The sector hockey season for a lot of groups builds as much as the tip of the season the place most colleges have scheduled their greatest rivals. Apart from 2024, the place we’re seeing extra native derbies being contested within the first few days of the season than we’ve ever seen earlier than.
Certain, the character of the “rivalry sport” has modified over time, with faculty districts rising or falling in measurement or attain, with some districts splitting like cells in mitosis. It’s arduous to know which is or which isn’t a major rival typically. Heck, the individuals who make the schedule even saved the Again Mountain Derby between Kingston Wyoming Seminary (Pa.) and Mountain High Crestwood (Pa.) off the regular-season schedule for a couple of years within the mid-2010s due to convention realignment.
And final week, one of many video games that used to outline the Suburban One title — and sometimes the No. 1 seed within the District 1 Match — came about simply after Labor Day. That’s when Levittown Pennsbury (Pa.) took on Langhorne Neshaminy (Pa.) within the newest of one of many nice rivalries in suburban Philadelphia.
In the present day, there’s one other collection of regional derby matches. One sees Ann Arbor Skyline (Mich.) tackle Ann Arbor Pioneer (Mich.). Pioneer is among the biggest championship groups within the recorded historical past of scholastic area hockey, having taken residence 26 titles over time. However Skyline, a college which opened within the mid-2000s to alleviate overcrowding at Pioneer and Huron, has performed some positive hockey in current seasons and is a real rival to their metropolis colleges.
In one other sport to look at at this time, Oakton (Va.) takes on Vienna James Madison (Va.) in a gathering of two colleges actually a mile and a half from one another. Was once this sport came about in October, when convention seedings have been doubtful. However this yr, the Cougars and Warhawks will meet twice earlier than the tip of September.
Yeah, I do know. Discipline hockey isn’t like soccer the place you’ll discover the largest rivalry video games — Military-Navy, Ohio State-Michigan, Harvard-Yale, Auburn-Alabama, Cal-Stanford and the like — in late November or early December. However in the event you’re a schedulemaker, don’t you need your seasons to culminate in a superb rivalry match for the game of it?
Heck, I learn the place probably the most established of the Thanksgiving Day soccer video games in southern New Jersey — Florence (N.J.) Memorial and Riverside (N.J.) was performed in Week 2 of their seasons as an alternative of it being their large rivalry sport, which it had been since 1942.
I assume rivalry video games in high-school and school sports activities, due to convention adjustments and different prioriries, at the moment are as disposable as napkins and low cost home equipment.
Unhappy, isn’t it?
