Mustangs and Wildcats join forces during Rivals Week

For over half a century, Northville and Novi high schools have considered each other rivals, but this year that rivalry has intensified to a whole new level. Inspired by the Rivals Week held between Wayne Memorial and John Glenn high schools, Northville decided to put its rivalry with Novi to the test by holding its own Rivals Week.

Over the course of the first week of February, students at both schools engaged in a variety of competitive activities, each contributing points to their school’s total. At the end of the week, the school leading in points was crowned the winner during the basketball games.

Historically, the Mustangs and Wildcats have played against each other for the coveted Baseline Jug during the football season in a classic cross-town rivalry, but Rivals Week extended and escalated the competition between the schools. And people took notice.

“This year I realized the intensity and that kind of threw me off because when I was in high school, almost 15 years ago, it was pretty tame,” Northville English teacher Stacy Katikos said.

The week staged numerous activities for students to participate in, including lunchroom games, dress-up days, a pep rally and a blanket drive.

“People started getting into a competitive mood as the week went on. Once we saw we were losing, more and more people started trying to help win by wearing spirit,” sophomore Ritvik Ellendula said.

Beyond facing our rivals, Rivals Week provided an opportunity for goodwill through various events. In the blanket drive, seminar classes were turned into fun venues for making blankets for a charity called Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA).

“This year with Rivals Week, they’ve taken that idea of competition and turned it into a situation where you are actually doing good for outside groups,” English teacher Kary Couchman said.

Though competing against Novi, the week also fortified unity in the NHS community. “Our ultimate goal [was] to create unity and a sense of togetherness at our school. There is no better way to do that than with some friendly competition against our rivals,” senior Will Eby said.

NHS’s rivalry with Novi, while usually focused around athletics, instead centered on getting everyone in the school involved and joining the NHS team. Beyond the unification within NHS, the collaboration between the rivals blossomed as well. In fact, it was through the combined efforts of the student governments of both schools that Rivals Week became a reality.

“We had some initial Zoom meetings and communicated mostly through our advisors at the beginning. As everything started to come together, we made a trip over to Novi to discuss in-person and formed a group chat with their executive board,” Eby said.

The centerpiece of the competitions was the faceoff in the unified, boys varsity and girls varsity basketball games.

Everyone was looking forward to the games throughout the week, and the Novi High School gym was packed with spectators from both schools. Many players found the large crowds energizing.

“The Rivals Week game felt different than any other games because of the environment and hype surrounding it,” said Justin Huang, a member of the boys basketball team. “The atmosphere was electric. Every single second was breathtaking and indescribable -- the best basketball environment that I have been a part of.”

While these games garnered much attention, for some players the most effective technique was to forget about the rivalry and focus on just the game. “We just wanted to win the game and treat [Novi] like any other opponent,” said Susy Heller, a forward on the girls team.

In the end, Northville won all of the basketball games -and Rivals Week on the whole by accumulating 1,886 points compared to Novi’s 1,546.

The common misconception of this competition is that it deters unification, as two sides vie to be victorious over one another. However, through Rivals Week, collaboration between Novi and Northville was fostered in order to create an exciting contest that in the end united us all, both in our own Northville community and between our schools.

Rivals Week actually strengthened our communities, and hopefully becomes a tradition that lasts for many years to come.

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