Teams face off against perrenial rivals in one day

Soccer, volleyball ….and football played against historic rivals Loyola and ETHS

Emily Wong, Sports Editor

Friday, Sept. 23, three New Trier sports teams took on some of the school’s biggest rivals. Football played the Evanston Wildkits while boys’ soccer and girls’ volleyball were up against the Loyola Ramblers. Football won their game 38-17, soccer won 1-0, and volleyball lost 0-2.
Senior Ben Higgins credited some of the football team’s victory to a few key players.
“Francis Fay set the tone with a long TD run on one of the first plays,” he said. He also attributed the win to the attitude with which the team approached the game.
“Knowing that Evanston is our biggest rival definitely helped us prepare well and play our best as a team to make this successful,” he said.
Senior soccer captain Matt Gallo also noticed the energy that came with the two teams’ familiarity.
“A lot of guys on our team play club with players on Loyola,” he said, “so there are bragging rights at stake.”
He also credited other factors. “We also had the 2006 State Championship team in attendance for their 10 year reunion, so we wanted to give them a win.”
However, not every team felt the same effects of the high-pressure atmosphere.
“Whenever we play Loyola, don’t worry about who’s on the other side of the net. We just focus on ourselves,” said senior volleyball player Emma Tomlinson.
“We were playing on their home court. They had a lot of fans there, so I think that was a little bit of an aspect, but I don’t think it had an effect on the way that we actually played. It’s just something you’re aware of.”
Some teams even have traditions exclusively for rival games, including the soccer team’s infamous fire hydrant. Boys’ soccer coach Matt Ravenscraft explained the tradition, which dates back to 1961.
“If you win, you reclaim the hydrant and you paint it your school colors, and the boys sign it, and you keep it until you lose to the other team.”
The soccer team gets into a competitive mindset even before they get to their games. “There’s just a focused energy among the guys,” Ravenscraft said. “When I see them in the hallway before the game, they’re excited.”
Part of this preparation often means dressing up at school the day of, building both team spirit and publicity.
“With a game like Evanston, the team wore sport jackets, and we did as good a job as we could promoting the game through social media and our Twitter account,” said Ravenscraft.
Football has a different way of preparing for their more intense games, as Higgins explained.
“For rivalry weeks we usually have a guest speaker talk to us after our Thursday practice,” he said. “This time, it was former coach Rob Naughton, who the field is named after.”
Girls’ volleyball differs in this way, trying to keep their focus off the team they’re facing.
“We prepare for each of our opponents in the same way,” said head coach Hannah Hsieh. “The focus is not any rivalry, but how we execute our game play.”
However, the team still knows what to expect when playing different schools. “Since we had beaten [Loyola] already in the season, the girls went in confident and ready,” Hsieh said.
In addition to Loyola, Tomlinson also named GBS and Niles West as some of their main competition.
Higgins also named some CSL teams as football’s biggest competition. “Our team’s main rivals are definitely Maine South and Evanston and maybe GBS, but Evanston is definitely our biggest and longest rival.”
The team is currently looking forward to another rival game this Friday against Maine South.
For many teams, there’s often at least as much pressure in games against schools outside of the conference league.
“There is also heightened intensity against schools like Lane, Fremd, Wheeling and other schools we typically see in the playoffs,” said Gallo.
Although most athletes agree that heated games like these can be stressful, many see the competition as mainly positive.
“Playing a rival like Evanston definitely amped up the environment,” said Higgins.
Ravenscraft agreed. “Rivalries bring out the best in each team,” he said. “We played some of our best soccer that night, just because it was a big game. The boys rose to the occasion.”