Every school has that one school they want to be better than. Unless you’re the “top dog,” there’s most likely room for improvement. For Lee’s Summit West, rivalry looks a bit different.
Being the best isn’t all that matters anymore; the concept of rivalries expands beyond the playing field. Students always know when we play our sister schools — Lee’s Summit High and Lee’s Summit North — the stands will be much louder and the tension will be much higher.
Lee’s Summit High School senior Logan Masters said when the big rivals play each other, he knows to expect since when “… two schools hate each other, like every time they play, it’s just trash talk all the time.”
“Lee’s Summit sucks at everything, so our biggest rival I would say is the West,” Masters said.
While the players are focusing on winning the big game, students cheering have different ideas. While some genuinely are invested in the game and the score, you can expect students to also have some fun with loud chants and cheers.
“There’s a lot of chanting back and forth, and it makes me feel happy, and whatever team wins you see it posted all over social media afterward,” senior Ariana Holloway said.
Even if West doesn’t win the game, senior Grace McDowell said, “It’s all fun in games, though. Like we don’t actually care that much, but it’s funny.”
“Yeah, I was crowd-surfing because we were losing by so much, but I got kicked out,” Masters said.
Masters’ final thoughts on his crowd surfing experience were… “It was worth it.”
“Well, playing against North, I knew I kind of knew we were gonna lose. So, I wasn’t really disappointed. It was just fun to go and watch and see what they could do,” Holloway said.
The rivalry does bring a huge divide between the students, and some are brave enough to cross over into “enemy” territory.
“Whenever other schools would come to our side, like North girls would come and sneak into our stands, they would boo them out and embarrass them,” Holloway said. Opposing sides in all, “you’re still gonna, like, be chill with them after,” Masters said.
