Local football rivalries teach life lessons

Someone once said to me, a Baltimore native, "If you ask someone where they're from, they'll tell you where they graduated from high school. In Baltimore, it seems to matter more what high school you went to than anything else."
I took some time and thought about that statement, and discovered it to be quite true. On one Saturday in November, football is truly the talk of this town. If you're a public school alum, you're probably headed to the game between rivals Baltimore City College and Baltimore Polytechnic Institute. That game known today as the City-Poly game marks a cross-town rivalry that is 118 years strong. If you're a prep school alum, you want to see who comes out on top between McDonogh School and Gilman School. The rivarly has now gone on for 91 years. While there is certainly a lot of talk before the game, come game day, what happens on the field is all that matters.
The City College kids don orange and black, the Poly kids orange and blue. The McDonogh kids don orange and black also, and the Gilman kids blue and grey. In two separate parts of town -- generally uptown for the prep schools, and downtown for the public schools -- two games go on as if they were the last ones which the teams will ever play. At the end of the game day, two teams will walk away with their spirits lifted, and two with an added burden on their shoulders. This year, both teams who donned the orange and black were victorious. City reigned over Poly, and McDonogh held their ground against Gilman. As a McDonogh alum and friend to many City College alums, I can say I wore a smile. There is undoubtedly something special about that good old orange and black.
City, a public magnet school, is also known as the "Castle on the Hill." McDonogh, a prep school in suburban Baltimore, also sits up on a hill. Both places speak to tradition, legacy, and prestige. On this day, they speak to the importance of communal pride. Pride is not just worn by those who are victorious; pride is also worn by those who can only hope for victory. Rivalries like these are part of the all-American tradition in which competition, boosted by character and integrity, are so important. If there is anything we can learn from the old Baltimore tradition, it is that competition is a part of life. We don't hate the other team because they're the competition. We love the fact that they compel us to do better. We don't become arrogant when we win, we humble ourselves because the win was hard-fought. If we focus only on today's win, how can we prepare for tomorrow's victory?
I guess it's true that the prideful must be mindful. The best player is the one who starts every game with an even record or a clean slate.

The above was a letter to the editor, I recently had published in my school paper.