Potosi High School, just like every high school, has at least one school rival that they always want to beat, or they are looking forward to playing against. When you play your rivals, you always have different energy and more pressure to play that game. Some high schools might not know why they have a certain team as their rival; other schools might have had that rival for a long time.
Potosi High School has always been known for its sports, which meant that they also had rivalries. Before Potosi High School combined with Cassville High School for football in 2017, they always used to have a rivalry with Cassville. Lilly Post said, “Cassville was our biggest rival for all sports, but that went away because of our co-op in most of our sports.” I remember back in middle school, I would always look forward to playing Cassville in any sport because they were our biggest rival. Jessica Noonan said, “I wanted to beat Cassville by a lot because there were some good players, so that made me want to beat them more.”
Individual teams could have different rivals for each sport, or the rivalries could differ from boys to girls teams. For volleyball, we have a lot of different rivals, but our biggest rival would be Cassville because Potosi and Cassville’s girls are combined in every sport besides volleyball. Jessica Noonan said, “I think that our biggest rival for volleyball would either be Highland or Cassville because volleyball is our only girls sport that isn’t combined with Cassville, and it’s fun to play with people you are close with. For Highland, they have some talented athletes and it's always good to say that you beat a good team.” I agree with Jessica because whenever you beat one of the best teams in your conference, it makes you feel like you can beat anyone. Noonan added, “Our rivals for girls basketball would be River Ridge or Belmont because both teams are talented and some of the girls on the teams are cocky, and our softball rival would definitely be Belmont because our freshman year they won state.”
There can be a good feeling when you play your rivals; you can get really excited or nervous when you play your rivals. Lilly Post said, “It is more laid back when we play Cassville for volleyball because you know they won’t be rude to you because they are our friends.” I agree with Lilly because whenever we play Cassville for volleyball, it is always fun because we all know each other and we both have our best games versus each other.
Beating your rivals in any sport is the best feeling in the world. I will never forget the feeling when our girls beat River Ridge in basketball this year; we had the best energy in the locker room before the game and we were so happy after the game. Emily Bierman said, “I was so excited after beating Ridge this year for basketball; they are always a really tough team to beat.”
Boys sports also seem to have rivals, and they could have more rivals than the girls because of how much trash talk happens on the court or field, and that makes them have more competition for each sport. Boys teams for Potosi could have the same rivals as girls for each sport, or can just dislike the same team as the girls. Jake Stoney said, “Our rival for basketball would be Shullsburg because it was a tough game for us, for football it would be Blackhawk-Warren because I just don’t like them, and we really don’t have any rivals for baseball.”
Each player might also have their own opinion on who their rivals are and what they think about each team. Brad Perry said, “For football, our rival would either be River Ridge or Blakhawk-Warren, for basketball either Cassville or River Ridge, and we don’t have any for baseball.” The boys seem to have totally different rivals than the girls team; that could be because of the people, or just because of the sport. It is weird how girls and boys have different rivals and different teams they don’t like.
Having a rival can make the game or the sport more fun to play, and makes you want it that much more. Without rivals, it would just seem like every game is the same as the last and there is no game that the community looks forward to watching. Everyone has that one team they want to beat. Maybe they are good, or maybe you just don’t like them. We should be thankful that we have the opportunity to have rivals because of how much fun they make our games.