Annual duel for 'rivals'

By Brian Witter

This week, the third-annual Rivalry Series between Santa Clara and San Jose State kicked off with a definitive Bronco victory. I guess this whole "rivalry" aspect makes the match-ups seem a bit more interesting. But who am I kidding? The Broncos have utterly destroyed the Spartans in each of the last two seasons, and does anybody really think that the same thing won't happen this year?

The way the series works is this: for each head-to-head athletic competition between the schools, the winner is awarded a pre-determined number of points. The university with the most points at the end of the school year wins a nifty trophy and South Bay bragging rights.

Three points are awarded to the more popular team sports like soccer and basketball, while two are given to the individual sports. Two years ago, we handsomely defeated our rivals by a score of 20-10 and again gained the upper hand last year with a crushing score of 24-8. At last year's trophy presentation, Spartan Athletic Director Tom Bowen was quoted as saying, "we will be taking this Rivalry Series very seriously and I will make sure our coaches pencil a circle around the Santa Clara game in every sport."

Now, I have nothing against San Jose State University which is a fine institution of higher learning, but there's no way they can compete with Santa Clara's talent recruitment and scholarships, especially in sports we dominate like soccer and volleyball. We don't have the behemoth of an athletic program that exists at Pac-10 schools, but we've shown that we can give Stanford a run for their money. Now that's a Bay Area rivalry I'd like to see more widely publicized.

Before the Cardinal got all high and mighty, they were the perennial Bronco rival so many years ago. The Santa Clara-San Jose State confrontations are supposed to "bring more attention to college sports in the South Bay" and "create a sense of pride between alumni in the Bay Area."

Too bad the South Bay only gets mentioned on SportsCenter if our basketball team does something they're not supposed to or the Sharks make the playoffs. That is, if there are any playoffs. Our domination of the Spartans is creating a sense of pride for our alums, that's for sure. But what about the State graduates who long for their own feelings of satisfaction? Maybe I'll be proven wrong and this year there is some sort of Spartan sleeper in the works, but for now, the trophy fits quite nicely in our case.

Contact Brian Witter at (408) 551-1918 or bwitter@scu.edu