There is sweat dripping from the foreheads of adrenaline-filled athletes waiting to stomp on their victims, screams wailing from the mouths of the jam-packed fan section and hope springing from the minds of tense parents in the crowd. All of these components add up to the perfect storm: the storm of rivalry.

There is almost a dense feeling in the air when rivals compete against each other. Reputations are on the line, all each team is thinking about is beating the other in whatever sport or activity is taking place. Many of the most thrilling and entertaining sporting events are played against rivals because there is an expectation that both schools will fight, both mentally and physically, to come out on top. Against any team, athletes are trained to perform to the best of their ability. Oftentimes, certain opponents bring out the best, and the worst, in players and teams.    

At Antioch, when the word “rivalry” is heard, most students automatically think of Lakes. This thought is relevant now, as the Lakes Eagles have obviously been Antioch’s biggest rival since 2004, when the school was built to contain the overflow of Antioch students. But this poses the question: who was Antioch’s rival before the creation of Lakes?

Grant.

Dating back to the 1950s, the Grant Bulldogs were the team to beat. English Department chair and Antioch alumna DeeAnn Andershock graduated at ACHS in 1981, at this time the rivalry was at its peak. The late 70s and early 80s were the wild west of rivalries with Grant; that’s when it flared up the most.

One of the craziest things that took place regarding this rivalry was the burning of each other’s football field. Students from Grant burned a “G” in the middle of Antioch’s field, and then students from Antioch burned an “A” in Grant’s field. No one really got caught because they did it in the middle of the night, but imagine how much hate that stirred up in the minds of students and faculty. After this, whenever the Sequoits competed against the Bulldogs, especially in football, the deans, security guards and even the police would constantly circle the field to make sure no students snuck in and vandalized their opponent’s field the night before.

Another element that has drastically changed since then is the fan section. Back in the day students were never told to be civil and hold back on saying any cheers. They had free range to do and say whatever they wanted. Now everyone tries to keep things civil, which is probably for the best.

“They didn’t care if you were civil or not,” Andershock said. “Fans didn’t get thrown out, I don’t remember ever being scolded for any cheer we did.”

When Andershock went to school at ACHS she remembers the rivalry against Grant as being vicious, but others remember something a little more lighthearted.

Another ACHS alumna is ILC Secretary Kathleen Stewart; when she went to ACHS she doesn’t remember many situations that got out of hand. Both of her parents went to Grant and she went to Antioch, so whenever Antioch would play Grant, Stewart would make her parents sit on Antioch’s side, and people would jokingly throw popcorn on them because they would cheer for Grant. In this case, it was all fun and games, nothing serious ever came of it– unlike the burning of the letters in the field.

Stewart’s daughter’s boyfriend started high school at Antioch, but was the first graduating class at Lakes, so he had to transition to a different high school and leave some of his friends which soon became his competitors. He claims that he is an Eagle, but Stewart reminds him to remember where he came from.

“Once you’re a Sequoit, you’re always a Sequoit,” Stewart said.

In Stewart’s family, there is the Antioch vs Lakes rivalry engrained in all aspects of life, and they purposely instigate each other all the time to poke fun at the competitive nature of a classic rivalry.

As time has gone on, the rivalry with Grant has died down significantly due to the creation of Lakes. Some of the attention that was focused on Grant has been averted to Lakes since Lakes was created from Antioch. Because of this, students felt like they had to prove something in a new school; plus, Lakes is so close to Antioch that it is difficult not to vie for the win.

Lakes is Antioch’s sister school so there’s that feeling pulling on the students’ conscious, that they have to help support them. Antioch students never had that with Grant, people could just hate each other and want to beat each other at anything no matter what sport or activity.

The establishment of Lakes isn’t the only reason that the Grant rivalry has dissipated. The once fierce competitiveness has calmed down; it’s not that nobody cares, it’s more that people have more things to do now than back in the day. It used to be that the whole school didn’t have anything better to do than to go to the football games on Friday nights. People have more interests now, there are more sports to get involved with and there are more activities to be associated with both in the school and out of the school. There are more distractions with technology– especially with every high school student having a phone and being able to instantly get the score of games through social media rather than physically being there.

Department Chair of P.E., Health and Driver’s Ed. and Director of Activities Teri Klobnak went to Grant High School from 1996 to 2000. In 1997, Grayslake left the conference that Grant was in, leaving the Bulldogs without a conference of their own. This significantly decreased school spirit because Grant’s sports teams didn’t have the same competitive fervor as they once had during conference games.

“In basketball, we would always open our season against Antioch,” Klobnak said. “That was one game we always looked forward to.”

Even though these were non-conference games, both teams had the desire to beat the other because of the past history.

Rivalries between schools are inevitable. These competitions between schools should increase spirit and help the school and community be involved. As long as the schools don’t become disrespectful or rude, a rivalry should bring out the pride that students and staff have for their school.