Friday Night Lights - My Rant about High School Rivalry

It's Rivalry week in NE Ohio. The Perry Pirates take on the Madison Blue Streaks and the Riverside Beavers take on the Harvey Red Raiders. But these rivalries aren't anything like what they were 20+ years ago when my cousins & I would spend a week, once a year every Fall razzing each other about who's school was better. Now, it's no secret that I love football. A trait I inherited from my dad, who spent some time as a Center for the Red Raiders in the 1960's. I even took sports psychology, psychology of coaching, sociology of sports and minored in Athletic Coaching at Kent State. Now, I don't think I would have been a football coach (though now that the Arizona Cardinals employ the first female coach in NFL history, it does sound appealing) but I have always loved the game. From starting kickoff to the final snap, I live for the battle on the field.

 So, imagine how much these rivalries meant (and still mean) to me. In my opinion, the 1994 Red Raiders were the best team out of Harvey in the last 30 years. But then again, I am a little biased since that was my senior year and I graduated with the guys on that team. We've lost at least one of the players from that '94 team. (RIP Tommy Odorcic) But it makes me get choked up when I realize that my daughter, niece and cousins will never get to experience the same level of rivalry that my cousins, sister & I once experienced. In 1994, (maybe even a few years earlier, but I remember '94 so vividly) OHSAA moved the time of the game from 7pm to 630pm to provide more daylight because they worried about fights. Painesville Burger King and Master Pizza Painesville were a sea of black, red & yellow. Students (who shall remain nameless) from each school went to the other's school and TP'd the trees or wrote things like "Raiders Rule" or "Beat the Beavers" in shaving cream on the lawn. The entire week was "Spirit Week" and we raised money for the United Way by paying to participate in various activities through out the week leading up to the big game.  Then, Friday, during the last 2 class periods of the day, we had Pep Rallies.  The bands would play the fight songs and the football players would be announced 1 by 1 just like they would before the game later that day.  And, (now I am only speaking for what happened at the Old Harvey High School Gymnasium) Coach Beeler would give an inspirational speech and get the whole school ready for the game. 

 

I site here wondering, what happened?  When did things become so watered down?  Where are the friendly rivalries?  They seem to be gone.  Just like a full Mr. P's Pizza restaurant on any given Friday night around 9:30 pm.  (Yeah, I almost forgot about sitting at Mr. P's Pizza with my parents, aunt & cousin after those awesome Friday nights - we would meet up after our respective games had ended.  If Perry or Harvey lost, it would be relatively quiet, but if Perry or Harvey won - it was lively and fun).  How can I get my daughter & my niece more excited about these rivalries?  Karey told me that the school really wasn't doing much to get hyped up for the game this week - only a Pep Rally on Friday, in the middle of the day before lunch.  I wondered why?  Are all of the schools just treating this as another "Friday Nigh Football" game?  American Football was started here in Ohio!!!!  We need to get more excited about these games - don't we?

 

 

Those were the glory days of the school rivalries.  It seemed like everywhere you went, you would see cars decked out with school colors - red & black, yellow & black, blue & white, red & white.  Written in shoe polish (they didn't make car window paint back then - or at least if they did, high school kids were too poor to buy it) on the rear windows were various things like "PHS Class of '95", "Madison Senior", "GO HARVEY, BEAT RIVERSIDE" -- sometimes you would even see "Harvey sucks" written in black shoe polish of cars pulling into Riverside's student parking lot. Being a Harvey graduate, I have a special place in my heart for the Red & Black - but now, I have a high school aged daughter of mine own.  Even though we wanted to get her into Perry so that she could go to the same school as my niece, it didn't work out that way.  So, now she is a proud Madison Blue Streak.  My niece is a Perry Pirate. My cousin's son goes to Riverside, but I live in Red Raider Territory.  So what do I do???  Today, as I sit here writing this, I am proudly displaying my Blue Streak Pride - because my daughter - well, she comes first.  Today I must set aside my allegiance to my Alma Mater and support the school that is teaching my daughter how to be a smart, productive, young woman. 

 

Before I sign off for today - I want to share an article that was shared with me today by a co-worker who is an old high school friend.  The News Herald published a story about the Harvey-Riverside Rivalry (which truthfully prompted this blog post) and shared over 300 never before seen photos from that rivalry over the years.  The rivalry just isn't what it used to be and the fun times of the early to mid-1990's are long since past.  But maybe, just maybe, my generation can teach our children's generation how much fun and excitement there is when you have something to look forward to. 

 

Good Luck to all of the schools tonight as Riverside travels to Harvey and Perry travels to Madison.  Me?  I will be wearing the Blue & White of the Madison Blue Streaks but secretly, I will be cheering for the Red Raiders to break the 20 years streak of losses against Riverside. 

 

News Herald Photos of Harvey - Riverside Football over the years:

http://media.news-herald.com/2016/09/06/photos-battle-of-painesville-photos-from-harvey-riverside-football/#1

News-Herald Article - http://www.news-herald.com/sports/20160906/chris-lillstrung-streak-taints-battle-of-painesville-for-riverside-Harvey