Hanford Insider: The Competition and Camaraderie of High School Rivalries

This is a bonus episode of the Hanford Insider featuring coverage of the high school rivalry games happening this week. We'll hear from Hanford West, sierra Pacific, lee Moore High and Hanford High about the big games coming up.

Welcome to this special edition of the Hanford Insider. I'm your host, Rob Bentley. With this week's high school rivalry games coming up, I've put together special episode featuring student body officers and advisors from Hanford West High School, Hanford High School, Sierra Pacific High School and Le Moore High School. Let's start with the Clash of the Claws game this Thursday night at Neighbor Bowl, featuring the Huskies and the Golden Bears. We have with us on the show Lauren Ascola and Drew Black from Hanford West and Braden Lowe, Brooklyn Fraunheim and Luke Gamble from Sierra Pacific. Well, let's start with Hanford West, Lauren. How does ASB create excitement on campus at the games?

We do as ASB a lot of advertising before the games just to get students talking about it and then on game days we promote a lot of school spirit. So ASB will wear ASB shirts, football with their uniforms and cheer with their uniforms, and it just gets people talking about it all day and excited to come to the game and show off that spirit.

And Drew. How about on game days? What's so special about game days?

Game days just have a completely different atmosphere than a regular school day. All the students coming in all their school spirit and just having that energy that they carry with them throughout the day just allows for there to be huge excitement and great like husky energy pride. Just coming straight to the games.

Okay so, lauren, back to you. What's your favorite part about being involved in ASB?

Getting to share the spirit and like get to know students. So at rallies, like you kind of get to know who's around you and like what's going on and generating all that spirit, getting a lot of like excitement out of students. It's really fun to see them like light up on game days, rally days, spirit weeks, all that stuff.

Okay, so, speaking directly to this Thursday's game, what do you think is going to happen, you guys? What kind of fun can the students look forward to?

Well, for starters, I know that there is a large group of seniors that are planning on painting Hanford West on their bodies, which is going to just create this big blue Hanford West sign in the student section, which will just bring a lot of attention and energy and hype to the game. And I know that, with the Husky Spirit theme, all of us at school have husky shirts and we have blue, black and white clothing and that's just going to allow for there to be a large show out and turn out for the game and just to have the school colors all throughout the stands.

Yeah, just being able to see that sea of blue on our side of the field. Like we have a big population of students that likes to go to the football games and show off that school spirit. So even though we are on the away side, this year they're all going to show up and we're just going to have this big sea of blue just showing off that Hanford West spirit.

Well, I'm really looking forward to the game. I'm trying to make it to both games on Thursday and Friday night the rivalry games and I want to wish the Hanford West Huskies the best of luck.

Thank you, go, huskies.

So, luke, we hear a lot about school spirit and things that are going on at schools. What makes school spirit so cool at Sierra Pacific?

I think we're a unity and I think we all represent each other, that become and support each other. Like at all the games everyone tries to show up to every volleyball game, every football game. We're a great team. We weren't as great as we normally have been, but we still had a lot of students there and we supported all of our teams.

Yeah, that's cool. Hey, braden, let's check in with you real quick. What's that Mr on-campus been like this week?

So this week we've implemented a spirit week to bring everybody together and get everybody ready for this big football game coming up. Clutch the Clause is a big deal at our school, and our football team is performing very well this year, and so the energy is in the air and hopes are high for Thursday.

Yeah, definitely have had a successful season. So Brooklyn looking to the game on Friday night, what kinds of things can the students and fans expect at the game?

Sierra Pacific's the home team, so I think that the students and fans can expect a lot of spirit coming from especially our student section. I know that we also have super duper supportive parents at Sierra Pacific and so overall our school community is just super high and the unity is super strong, like Luke touched on earlier, and so I think that the students and fans can really expect some huge support for our boys. Go Bears.

The annual milk can game between Hanford High and Lamor High has been a highlight for many students over the years. I know all the shenanigans I got into when the Tigers would come to town or we would go to their stadium. Let's see how the students are getting ready for the big game. Let's start with the Lamor Tigers. We have with us Anne Strong, who is the ASB advisor for Lamor. So, anne, how's the school spirit on your campus and what are the students doing to ramp up for the game this Friday?

