[HDE]

No one ever talked about "resting" high school players until the NFL started it a few years ago when teams like the Colts and Patriots clinched really early.
No game is meaningless for high school kids, especially against a big rival.

Following that logic, every game was meaningless before 1959 because there were no playoffs. Very few teams even qualified for the playoffs until the 1980s, and I don't recall anyone calling those non-district games meaningless.