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September 4, 2012

Rivalry feels like home

Sports Editor Wes Reynolds

After witnessing the locally famous “Battle of 82” Thursday night between the Locust Grove Pirates and the Salina Wildcats, I can honestly/refreshingly say...I feel like I’m at home.

Home for me is in Birmingham, Ala., where I was raised before heading off to school at Auburn University in a city I’ll always think of as the “promised land.” I grew up in a state where a college football rivalry is so heated, professional athletics could never prosper for one reason: Alabama Crimson Tide fans and Auburn Tigers supporters wouldn’t sit together under a roof or in bleachers to support any major professional franchise.

I know, it sounds sad. And maybe it is, in more ways than one.

I can’t help but imagine trying to explain such a dynamic to, say...an alien who just arrived on our planet. And I presume its response may sound something close to the following: “So, you people, who live in the same state and general area, divide yourselves into two groups and confess daily, to and at one another, harsher levels of hatred (in frequent incidence)? And the divide is created from two teams, which both represent the same state, and compete against each other once in a year?”

Sounds disheartening doesn’t it?

So shouldn’t I have to reach deep in order to find the positive aspects of such a rivalry? Not at all.

Though often misguided, this division is born of something pure–a passion for the community we represent. We love our team. And yes, in one of the only ways the word “hate” is allowed a less saddening existence, we hate our rival. But even then, within the hatred,  “love” sneaks in the back door. Because we love to hate our rival. We need them as much as they need us.

And this is what I witnessed from those in attendance at this year’s “Battle of 82.” As I looked out at the crowd and into the rows of vehicles around and behind the end zone, something I’m not sure I’ve ever seen at the high school level, I felt reassured about the county I’m new to covering. I felt priveleged.

After the game, I observed fans from both sides conducting themselves admirably toward one another. Cars decorated with slants aimed at the opposing team allowed rival cars, with other obvious affiliations, to go ahead in the slow moving traffic. Supporters of both teams, some disappointed, some excited, treated their rivals respectfully.

And this is what’s reassuring and often goes unnoticed. The word “fan” is short for “fanatic,” a not so endearing term. Each side, whether aware of it or not, conducted themselves as anything but fanatical at the “Battle of 82.”

So show me  county, community or town where an intensely heated sports rivalry exists...and I will always declare that place somewhere I’d love to be.

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