It’s your first day of high school. The bell rings, releasing you from band rehearsal. On the way to your next period you see him… a jock.

Contemplating running in the other direction, you keep walking and pray for a minor beating. As he gets closer to you, you brace yourself for a shove into the lockers or at the very least, a judgmental glare. To your surprise, he instead gives you a friendly smile and walks past you without a word.

Confused, you try to remember everything movies have taught you about high school and the relationship between music kids and athletes. For once you begin to wonder if there is a rivalry at all.

“Coming from someone who is a part of the both departments, any rivalry between music students and athletes is completely fictional,” freshman Luke Nansel said. “People just assume that there are tensions between the music and athletic departments because that’s what they see on television and movies. Every cliché movie with a high school setting features the mean jocks who oppose the wimpy band nerds. That may have been the case a long time ago, but it isn’t now.”

Senior Dylon McKinney also feels no tension between the two departments.

“If there is any tension or rivalry, I haven’t witnessed it,” McKinney said. “I personally have no negative feelings towards anyone in the music department. In fact, I’m friends with more music kids than athletes like myself.”

Junior Preston Weigel agrees.

“I don’t dislike music kids,” Weigel said. “I don’t know any other athletes that do either. As far as I know, there is no rivalry between the music and athletic departments.”

Not everyone believes that music students and athletes feel positively about each other.

“I think there is rivalry, but not with all the athletic teams,” junior Audrey Jones said. “Most of it is between the music department and the football team. I believe a lot of it comes from the music department’s resentment towards athletes for all the money that is put towards their department.  The arts don’t really get anything which isn’t very fair.”

Senior Spencer McCue also believes the music department isn’t fairly provided for.

“I think there is tension that, in the public sphere, is played off as a friendly rivalry,” McCue said. “The reason is because the athletic department clearly gets more funding than the music department.”

Sophomore Tristan Callis believes the rivalry between departments is just healthy competition.

“It just motivates students to do well in their department in order to receive recognition over the other departments,” Callis said.

Others believe that the tension proves to have a negative effect on students.

“I think that the rivalry is very detrimental to both departments because it almost establishes an older sibling relationship where one department gets all the cool things and the other receives the hand-me-downs,” McCue said.

Junior Haili Leiker thinks any rivalry between the departments is unnecessary and can be easily resolved.

“When the music students and the athletes graduate, they’re going to look back on their high school feud and feel like idiots,” Leiker said. “They will realize how pointless and immature it is eventually. All they have to do is support each other. By neglecting one department out of spite, they’re only being hypocrites by fueling the same tension that they’re complaining about.”

14rmoravek@usd489.com