eh, just randomly chipping my $0.02 about rival schools… I come from another BIG local rivalry, Pisgah v. Tuscola. Tuscola’s from one side of Haywood, and Pisgah the other. Honestly they’re about a 20 minute drive from each other. For many many years our schools have been rivals in *edited* near every aspect of athletic competition, from football to baseball to whatever else. The two schools aren’t in the same conference, yet they play every year. Trust me, it’s f***ing huge. I would venture to say that we prolly put a capacity crowd by WCU’s stadium into a stadium with nowhere near the same capacity. We have bonfires the night before the big game. We had a f***ing Charlie Daniels concert at the football game last year. A Highway Patrol helicopter brought in the game ball. I’m telling ya, it’s huge. but 20 minutes after it’s over, guys from either side of the stadium are hanging out at the Huddle House or Sonic or getting smashed together or whatever else. In essence, the rivalry is the knot that keeps a very tremendous friendship between the two schools any time other than game day.
I dunno if that compares 1:1 to the WCU v. App rivalry, but that’s what I have in mind that we should try to be and support between the two clubs. On game day, or LAN day, bitter enemies. but as soon as it’s all said and done, the kind of crowd that kicks back and has a few figurative cold beers with each other. Or those like Kuros that are old enough really could.