By Soven Berry ’15, Staff Writer

If someone was to ask you, name the greatest rivalry in sports, what would you say? Yankees-Red Sox or Duke-North Carolina? Lakers-Celtics or Packers-Bears? Maybe Ohio State-Michigan and even, Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier would come to mind. Within the realm of New Jersey high school sports, the Newark Academy (NA) and Montclair Kimberley Academy (MKA) rivalry is on the same level as those aforementioned.

Besides being named the best rivalry in NJ boy’s soccer from NJ.com, the NA-MKA rivalry means a great deal to the players invested in it. “I don’t like them very much. I don’t like their colors, their mascot, pretty much everything about them,” says Junior basketball and football star Nick Lawler.

While many might think a rivalry has to be represented by violence and inappropriate conduct, the NA-MKA rivalry is more of a friendly rivalry grown out of mutual respect for each other, much like that of siblings. Mr. Parlin says of the competition, “It is mysterious to me how it happened. Nobody said that NA is going to be rivals with MKA. It just so happened that NA felt the most emotion with MKA and vice versa.” He posed an interesting question that led me to find the roots of this intense clash. My quest finally ended when Mr. Kacur was able to describe why the feelings for this competition are always at full boil. It turns out that many of the children that attended both NA and MKA happen to live in the same towns – North Caldwell, Essex Fells, Livingston, and Millburn to name a few. In these towns many NA and MKA athletes played with and against one another for the many years before -and during- their early adolescence. With a hiatus through middle school, high school sports offers another opportunity for these kids to renew their rivalries with those whom they have been playing against their whole lives.

But there are many different theories for this heated struggle. Sophomore Tyler Park, who is an important member of the football and baseball teams, recalls, “When I got to NA I didn’t understand the animosity between the two schools on the sports field. However, once I played against them I understood. Their attitude is just completely different from ours on the field.” It is this difference in attitude and style that leads to the fierce tug-of-war between the two schools. “For example, one of their players intentionally ran into our catcher last year. They also talk a lot of trash and I just don’t like them, and I assume they don’t like us either,” Park continues.  Rivalry, as Park says and many other NA students echo, naturally sets two groups apart. At NA, however, athlete also use it an a means by which to build a sense of community among their own squads.

“It’s the rivalry that brings this school together which is always cool. Whenever we play them, school spirit is always at its best,” says Lawler. While somewhat an informal fire nestled in the hearts of athletes, our animosity for MKA used to be a formal show of NA athletic prowess. Notably, there used to be an event called MKA Day, and one day in the fall sports seasons, we would play our rival in every sport. But it wasn’t just us; NA athletes would venture deep into enemy territory to play MKA on their respective Homecoming Day. This was extremely popular from 2005-2008 but has fallen by the wayside in recent years as new conferences and rules have made that more difficult to schedule. Still, it comes as no surprise to that the NA Football Team played MKA on Homecoming.

The rivalry has at points become ugly. Mr. Parlin recalls (a long, long time ago he adds) a particularly notable evening basketball game at MKA. He reminisces that this was the first time he saw the NA-MKA duel. It was a close game; Mr. Parlin doesn’t remember who won. What he does remember is perhaps more telling. As soon as the last shot dropped and the players went into the locker room, the NA and MKA spectators started yelling insults at each other. Most of them are not fit to print. These insults continued for quite some time, and could have certainly led to serious fighting. That evening was the first time Mr. Parlin remembers NA fans exhibiting any kind of emotion towards the fans of MKA. Then and there he realized that this NA-MKA battle was here to stay.

Fast forward a few decades, and fans still play an important part in the bout. “I remember last year when we won in the state quarter finals — it was such a great feeling and the fans were really into it, ” recounts Junior soccer phenom, Nick Williams. “They charged the field when we won; it was awesome. The fans really make the [NA-MKA] rivalry what it is –without them it would just be another game.”

The whole atmosphere of an NA-MKA duel is a genuinely enjoyable time, laced with excitement and anticipation whether you are in the stands or on the field. These battles and confrontations with our rivals are the kind of games that athletes and fans circle on their calendars in the preseason. The ones that the coaches use to motivate their players to work harder. These games elicit sleepless nights among excited athletes. On game days, fans and players alike have difficulty playing attention in class, as they cannot wait to don their Red and Black with pride later that afternoon. It’s more than just a sports rivalry. It’s a school coming together for a common purpose: victory.