Harnett County’s biggest gridiron rivalry will now be played on Harnett County’s biggest stage.
Hiester Bowl VI — the Oct. 30 match-up of the 7-1 Harnett Central Trojans and the 7-1 Triton Hawks — will for the first time be played at Campbell’s Barker-Lane Stadium.
The rivalry, named for sponsor John Hiester Chevrolet of Lillington, was launched in 2021 for the schools located just over 12 miles apart. Campbell University is close to the geographic center of that distance, and playing the game at Barker-Lane should add even more fuel to the rivalry, says Triton Head Coach Ben Penny.
“Playing this game at Barker-Lane Stadium is big for not only our schools, but the community in general,” Penny said. “[Campbell President] Dr. William Downs and the administrations at both Campbell University and Harnett County Schools have made it a priority to expand community relations. We feel like this is just the tip of the iceberg of what’s to come, and we are very excited to be a part of this game.”
The move comes at a great time in the series. The two teams will be battling for second place in their Class Carolina Pines Conference, as both of their sole losses have come against first-place Union Pines (ranked 14th in the state). Harnett Central has outscored opponents 362-177 this season, and Triton has outscored the competition 296-169.
Harnett Central holds a 3-2 lead in the previous five Hiester Bowls, winning the last three. Triton’s last win in the series came in 2022, a 48-0 thumping.
According to the Dunn Daily Record, moving the game to Campbell had been discussed in the past, but it became a reality this year as a cooperative venture supported by Harnett Schools superintendent (and Campbell alumnus) Brooks Matthews, President Downs and Camels football coach Braxton Harris. Campbell’s decision to host the game this year — and possibly in future years — aligns with Downs’ recently launched Strategic Plan and its objective to have a bigger impact on the surrounding community.
A big part of that objective was the new Harnett County Tuition-Free Guarantee that went into effect this fall — the program covers 100 percent of undergraduate tuition for first-year, full-time students who reside in Harnett County. Thanks to the program, Campbell saw a 282-percent increase in new students from Harnett County (from 46 to 176) this fall. That number played a big part in Campbell’s overall 30-percent increase in incoming main campus undergraduates, its largest incoming class in the last eight years.
Harnett County is home to six public high schools — Harnett Central, Harnett County Early College, Overhills, STAR Academy, Triton and Western Harnett high schools — and several smaller private high schools. The county’s population has grown by more than 20 percent since 2010, and in 2022 the county was home to nearly 30,000 school-aged children and teens.
“Harnett is home. With this initiative, we signal to the neighbors in our own backyard that Campbell can and should be their home, their destination of first choice when deciding on where to get a world-class college education,” Downs said. “We know that access and affordability are key concerns for college-seekers, and Campbell will be rolling out a variety of new incentives for multiple constituencies, all while maintaining the exceptionally high value associated with the quality of a Campbell education.”