The Yankees and the Red Sox, Duke and North Carolina, The Bears and the Packers.

I love a good rivalry.

I love to watch tempers flare as the players, and even the fans get into it.

What I love even more is being a part of a rivalry. Circling that one game in red on the calendar, whether it is because you want redemption or another shot at pounding that team into the ground, it is my favorite part about sports.

At Lane we are proud to be called the “School of Champions.” We take pride in our excellent academics and athletics.

I don’t know if that makes other schools mad, or if some school that calls themselves the “Dolphins” just think they came up with our motto first, but as an athlete, when I step out on the field against the likes of Taft, or Whitney, there seems to be a little more tension and a little more passion for victory from both sides.

When I am face to face with them on the field, I want to beat them a little more than I want to beat some suburban school, and I want to beat them by a lot.

The real question is why do us athletes want to beat Taft and Whitney so badly? Why is it such a big deal?

I don’t ask this because I don’t like having rival schools or having beef with them, I love playing in those heated games. I ask because even though I might know and be friends with some students wearing those orange or blue jersey’s, I still hate that team for the next couple hours.

The truth of the matter is that as a community we need those rivalries. As Art Markman said in an article about sports rivalries, the three things that creates rivalries are similarity, frequency and parity.

We are rivals with Taft and Whitney because we are close, we are schools in the city and we play each other frequently. When it comes to all sports, we are pretty evenly matched with the two schools. That is what creates this dislike.

“As a school, I think we dislike them because we are all city schools and are trying to prove something,” Elizabeth Cyrwus, Div. 760, said. “We all want to be known as the best of the best within the city.”

Cyrwus also added that there is often trash talk that goes on among social media outlets prior to games against Whitney and Taft, and that also adds to the rivalry.

“Recently, there was no respect between us and Whitney,” Cyrwus said. “They talked poorly about us a day before the game on social media, so we used that as our motive to win the game.”

I think being from city schools compared to suburban schools, students know more other students from these rival schools and it gives us the ability to talk trash through social media, and even directly.

To me, that is a good thing. What is the point of being in a rivalry where there is no off-field talk? When you hear schools talk badly about yours, be it in a conversation or using Twitter, it gives you a little more drive to win that and prove yourself.

Cyrwus mentioned that her lacrosse games against Taft and Whitney always are a little more physical.This seems to be a common trait of Lane’s games against Taft and Whitney, as earlier this year in a boys soccer game, there was a slight altercation with Taft during one of the team’s earlier games.

In the city championship game, Lane defeated Taft in penalty kicks, and I was only in the crowd, but I can only imagine how much sweeter that win was knowing that those guys across from you have to swallow that pain of a hard fought game and wait a whole year before attempting to get redemption.

So if that isn’t enough, if people still wonder why we dislike Whitney Young or even Taft, I don’t think it is because we truly dislike them — I believe we all just want to be the best in the city and that creates tension when we are on the field with one another.

I love the rivalries we have at Lane and I think it is a part of what makes us a great school, because in those games we don’t want to win for ourselves, or just our team, we want to win for our students and school.

Whether we love Lane during the school hours or not, when you put on that jersey there is pride that goes along with being an athlete. Beating a rival school, or watching your team beat a rival school, makes that pride paramount.