Ok, let’s be real. Jackson-Reed severely lacks school spirit. Whether people are complaining about the rat they saw running across their classroom or the leak in the atrium roof, students never really seem to stick up for our school. However, all of this goes out the window during the first soccer game of the season or a championship basketball game . No matter what school we are up against, JR students can be counted on to always provide the hype and school pride at a game. However, this does beg the question, which matches are we most excited for? What games have the most anticipation? In this article, we’re gonna delve into all the archrival possibilities JR, until we know who the true enemy is.
Before we talk about who the enemy is, let’s talk about who it isn’t. JR has over 25 different sports teams and across all those teams we play a lot of different schools, however, some schools come up more than others. The first school I want to rule out is Eastern. While it might seem intuitive, considering they are the closest non-charter public schools to us, we just don’t encounter them enough for them to be a main opposition, like who is going all the way over to Capitol Hill to watch a high school soccer game. Now there are tons of private schools we find ourselves up against frequently, in fact, there are too many to go through all of them, but let’s focus on some of the main ones. Gonzaga and St. Johns are already rivals with each other, St. Albans is just small and irrelevant, and GDS’s mascot is a grasshopper, which shows just how non-threatening they are.
Now that we’ve ruled out the biggest contenders, it’s time to reveal the final decision. JR’s biggest rival is Sidwell. Now this is an incredibly controversial take, but before there is an uprising, let’s look into the evidence that brought us to this conclusion. First of all, there is proximity. We are incredibly close to Sidwell, a five minute bus ride or a 15-20 minute walk, which makes games super accessible to both students and if there is a large audience of both schools, then there will be more competition and school pride in the air. Also we have a pretty extensive sports history with Sidwell from the quarterfinals in baseball last year, to the devastating loss in the basketball finals two years ago. Sidwell has proven itself a worthy opponent (probably because their weight room has actually been upgraded in the past 20 years) and inspired a lot of competition in the JR student body. Plus who doesn’t have an opp at Sidwell? So Sidwell watch out because JR is gonna make sure 2025 is NOT your year.