When competing in varsity level sports, every school has their respective rivalries. Various students can find things they dislike about their opponents. 

Senior Derek Bartram, a D1 commit to Fresno State for baseball, mentioned his least favorite opponents. 

“Tam district teams, especially Tam and Redwood,” he stated. “They always have deep rosters and plenty of good players on the bench.” 

Hannes Gerber, a junior on the baseball team also spoke with us about his least favorite MCAL teams.

 “I would say Redwood because they have so much money and they have like two $20,000 machines just to help train their athletes. Plus having a massive school makes it hard for their baseball team not to be good,” he said. 

The Tam Unified School District has more funding for their sports, clearly giving them an advantage so it makes sense why baseball dislikes competing against them.

Top athletes from Novato’s lacrosse, volleyball, and swim teams similarly agreed. 

Lacrosse player Hunter Smith also discussed his thoughts about Redwood. “They are extremely arrogant and they talk [expletive] even when there is no reason to,” Smith said.

Brett Huser, a senior on the volleyball team, also elaborated on Redwood’s poor sportsmanship.

“We have some bad blood with Redwood,” he explained. “We had a really close game with them, they were super cocky with their celebration, and their coach was just really rude.”

Other TUSD teams might also lack good sportsmanship, according to some NHS athletes. 

Bryden Thielenhaus, a junior swimmer committed to UCSB, talked about his least favorite MCAL teams. 

“Give me Tam. Horrible team culture and they are always cocky and full of themselves whenever we go against them,” said Thielenhaus.

Other swimmers also felt the same about Tam’s sportsmanship. Ethan Hatch, a Novato High junior, agreed with Thielenhaus.

“They have pretty crappy sportsmanship. During our meet against them, they were talking mad s*** and then ended up getting rolled,” he told us. 

Niko Stratigos, a Novato High Senior, also felt the same way about Tam.

“They are just sore losers,” he said.

Another team widely disliked was Marin Catholic, a school known for having excellent sports.

Cole Morris, a lacrosse player headed to Oregon, provided his thoughts. 

“I would say MC is my least favorite,” he explained. “Some of the kids on that team are super nice because we are friends with them. But on the other side, a lot of them are entitled rich kids, which is annoying.”

Boys track and field seemed to also have some distaste for MC. Junior Dom Nebulon elaborated. 

“Definitely MC, those kids…are genuinely mean and rude to us,” he said. “I hear them talking about us behind our backs and making fun of us, calling us scrawny little white kids.”

Will Obata, another junior on the track team, felt the same way. 

 “I don’t know why but they always talk a little s*** and they seem very arrogant and cocky,” he said. “They might be better than us but they can still be cocky.”