An Old Rivalry Revived: Glenbard East vs. Glenbard South
In the fall of 1974, Glenbard East’s varsity football team struggled through their season as they suffered a total of 8 losses. The opening game against then arch rivals Glenbard South was the only game the Rams won that season.
Similar to the ‘74 football season, Glenbard East faced Glenbard South again, but this time for a tight and electrifying match on October 18th when the Rams won 22-19. This time, however, the varsity football team is having a more successful season than their ‘74 predecessors with an 8-1 record headed into the playoffs.
Leading up to the game, tensions between the Glenbard East and South ran high as the rivalry began to revive itself.
When asked if he believed a rivalry exists between the two Glenbards, free safety Ladaylyn Dew was confident that his fellow East football players felt “there isn’t even a competition” saying the game was “gonna be a blow-out” and only if the Raiders won on the 18th, would there be a rivalry.
Defensive lineman and senior at Glenbard South, Tobias Ireland, stated that the mentality going into matches with the Rams has “always been ‘beat East.’” When asked if he thought there was a competitive relationship between the schools, Ireland said, “There’s definitely a rivalry. It’s been here long before I got here, and it’ll be there long after I’m gone.”
Ireland predicted that spectators would witness a good game and warned that Glenbard South should not be underestimated. Evidently, this prediction of the match proved to be accurate.
The game started on a high note for the Raiders as they almost immediately scored a touchdown at the start of the first quarter.
Student athletic trainer Alinea Williams said “I don’t think they were expecting a touchdown right out the gate.”
When asked if South’s unexpected play caught the Rams off-guard, Williams replied, “Yes, definitely…it really did.”
The Raiders maintained their 13-0 lead until the 3rd quarter when the Rams scored their first touchdown on a 3-yard run by Christopher Whitehead. In the next quarter, a touchdown from East’s quarterback Connor Cerkas tightened the score up to 19-14 with the Raiders still in the lead as the minutes ticked down to seconds.
In the 4th quarter with less than 15 seconds left, Ram senior Armoni Gilford scored a crucial touchdown on a 2-yard run. The Rams took the 22-19 lead at the end of the match leaving the Raiders stunned and disillusioned while the East student section let out a victorious roar. From this stunning victory, the Rams gained another win over the Raiders—a win the Raiders will certainly remember next football season.
The Glenbard East and South football teams were not the only ones to notice an underlying animosity, however. Multiple student athletes were interviewed and consistently agreed that there is a rivalry between the Rams and Raiders. Sophomore Caden Krystofiak cited the source of the rivalry to be the fact that players from East and South often know each other and have previously played football together.
During the football match, senior Rose Carani also spoke about how Glenbard South is the only other Glenbard in the conference East plays, which contributes to the competitiveness during games involving East and South.
Junior Patrick Crowley stated that on social media certain students from South can be found “calling out East frequently on their stories, trying to clown East for being trash,” thus contributing to heightened animosity.
As a wrestler for Glenbard East, Crowley said that the East-South rivalry was also present in the wrestling program, not just football. East wrestlers avoid losing matches to South because “you have a reputation to maintain,” Crowley explained. Rose Carani also stated that in girls tennis, this rivalry (although less intense) is present as well. “They’re really good and we’re very similar teams, so we like to compete,” Carani said, referring to South’s girls tennis team.
While it is clear that there is undoubtedly some competition and animosity between Glenbard East and South that has emerged in recent years following a switch in conferences, the term “arch rivals” used to describe the Raiders in 1974 has not been applied to Glenbard South in 2019. As the Fall sports draw to a close, it will be interesting to see how Glenbard East vs. Glenbard South games in the upcoming winter and spring sports will develop the rivalry.
Jen is a senior at Glenbard East High School and excited to be a part of the new Echo (online!). Jen is the Editor in Chief of the newspaper. Her passions...
