Fred Bowen's "The Score" column,
April 19, 2002, Washington Post

The Game That Has No Rival

Some teams have one game that they really want to win. The game against their archrivals. The game they have circled on their schedule.

Next Thursday, there is going to be one of those games in Montgomery County. The Landon School will play Georgetown Prep in boys lacrosse. Thousands of fans will crowd Prep's field to watch the quick-sticking, ball-buzzing, bone-crunching action.

The teams are ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in the area. The schools are just a few miles apart. And Landon has a long winning streak against Prep.

Oh yeah, the kids from Prep have this game circled on their schedule.

Rivalries are one of the great things about playing or watching sports. The Redskins vs. the Cowboys. Maryland against Duke in men's college basketball. Park View against Broad Run in girls high school softball.

Even elementary school kids can have rivalries. When my son, Liam, and his buddies were at Woodlin Elementary, they always played a little harder and better against the kids from nearby Oakland Terrace.

"Playing in a big game should be a great experience regardless of the outcome," says Tal Alter, coordinator of the Washington office of the Positive Coaching Alliance. "The only way you can be your best is to play the best."

But the Positive Coaching Alliance knows that rivalries can go too far; that kids can take "win-at-all-costs" attitudes and that games can disintegrate into mean-spirited, trash-talking competitions. The group is trying to encourage an attitude it calls "Honor the Game." The program reminds athletes -- from elementary school to college -- to forget all the trash talking, the yelling at refs, making fun of the other team. "Honor the Game" means focusing on the positive. Like cheering when the other team and the umpires are announced, and remembering that a tough opponent makes you a better player.

If you win, enjoy it. Don't gloat or play "in your face" with the other team. If you lose, focus on the good plays your team made. Don't start yelling at a teammate who made a mistake. That's not going to get you or your team anywhere.

Think this is all a dream? That good sportsmanship can't happen in today's super-competitive sports world? Let me tell you about a really big rivalry, bigger than Landon and Georgetown Prep: the Army-Navy football game.

These two teams have been playing each other for more than 100 years. Every game is hard-fought. Any win makes even the worst season a success.

Sportswriter John Feinstein wrote a book about the rivalry because of something he saw after one of the games. He watched in amazement as the two teams walked together to each school's cheering section. All the players put their hands over their hearts, as each school's band played its school song.

The Navy band played "Navy Blue and Gold." The Army band played "Alma Mater."

It's something they do year after year -- to honor the game.

Fred Bowen writes KidsPost's Friday sports column and is the author of sports novels for kids.

© 2002 The Washington Post Company