High School Rivalries

Vote on some of the best high school rivalries around.

The high school rivalry is a mysterious thing. Unlike college, where students choose where to attend and thus have some say in which schools will be their mortal enemies for the next four years (or five, or six…), high school students’ rivalries are often chosen for them, based on what community their families settle down in. That’s not to say that allegiances don’t run deep, though. Some of these high school rivalries are intense. (See Aurora versus Mt. Vernon, for example.)

There are a few trends in rivalries between local high school sports programs. First of all, sometimes teachers’ and grown-ups’ ideas of rivalries aren’t in tune with what the students think. A call to one school revealed that no one could think of a “rival,” including a secretary, vice-principal, athletic office secretary, athletic director and even music teacher. Another trend in high school rivalries is that nothing is set in stone. Some rivalries have been around for longer than others, but many times the feuds have more to do with which school has the best team in any given year than they do with ancient bad blood. Everyone wants to beat the best, so the best find themselves involved in the most rivalries.

The list below includes a few of the most heated high school rivalries in 417-land. These aren’t your flash-in-the-pan competitions. They’re the dates on the calendar that teenage athletes and fans circle months in advance. They’re the rivalries that draw the biggest crowds every year, no matter how good or bad the athletes might be. These are some of the very best high school rivalries in 417-land.

The Glendale Falcons versus The Kickapoo Chiefs

Springfield’s two southernmost high schools have one of the biggest rivalries in town. Kickapoo secretary Teresa Talent says the rivalry stems from 1972. Kickapoo was supposed to open in the fall of ’72, but the building wasn’t ready on time. For a few months, Kickapoo held classes at Glendale, and the rivalry has been going ever since.

Although the dominance in different sports changes from year to year, anytime there’s a match-up between the blue and red Falcons and the brown and gold chiefs, there’s sure to be a lot of fans in the stands. The basketball rivalry between these teams has been so intense and drawn such huge crowds that the games outgrew the school gyms several years ago and had to be moved to Hammons Student Center in 2002. A battle between the two in January attracted more than 6,400 fans, which is nearly 1,000 more people than attended the Missouri State Lady Bears Senior Night this year. Today the games are played at Drury University’s Weiser Gym.

The Aurora Houn’ Dawgs versus The mt. Vernon Mountaineers

About the rivalry: The competition between these two schools got a fair share of attention in January 2006, when a series of escalating pranks ended with 22 Aurora students being charged for crimes at a basketball game. Paintballs and rocks were thrown by Aurora students at the Mt. Vernon team bus after the game, and an open soda bottle filled with urine was thrown into the Mt. Vernon fan section during the contest. Most of the time the rivalries are far more tame, says Mt. Vernon Principal Russ Cruzan. “We want to beat Aurora as bad as we want to beat anybody, and I’m always concerned that it’s going to spill over from the court,” Cruzan says. “But after the games there’s always groups of kids from both schools talking and laughing. It’s intense on the court, but otherwise it’s a pretty friendly rivalry.” This rivalry isn’t just about sports, though. Cruzan says the two schools have developed a friendly Knowledge Bowl rivalry as well. (Knowledge Bowl is a competitive trivia game in which students buzz in for the chance to answer questions for points. Sort of like Jeopardy with teams.)

The Springfield Catholic Fightin’ Irish versus The Greenwood Blue Jays

About the rivalry: These two schools have long been waging a war for Springfield private-school supremacy. (Okay, Greenwood isn’t technically a private school. It’s a laboratory school that, like Springfield Catholic, requires tuition for attendance.) Springfield Catholic Athletic Director Sam Wutke says that for a long time, Catholic and Greenwood were the only two private high schools around, and the competition sprung up naturally from that. Greenwood was founded in 1908, Springfield Catholic in 1916, meaning that not only is it one of the most intense crosstown rivalries, it’s also one of the oldest in southwest Missouri. The rivalry hit a bit of a snag when Greenwood’s football program was shut down in 1995, but the schools still meet in basketball and soccer each year. Both schools still have a full spirit week before Friday games, too.

The Nixa Eagles versus The Ozark Tigers

About the rivalry: Half a dozen teams all mentioned Ozark as a rival when questioned, but ask people at Ozark High School who they consider rivals, and Nixa’s the answer you’ll hear. Branson was Ozark’s big rival in decades past, but as Nixa and Ozark both grew like wildfire to the south of Springfield in the past decade, the towns grew closer together, thus fueling the camaraderie between the schools. Now the Nixa/Ozark rivalry is one of the largest in 417-land. Sandra Downes is the principal’s secretary at Ozark and says that in the 14 years she’s been at the school, Nixa has been the biggest rivalry by far. Alumni take the rivalry seriously, too. (One of our staffers has an uncle who played on Ozark’s first football team. He lives in Pennsylvania now, but still tries to fly back for the big Nixa football game every year.) Time will tell how much longer this rivalry will last. Both school districts have plans to add a second high school by the year 2015, so it might not be long before Ozark and Nixa consider their own towns their biggest rivals instead of each other.

Is there a major rivalry in 417-land that we missed? E-mail us and let us know.