2 junior highs under one roof — but separate

TAYLORSVILLE — Churchill and Wasatch junior high schools are sharing a building.

They're sharing a spirit week.

And, as fate would have it Thursday, they were sharing a championship girls' soccer match.

The rival east-bench schools competed at the Granite District girls soccer championship match Thursday afternoon.

"Everyone's handling it pretty well — just some nervousness," Churchill principal Bryce Holbrook said of the pre-game mood. "It's kind of interesting it came down to those two teams."

Wasatch Junior High moved into neighboring Churchill Junior High this fall following a devastating July fire, attributed to an electrical problem in a computer server area.

The schools operate under one roof. But students attend classes separately, with their own school's teachers, in schools-within-a-school. Wasatch and Churchill have separate front offices, administrators, secretaries, teachers and staffs. Students even were to be bused separately to Thursday's game.

But students all change classes and eat lunch together. Their lockers are side-by-side. Student leaders from each school deliver morning announcements together.

Wasatch student body hospitality officer Rachel Bagley said the schools' rivalry is more noticeable in close quarters.

"I didn't realize before how competitive we are," she said. "But it's friendly most of the time."

Still, some parents said Thursday's competition was no more intense than it would have been if the schools were separately housed.

"They don't take, like the high schools, the rivalry so seriously. They're not . . . mad-dogging each other. It's all positive," Holbrook said.

"There's certainly disappointment the day after a loss," Wasatch principal Doug Bingham said. "But it's not anything negative."

Make no mistake, each team wants to win. And Thursday, teams exchanged a few glances you'd expect from competitors about to battle it out on the field, Churchill goalie and ninth-grader Sierra Standriff said.

"But we're nice to each other."

Several, actually, play on the same county recreation teams, parents said. Wasatch's Tiffany Jolley, for example, will take the field today with Churchill players, this time, in her corner.