.
First-year Tyrone boys soccer coach Nick Miller - a substitute teacher at Huntingdon Area High School who had been the assistant girls soccer coach at Huntingdon for the last four years - said that the players on the Tyrone team this year are like one big happy family.
"Being an outsider who is in his first season coaching here, I wouldn't have been able to tell you who were the Bellwood kids and who were the Tyrone kids,'' Miller said. "They get along really well, and they interact like they're from the same school. They all seem pretty tight. There are no personal issues. It's been a really positive experience here, and it shows in the record.''
Both the Tyrone girls and boys soccer programs are heading into the District 6-AA playoffs. The Tyrone girls host Huntingdon in the opening round tonight at 5:30 p.m., while the Tyrone boys host Bishop Carroll Wednesday night at 5:30 p.m.
Both the Tyrone boys and girls soccer programs began in 2005. The boys co-op arrangement between Bellwood and Tyrone began in 2009, while the girls co-op between the two schools started in 2010.
Several years before the athletic co-op arrangement was created, some Bellwood parents whose sons and daughters had wanted a soccer program at their school approached the Bellwood-Antis School Board about starting one. While there was not enough interest generated in soccer for Bellwood to have its own program, the school boards from both Bellwood and Tyrone, along with the superintendents and athletic directors from both schools, helped initiate the co-op between the two schools. The PIAA and District 6 approved the co-op.
"We looked realistically at the resources we had in personnel, and we didn't think we had enough people to get a soccer program going,'' Bellwood-Antis athletic director John Hayes said. "But [the co-op] satisfies the desire of our students who wanted to play organized soccer for a team, and it also makes the Tyrone teams stronger.''
Among the top goal-scorers on the Tyrone boys team - which qualified for the District 6-AA playoffs for the first time this year - are Tyrone junior forward/striker Bobby Dawson, as well as Bellwood-Antis senior center/midfielder Kyle Bartlett, and his brother, Alex, a junior center/midfielder.
The Tyrone boys team roster is split down the middle, featuring 12 players from Tyrone and 12 from Bellwood.
"We all get along real well,'' Dawson said. "Some of our best players are from Bellwood. I think that having players from both Bellwood and Tyrone on the team really helps the team.''
Kyle Bartlett plans to play collegiate soccer at Shippensburg University. It's an opportunity that may not have been open for him had he not played on a high school team.
"This has meant absolutely everything to me,'' he said. "Whenever I was in the seventh and eighth grades, I didn't think we would have a soccer program. It's not very popular in Bellwood. It's been an awesome experience to represent a high school team. It's really been a blessing.''
Jeff Bartlett, the father of both Kyle and Alex, was one of the Bellwood parents who was pro-active in approaching the Bellwood-Antis School Board about starting a soccer program at the school.
"My boys wouldn't have had any opportunity to play soccer without the co-op,'' Jeff Bartlett said. "My oldest son will play at Shippensburg, and he wouldn't have had that opportunity without the co-op.''
Ellen Crook is another Bellwood student who has contributed significantly to the Tyrone girls soccer program. The junior forward-midfielder, whose father, Bob, joined forces with Jeff Bartlett to push for a soccer program at Bellwood, has been a big factor in helping the Tyrone girls team progress toward a District 6-AA playoff berth as well this year.
"I'm thankful we could get a team together,'' she said. "Everybody gets along well, and there are a lot of other girls [currently not playing soccer] who want to come out for the sport because we're doing good, and we're in the playoffs.''
The Bartlett brothers and Crook have all been Mountain Conference all-stars, as has Bellwood senior Andrew Burget.
The co-op has truly been a win-win situation for both Bellwood and Tyrone. In girls tennis, Bellwood sophomore Ana Hollen reached the District 6-AA tennis singles championship match this fall while competing as a member of the Tyrone team.
"This [co-op] has been beneficial for both schools,'' Hayes said.
