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Crown Point High School @InklingsCPHS January 30, 2018 Vol. 82 Issue 5
Read about the boys’ wrestling team’s success at sectionals on page 12 “One Year Later”: What has happened since Inauguration Day
page 9
Recognizing Regional Rivalries
PHOTOS BY ASHLEY REKITZKE, PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY AUDREY GACSY
Community members evaluate significance of local athletic, academic rivalries co-editor-in-chief assistant editor
76.4%
Every morning, the front doors are flooded with letterman’s jackets decked out in red leather and white patches. During the football season, a statue of the school mascot is dressed up as the opposing team’s mascot. Pep rallies blare the familiar tune of the school song. Teams and clubs order shirts with their team name printed across the front. In the world of education, nearly anything can become a competition: academics, club involvement, teams, sports and more. While the intensity of the competition may vary, it is inevitable that through that competition, every school will meet its match with a rival. Crown Point High School Principal Chip Pettit, an alumni of Crown Point’s football team, has experienced the fuel of a school rivalry from both the aspect of a student and administrator. When it comes to intensity, Pettit sees the competitors take the rivalries more lightly than the spectators.
of CPHS students feel a sense of rivalry with other nearby schools.
“Most rivalries are fun and healthy for fans and competitors,” Pettit said. “At times, I have seen rivalries ‘cross the line,’ but for the most part, the rivalries I’ve observed through the years have been positive.” According to Pettit, the basis of a rivalry is one’s location and proximity to competitors. “One of the ingredients for a great rivalry is proximity. The schools that border us are natural rivals, like Lowell, Lake Central and Merrillville,” Pettit said. Other school administrations agree that geography contributes to the formation of a rivalry. “For us, Crown Point and Munster are our big rivals,” Lake Central High School Principal Sean Begley said. “But really, anyone who competes as a Duneland school becomes a rival. We get to see those teams often.” Both Pettit and Begley agree that rivalries develop only with the pressure of close competition. “Rivalries don’t develop when one side is winning all the time. They only develop when each side experiences some level of success,” Pettit said.
27.1%
BY AUDREY GACSY ASHLEY REKITZKE
of CPHS students feel that they take school rivalries seriously.
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The saying goes that steel sharpens steel, and I see it like that. Whenever we have won, I realize that Crown Point has had a hand in that. It’s the stiff competition that has made each of our schools better. Every Lake Central needs a Crown Point, and vice versa. Sean Begley Lake Central High School Principal
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Rivalries don’t develop when one side is winning all the time. They only develop when there’s some back and forth.” Chip Pettit Crown Point High School Principal
Science teacher Joseph Correa, who has taught at both Crown Point and Lake Central High School, finds that students use rivalries as a subject to unite on. “Some rivalries seem to spawn from academic comparisons, sometimes from sports events and sometimes even from community comparisons of general or assumed wealth,” Correa said. “Rivalries provide an opportunity for a school to have a reason to be more inclusive to the entire student body, against a common foe from another school.” In recent years, social media has become a component of the social management of students, allowing school rivalries to spread to more students. “When I went to school there was no cell phones, there wasn’t social media, you read something in the newspaper and that was it. Times have changed, and when times change they have to change how they educate things,” Merrillville High School Principal Mike Krutz said. “Rivalries are postive things as long as they are managed, especially with social media Which of these 78.6%
and kids going out on Snapchat, or whatever the social media they use and sometimes that goes too far.” Begley agrees that with the presence of comments made on social media, administration intervention is essential. “For administration, a large amount of what we do is manage the actions of our students, so if something becomes inappropriate with a rivalry, it’s our jobs to make sure that students are being appropriate,” Begley said. Similarly, Pettit expresses that the increased communication between fan bases makes it necessary for administrators to further consider how to manage out of hand fans. “Sometimes we do send messaging to fans if we feel that guidance or expectations need to be reinforced. I think this is just being proactive so people don’t cross the line and make the rivalry personal or disrespectful,” Pettit said. “Luckily, that hasn’t happened too often.” Andrean High School, located in Merrillville, faces competisee Rivalries on page 3 Competitiveness
listed options 8.1% Knowing students who attend other schools do you feel most 5% Other makes a school 4.5% Proximity Statistics based off of 420 CPHS rival? 3.8% Similar demographics student responses.