Benefits of high school rivalries

While student athletes are expected to play as hard as they can throughout the season, many agree that rivalry games bring out the best in athletes.

Although rivalries in high school sports are starting to fade, many local schools are benefiting from the ones that still exist.

With more emotion invested in the games, head coach of the E.J. Lajeunesse senior boys football team, Eddie Young, is noticing a new motivation to compete harder for bragging rights.

“I definitely believe teams play harder for rivalry games,” said Young. “Teams realize the importance of defending school traditions. School pride is an amazing motivator. Everyone is focused on doing what is necessary to win.”

Since rivalries at the high school level are becoming more rare athletes and coaches are saying the rivalries are cherished in order to keep traditions alive.

“The rivalry with L’Essor is a natural cross-town rivalry,” said Young. “Lajeunesse shares the French Catholic background with L’Essor and is also located in Windsor. Our newly created football tradition, the Franco Bowl, has become an annual tradition we hope to maintain for years to come.”

Cross-town rivalries also exist at the University level. The University of Duke and University of North Carolina have one of the most lucrative basketball rivalries in the history of sports.

On March 3. 20112, the regular season finale drew 4.25 million viewers. It was the most watched college game out of the 1,450 that were broadcast on ESPN’s platforms and the most watched college basketball game on ESPN since another Duke-UNC game in 2008.

Many high school rivalries have a history of being rough and violent. Britt West, a former basketball player in West Virginia, said rivalries taught him how to have a mutual respect even for people you don’t like.

“I hated my rivals from the school across town and they hated me,” said West. “But we gained a respect for each other. I tackled someone in a basketball game but we had dinner together after the game.”

Sam Girard, a senior Quarterback at General Amherst said he also hates his cross-town rival school. According to Girard, the hype starts once the schedules are released. Then, it’s the most exciting week of practice during the season.

“Since my brothers played all I’ve known is to hate Villanova,” said Girard. Amidst the rivalry and hatred, Girard has not had the opportunity to play in a rival game against Villanova in two years due to the teams not appearing on each other’s schedules. “I’d love to play them this year and see how it goes.”

With more and more large schools having their rivalries slowly fade away some smaller schools like Lajeunesse are now trying to start rivalries of their own. West agrees with the newly born rivalries and thinks every school should keep the tradition of rivalries alive.

“Not all schools get to make it to the championships,” said West. “However, this gives many teams that ‘big game’ to feel pride to play in and even win.”