Rivals

Every team has a rival.

The Yankees have the Red Sox; Duke has Carolina; the Lakers have the Celtics.

It’s true on every level. The Choppers had numerous rival teams – the Stealth and Stingers to name a couple.

The notion of rivals is perhaps most profound in the world of high school. Everybody has one. And for OUR high school, on Friday night, we play THE game.

It’s Farragut vs. Bearden.

As a parent of a current student and an alumna (and being an alum myself), I have followed this rivalry for years and I bring both perspectives to the discussion. And, I can tell you that back in the day, Farragut students didn’t really see it as a big rivalry at all.

When I was in school, the two schools – separated by only 6.6 miles – weren’t in the same district. In fact, the football series hadn’t been going on very long at all when my class entered ninth grade. Bearden had their city school rivals and the biggest rival for FHS was actually Oak Ridge back then.

In fact, looking at the series record, since 1971, Farragut leads 30-10. That includes a couple real thrashings over the years. It does, however, include the 14-10 loss the Ads sustained during my senior year.

Meanwhile, in the modern era, the results have been somewhat one-sided. Bearden has not beaten Farragut during the regular season since 2001 (only defeating the Admirals in the playoffs in 2007).

And, off the field, there weren’t a lot of hostilities, either. To be honest, we spent a lot of time with Bearden students. We worked at the same part-time jobs, we worshipped together at the same churches. In Farragut, we didn’t have a Turkey Creek, so our Friday night hangouts were generally in Bearden – where kids dressed in navy ate pizza side-by-side with maroon-clad kids.

Something happened over the years to turn the series into a rivalry – both on and off the field. Even though the district lines have shifted, the feelings have remained strong. Farragut students and Bearden students still work and play together outside of school, but on the field and on the court, the game really means a lot now.

Admiral Dave will be looking forward to returning to the FHS sidelines on Friday night to help root the boys in blue on to victory.

 

JG  

(Source: hsfdatabase.com)

Originally posted 10/3/2012