Robin Hill and Jeff Flood have known each other for more than 20 years.
They have known each other as teacher and student of the wing-T offense, fantasy football owners for a couple decades and the past three years as head football coaches at Sprague and North Salem, respectively.
But tonight's game between the Vikings (2-0 Central Valley Conference, 4-2 overall) and the Olympians (2-0 CVC, 3-3 overall) at 7 p.m. at Sprague is the first time their teams have played with a share of the league lead on the line.
Flood's version of the wing-T offense and Hill's approach have changed over the years — this year Sprague is running more spread packages — but they both follow the principle that emphasizes running the football.
"When he was a young coach and I was in my first three to five years, he asked to come and watch practices and I shared any information with him, which is what a lot of the wing-T guys do," Hill said.
"He runs a lot of our old, traditional stuff, which is great stuff."
Flood's first coaching job was at Judson Middle School, the then-sole feeder school to Sprague.
He wanted to employ the same offense the players would use when they got to Sprague so he went to Hill and soaked it up.
Flood continued using the offense at Amity and Blanchet and now at North Salem.
"I really liked the concepts that he used," Flood said.
The run-based system has worked during North Salem's current three-game win streak.
Behind running back Santano Sauseda, fullback Anthony Davis and wingback Garrett Cole, the Vikings' offense has averaged 258 yards rushing per game.
"The thing that North has going for them is they have maybe the best team speed in the league," Hill said.
"A lot of times when their plays break down the kid will just reverse field or use his speed to bounce and go outside and if you don't have speed to match it then they're off running."
After winning its season opener against South Eugene, Sprague lost its next three games.
But a win against McKay to start the CVC season and a 21-20 victory last week against rival South Salem have been a promising start to the league season.
"What we're doing right now is we're communicating on defense," junior linebacker/fullback Devvon Gage said. "We're getting some push on the offensive line.
"We're just doing our jobs, basically, on defense and offense."
Sprague's defense has improved greatly since the preseason.
The Olympians gave up 33 points in their three nonleague losses; the team gave up 16.5 in the past two games.
But the win against South Salem means more than just a win.
"We haven't beat South in, I think, four years, and that's just effort last Friday," senior tight end/defensive end Jeff Pettenger said. "It's put us up in the talk again for a league title."
North Salem comes into the game on a three-game win streak for the first time in years and the Vikings are 2-0 in the conference for the first time since 1998.
Flood has no illusions that his team's current string of success will breed false confidence when the team plays Sprague.
"It's tough to get overconfident when you haven't beaten a team," Flood said. "I don't think there's any case of overconfidence against any teams left on our schedule
"For us it's an actual confidence in our ability to compete with them."