Anyone who has played a sport in high school knows that feeling of playing your rival. You can't sleep the night before, you can't eat much the day of the game due to that anxious excited feeling inside you, and the locker room before the game is so loud because everyone is getting pumped up. Everyone is focused, thinking about strategies, and wanting to annihilate the opposing team. These are the games you will never forget and these are the teams you will always talk about.

I have always loved playing my high school rival. Whether it was in basketball or soccer, it was always very exciting. I can still remember when my soccer team beat our rival my junior year in a very intense, physical game. The wins were amazing and always made me feel great afterwards. The losses, however, sucked (to say the least) and always killed you inside. I can still remember crying in the shower and not talking to anyone after a tough loss to my rival in basketball my senior year. You get so worked up and so focused on beating this team, that it just makes your season worth playing. You practice hard, you work together with your teammates, and aim to not only have a great season, but to beat that rival.

It is amazing how you can grow as a person through these tough games. You learn to work hard and motivate others to accomplish your goal of winning, yet, when you are defeated, you learn to accept it, grow, and work that much harder. You can take these traits learned from these experiences and use them in life when you are faced with something difficult that you really want to succeed. Whether it's a job you are applying for, studying for an important test, or a big intramural game, you use these traits and work hard in order to accomplish your goal.

Having a high school rival has taught me all this and more. Not only that, but having a rival has made high school sports beyond exciting. Those Friday night games under the lights against your rival get you so pumped and are always so much fun.

So here is a thank you to my high school rival. To all of my teammates reading this, you know who i'm talking about (cough cough...10). You made my high school sport experience such a blast, exhilarating, and unforgettable. You've taught me how to work hard and occasionally, accept defeat and grow from it. This, however, will only make me successful in the future. For the coaches of those teams, thank you for giving me a challenge. You knew my strengths, my weaknesses, and always knew how to make me work hard. I learned how to cope with these challenges and I will definitely use this skill in the future.

Those games against you were the highlight of my high school sports career and the games against you will always be remembered. Thanks for the challenge, thanks for the intense games, but most importantly, thanks for the memories that I will always remember.