Except across the football field on Thanksgiving Day.

Pidcock sees Barchuk, the Kingsway coach for the last 31 seasons.

Barchuk sees Pidcock, the Clearview coach for the last 36 seasons.

They are old rivals, old friends, and about as old school as anybody in the sport. They have been getting together on this morning for years - old reliables in a holiday tradition that links generations and echoes of a simpler time.

As when both men started coaching in the 1970s.

"In 1971 when I started [teaching at Clearview], I used to come to Clearview from Pennsylvania," Pidcock said. "There was no bridge then, so I used to take the Chester ferry and then ride across Route 322.

"I would pass Kingsway High School and gobs and gobs of farmland. That's all there was.

"Now, there's Kingsway High School and housing development after housing development."

One of the most interesting things about Clearview and Kingsway is how much both school districts have changed, even as their football coaches have remained the same.

Both were small, regional schools surrounded by acres of open land when Pidcock became Clearview's coach in 1974 and when Barchuk became Kingsway's coach in 1979.

Both have exploded in population in the last 10 to 15 years, thanks to the housing boom in Gloucester County.

"We used to be a small Group 1 school," Barchuk said. "But all the farmers sold their land, and now we're a large Group 3.

"It's the same thing with Clearview. Now they are a huge school."

Clearview is Group 4 in most sports, although the Pioneers are Group 3 in football. But that could change in the next few years.

Kingsway is Group 3, but could develop into a Group 4 school in the next few years as well. And it's been the growth of those two schools - as well as Williamstown, another Gloucester County district that has expanded into a Group 4 athletic program - that provided much of the impetus for the breakup of the Tri-County Conference in football and the creation of the West Jersey Football League, a 65-team superconference that will debut in September.

In the WJFL, Clearview will be in a division with Cherry Hill East, Pennsauken, Shawnee and Winslow Township. That alignment would have been inconceivable 20 years ago, or even 10 years ago.

Kingsway will be in a division with old Tri-County Royal rivals Delsea and Cumberland, along with Black Horse Pike Regional district schools Timber Creek, Triton, and Highland.

"They say change is good," Barchuk said. "I'm not so sure in this case. I'm an old Tri-County guy."

They both are old Tri-County guys. Pidcock is tied with Florence's Joe Frappolli as the longest-tenured football coach in South Jersey. Barchuk is No. 3.