Everyone on campus knows about the ongoing rivalry between Colorado Academy and Kent Denver. Many of us have no idea the amount of emotion, effort and even friendships that are put into athletics at these two amazing schools.

           One person who has respect for our competition is Mr. Olmsted, former student athlete, current middle school teacher and father of students here at CA. His experience uncovered some interesting and new information. Being a teacher, he often hears his students talking about this rivalry and tries to embrace it in his classroom, respecting what his students have to say. He said that they were especially fierce from the sports aspect, getting riled up for even the smallest of games.

           When he was a student athlete, he played against Kent multiple times, and there definitely seemed to be more energy in the air. “In the years following being a student, I had a lot of friends at Kent, and I remember certain ones saying the rivalry wasn’t as big in our minds as you guys make it sound.” Mr. Olmsted went on to say that being a CA dad, he heard a little too much about “that” private school.

       Students and their families do tend to put their game faces on for competition with Kent, no matter how this rivalry is perceived. It’s like second nature.“ My oldest is playing soccer for varsity girls (at CA), and my son has played against  Kent and we always, I think, get a little more pumped up for those games,” Mr. Olmsted said.

          We then started to look into what he said about playing Kent and how the games played out. He responded with, “Once the game got  going it was just any other game, but the emotion of the parents, and the coaches I think adds to what the players feel.”

         Speaking of coaches, Coach Hall, Director of Athletics at Colorado Academy definitely knows quite a bit about this subject, being around competitive players and observing their relationship with Kent. When CA plays them in any sport, such as field hockey or soccer, he tells his team to treat them with respect, even if they get a bit rowdy. “ The way I have approached it for the last 12 years is that it’s just the next game on the schedule,” he said.

           From Coach Hall’s perspective from his time here, CA has seemed to remain on top winning wise. “ The proof’s in the pudding for the past, under my tenure, and the majority of the games that we play against Kent Denver we win,” he commented, remarking that it wasn’t really an opinion, but rather a fact. He went on to say that the amount that CA wins against Kent varies depending on the grade.“It’s year to year, and I would love to say that we win every single game that we play against Kent, but we don’t.” He also said “ I am really thankful that they are around because they are a very similar school, and it is good to have healthy competition, I really try to suggest to our kids and our coaches that it's good to have strong competition and teams that we are playing against, that’s how you get better.”

          Then he went on to say “I would love to say we don’t get more pumped up for Kent games but I know the kids do.”  

          Along with staff, students have quite the school spirit too. A member of the 6th grade girls volleyball team, Jill Hills is a dedicated student who participates in and is passionate about beating the competition. “There’s more defeat in defeating them and more joy in crushing them,” she said. To put it briefly, the competition with Kent out rivals that of other schools, especially for the students. Coaches and staff play along with it, but the kids empower it, and if you lose, you lose, but winning is a victory for the entire school. Jill went on to say that this rivalry wasn’t really created by one certain group of people, but more of a natural occurrence. When she visited for a game, she remarked how similar the schools are and how much it reminded her of CA, “we compete in everything, not only sports.”  

            Kent won, but CA came back fighting, ready for the next game.“On the bus we were dancing and singing, and some of the parents would not let us go inside until we gave them high fives,”  making it clear that the parents definitely added to the emotions, proving Mr. Olmstead’s point that everyone adds to what the players feel. When we asked her if her and her team made jokes about Kent at practice. She responded with “ Yes, definitely, we would say things like we need to get good enough to beat Kent and guys think about how it will feel when we beat Kent.” 

            From what we learned, this is a deep, and meaningful rivalry that is felt by everyone at CA.  By the looks of it, it will not dissipate anytime soon. GO MUSTANGS!! :)