Well, we have our annual milk can against Hanford. This year it's in Hanford so that's a little hard. We love to host it and have all of our school spirit and student section go in when it's on our own campus. But we alternate. We do usually do a milk can spirit week, and so this year Monday was tear them up Tigers, so kids were wearing torn up clothing with appropriate under under shirts. Of course. Today was a Tigers on the prowl or incognito, so a lot of students were and staff members were black head to toe. Tomorrow is white lies and they kind of. The reason why they picked that one is they're saying the pups are saying they're going to win, so it's a little white lie, so they're going to dress up with shirts with little white lies on them that they hand write on them. Yeah, I'd never heard of that. That's obviously a new social media kind of current thing. And then Thursday is going to be Tigers on the loose, so it's going to be Safari animal print. And then Friday is cow print, and I always love seeing all the kids that I don't know where they get those pajamas, but there are cow pajamas full on onesies that they wear to school and then they even wear them to the game.

That's hilarious.

Yeah, it is funny.

So, in general, the spirit, what's the mood of the kids on campus?

We've had a really good year with football, just like last year. So I think that they're really excited and they're, of course, always nervous because you never know what's going to happen, but they are super excited and they're there for their team. And we were even thinking about doing, I guess, our athletic director we have a new athletic director this year John Seafraidis. He was telling me about this video of two colleges that are rivals and they kind of in an interview, they surprised one of the colleges and, like, say some nice things about the other college and they were kind of like, like I guess their colors are cool, you know, or their town is nice. I'm thinking we're gonna probably put together something like that and just surprise See what answers come out if we ask people to say something nice about Hanford, because it is a rivalry but it also is a community at the same time, and I know for sure yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, I know a lot of people. You know they're on competitive cheer teams or they're on travel athletic teams and stuff. So there is a lot of camaraderie between the two schools and I know it's going to be a great game on Friday night and I'm looking forward to yeah, yeah, outstanding turnout by the students.

Yeah, and you know, it's just so weird. Growing up, I'm a tiger alumni myself and I don't remember being as connected to People on Hanford that I feel like this generation is. They'll go to each other's proms, they'll go to each other's winter dances, they, you know, they just know a lot more, and I think you're right. It's just that they're more connected with each other and some of the extra curriculars or even travel sports, so they, they know a lot more of each other. So that's awesome.

All right. Well, thank you for coming on the show and let's have a go Tigers.

All right, go Tigers, and.

Last we have Ricky Pidea from Hanford High School. I know that there's been a big tradition of school spirit at Hanford High over the years and having the rivalry game at home Just means more this year. How have your students been getting hyped up for the game and what can we expect to see on Friday night?

Yeah, well, first off, I want to say thank you for having me. We are super excited this week to be having our rivalry game back at our home stadium. The students feel a lot more comfortable and confident that way. This week we're gearing up for a very large student section with a lot of hype. We have our senior night going on as well that night. Last week we did have our homecoming week that consisted of a lot of dress up days based around the Barbie theme. We had a ginormous rally that ended up amazing, and then we actually took the W at the game last Friday. So the school has had a lot of spirit going on the last couple weeks, and this is just another week we get to add on to that, the kids are definitely hyped. The players are hyped. They're ready to give it there all out there on the field. So us as a campus, we're super excited to see that and be there to support them. So we're just hoping for the best as this week goes along with that being said, go bullpup.

I'd like to thank you for tuning into this bonus episode of the Hanford insider. Regular episodes are posted each Monday. If you'd like to join the Hanford insider email list, stop by our website at Hanford insidercom and sign up. Help me get the word out about the show by liking or sharing on social media or telling a friend For more information about the show. You can find this podcast on Facebook, instagram, threads X and YouTube At Hanford insider. If you have a show idea, be sure to email me at Hanford insider at gmailcom and I'll get going on it. Thanks again for listening to the Hanford insider.