Sport rivalry games are perhaps some of the most exciting experiences for high school students.  The games provide opportunities for both fans and players to unite together with the goal of defeating the opposing team. At Lake Brantley, the biggest rival is indisputably the  Lake Mary Rams. While it is easy to get caught up in the aspects of conquering the Rams, it is important to remember that the games are meant to bring the schools and community together, not to cause disputes among the students.

On Wednesday Jan.17, Lake Brantley athletes hosted a Rivalry Respect Summit involving student athletes from both Lake Brantley and Lake Mary. The purpose of the summit was to improve the rivalry between the schools, in hopes of preventing future altercations. At the summit, the student athletes began by participating in a series of activities including “Would You Rather” and group polls. The activities focused on brainstorming ways to maintain a healthy rivalry. Ideas ranged from communicating to fans that the games are meant to be taken as enjoyable experiences to having post game announcements that remind all fans to respect each other as the teams do.

“ I think the games made us more comfortable around the people we didn’t know,” senior volleyball player Halle Cuff said. “We saw that they were just like us.”

During the summit, Brantley Athletic Director Jerri Kelly and Lake Mary Athletic Director Doug Peters educated the student athletes on the history of the rivalry, including aspects that many students are unaware of, such as the Mayor’s Cup and the Seminole Athletic Conference (SAC) All Sports trophy. The Mayor’s Cup is an award given out by the mayor of Altamonte Springs each year to the winner of the annual football game. The SAC trophy is awarded to any sports team with the most accumulated points at the end of the year. Brantley has won the SAC award a total of 13 times compared  to Lake Mary’s 15. To conclude the summit, the athletes were split up into groups with their corresponding sports to make commercials for the school news, promoting the rivalry and  safety of all students involved.

“[The best part of the summit was] when the athletes were talking about how they could impact a more positive feeling between the schools,” Kelly said. “By then they had gotten to meet each other and had already interacted a little bit. You could tell that they were building relationships and at that point I felt that we were getting somewhere.”