between Kings Mountain and High Point, and continuing west along US 74 to Rutherfordton. The WNCHSAA schools featured some of the best high school sports in the state, with many longtime traditional sports powerhouses among their midst. Many of these schools continue to feature strong sports programs to this day, having won a large number of state titles since rejoining the NCHSAA. Since 1977, Concord High has been a 3A (AAA) member of the North Carolina High School Athletic Association and still competes in the South Piedmont Conference (SPC). The South Piedmont Conference dates back to the 1930 season and the WNCHSAA, and Concord High is the only charter member of the SPC that remains in that league, having never played in another athletic conference. The school sponsors interscholastic football, volleyball, tennis (boys and girls), cross country (boys and girls), basketball (boys and girls), wrestling, swimming (boys and girls), baseball, softball, golf, track and field (boys and girls), and soccer (boys and girls). Concord's football team is notable throughout North Carolina due to two recent state titles (2004 and 2006), and to its role as one half of the state's longest-running high school football rivalry with A. L. Brown High School in neighboring Kannapolis. What is now known as the "Battle for the Bell" was long thought to have begun in 1931, and has been played each year since that time. However, in 2013 new historical research uncovered a previous game from 1924, which is now the first meeting of the two high schools in football. Since 1950, the victor of the game has been awarded a mounted Southern Railway train bell that is painted in the colors of both high schools. The annual football game has long been a tradition in the area and is among the state's most highly attended single high school sports events, regularly drawing crowds of 10,000-plus. In recent years, A.L. Brown won the 2010 and 2011 games, with Concord winning back-to-back games in 2012 and 2013. The 89-game series record as of the 2018 game stands at Concord 43–42–4. The 2006–07 school year was a very special year for Concord athletics, as the Spiders won both football and men's basketball championships In 2006–07, the Concord's men's basketball team rolled through the season and made its second straight return to the state 3A championship game, making this back-to-back years for the Spiders. The Spiders won