By: Sadie Allen, Chandler Cates & Isaiah Heinz
Photos By: The Helm & Tate Gasch
Todd Spell will never forget the game that sparked the Riverside football team’s one and only run to the state championship game.
One of Riverside’s first and longest football coaches, Spell was on the sideline in 2006 when the Pirates lost to Northern.
“It was a game that we should have won,” he said. “But it ended up we lost.”
The already bitter rivalry reached new heights when information surfaced after the game that Northern had played ineligible players.
“[The players] didn’t have the attendance, or grades weren’t checked or something like that.” Spell said. “They had to forfeit that game, and we went on to the state championship.
“The only team [that] had been in a state championship in Durham had been Northern,” Spell said. “They went in 1991 and ‘92.”
Riverside lost in the state title game in 2006. Much has changed since, but the rivalry remains strong.
When the Rivalry Began
Riverside High school was built in 1991 just down the road from the old Northern High school. Because of the increasing enrollment at Northern, Riverside pulled from Northern’s established population.
“When Riverside was built, it pulled a large portion of people who were historically from the Northern historical district,” Riverside athletic director Robert Duncan said.
Northern was well-established before this transition, opening in 1955 as one of the first public high schools in Durham County.
Shortly after, a rivalry formed between the two schools. Students from both schools anticipated rivalry games in all sports.
“It’s always been a rivalry,” Duncan said. “I started here in 2007. Even just walking in, that was always told to be the rival game. In any sport, whether it’s basketball, football, they are the school that we have the most history with. And it’s honestly because of proximity.”
Riverside social studies teacher Anna Allman graduated from Riverside in 2014. Allman can recall the intense games against Northern.
“You’re either fully with River side or you’re fully with Northern,” said Allman. “I can remember go
going to some of the volleyball games where it was us versus Northern, and it was still very much ‘beat Northern we’re better!’ We’re gonna hype up our own team.”
Coaches contribute to the feud, too
While this heated rivalry is largely due to the proximity between the two schools, coaches play an important role in establishing intensity, too.
“The first head football coach at Riverside was Monty Davis,” said Spell. “Monty had coached at Southern Durham for a long time. When he retired, he came back to start this program here at Riverside. There was always that rivalry because he always played against Northern, when Northern was Southern’s rival. So [the rivalry] sort of built up from there.”
This instance is not unique to Riverside. When coaches move from one school to another in the same town, it adds even more history.
“Hillside’s rival is now Southern, but really that originally was always Jordan,” said Spell. “And now that you got a coach that used to be at Hillside, now a coach at Jordan, it adds more fuel to the fire.”
Antonio King was previously the head coach of Hillside’s football team. King guided the Hornets to an undefeated season and state championship in 2010. In all, he led them to a 72-20 record and winning six straight conference titles.
Before becoming the head coach of Jordan’s football team, he briefly held coaching positions at East Carolina University, Cedar Ridge High School, Hargrave Military Academy and North Carolina Central University.
His move to Jordan sparked conversation among both high school football players and coaches.
But athletes contribute to the rivalry, too. And as transferring becomes increasingly prevalent in high school athletics, rivalries only grow in intensity.
Transfers and their impact
Riverside’s varsity men’s basketball player, Mekhi Sneed, recently transferred to Riverside from Jordan.
“I just felt like it was best for me, basketball wise,” said Sneed. “I could play the position I wanted to play.”
While athletic transfers seemingly have little impact on the historical aspects of these rivalries, they bring awareness to the competition between schools.
“[Athletic transfers] actually play a big role in my eyes, because as a transfer, you have more eyes on you,” said Sneed. ”If you’re playing at your old school it’s definitely gonna be different.”
While athletic transfers add an interesting element of competitiveness to rivalries, they aren’t always well received.
“[Transfers] play a big role,” said Spell. “The problem that we have in Durham now is that, realistically, nobody’s enforcing the rules. Anybody, realistically, can try to come to the school for very loose reasons. And nothing is enforced by it. That’s the problem.”
In February 2008, a Northern basketball player was found ineligible to play due to ‘attendance issues’. At the time, Northern had won the PAC-6 conference game and was headed to the playoffs, all while boasting a 15-11 season record. Northern was forced to forfeit all of their games.
It was later revealed that the player’s ineligibility was due to controversy surrounding their place of residence. The player was suspected to have had a different residence than the one documented by the school.
“I think nowadays young kids get caught up in too much of a ‘hype’ thing,” said Spell. “I had a kid here years ago. He was a heck of a player and a great kid. And, you know, he had people yapping in his ear, ‘you come over here’ ‘come over here’ ‘come over here.”
The rivalry between Riverside and Northern will always be strong. With time, students can expect to see a growth in intensity between the two schools.
