Sit down with a football player and you’ll soon discover that no color at Southfield High is quite as despised as the revolting red of the Southfield-Lathrup (S-L) Chargers, the school’s decades-old cross-town arch rival. Surprisingly, that “school on 12 mile”, as many jokingly refer to it, just so happens to be the source of some of Southfield High’s newest athletes.
Both schools still maintain their own impressive football and basketball teams in their own right, however, despite fierce rivalries, the two schools have joined forces on several teams, most recently the Varsity Wrestling team.
You read that right. For some sports, students from the Southfield High and Southfield-Lathrup now play on the same team, and more blended teams look likely for the future.
Southfield-Lathrup and Southfield High School have been juggling a whole host of junior varsity and varsity sports between them. Pomarettes, swimming, and soccer are now only offered at Southfield-Lathrup, while wrestling and Cross Country are only featured at Southfield High School. Imagine that.
All of these blended teams are open to students from Southfield-Lathrup High School, Southfield High School, and University High School Academy, which has no sports of its own.
The allocation of certain sports amongst Southfield High and Southfield-Lathrup has, not surprisingly, caused some students to transfer from their home schools. For example, a few former S-L Chargers enrolled at Southfield High this year and suited up in blue and white to wrestle as Blue Jays.
Students now have the option of declaring either Lathrup or Southfield High as their ‘sports school,’ allowing them to join sports teams at the school which they do not attend.
What to make of all this? As enrollment declines and schools choose to consolidate sports teams to save money and increase chances of a winning season, student athletes are growing as diverse members of a unified team. They have chosen their love of playing a sport over obligations to please a certain team or remain true to the colors of their big brothers or sisters and parents. They have chosen to work together to achieve what students from any of the schools would find much harder to accomplish alone.
These skillful athletes should be praised for learning to trust their new teammates and new colors.
Embracing the diversity of these teams is a wonderful thing and further proves that success in high school sports in the city of Southfield is not merely always a matter of blue and gray, or red and white.
Apparently a S-L Charger can – if necessary – bleed blue and a SHS Blue Jay can – if necessary – bleed red.
Old rivalries may never fade away, and in fact, many welcome them as a part of our high school traditions. In Southfield, however, student athletes are beautifully proving that they are much more than that.