When we come into Morgan, we are told HK is our heated rival, but is that really true?  In my experiences, in basketball and golf, our northern border town rival hasn’t had the type of rivalry feeling that I think of when the word is thrown around. When Morgan plays HK, it doesn’t feel like Red Sox vs. Yankees or Celtics v. Lakers, it feels like just a normal game.  

The question becomes is the rivalry dead?

Morgan boys basketball head coach Frank Rossi has been coaching the team since 2018, and has coached many matchups against HK but has never felt much of a rivalry.

“I feel like for the better part of the last 8 years, us, Cromwell, and Valley Regional were three of the top teams in the league. And I feel like those games might have had more of that type of cutthroat, that type of win-at-all-costs atmosphere, compared to our matchups with HK,” said Coach Rossi.

And the numbers support this. Seven out of the last eight boys Shoreline Conference championships have featured at least one team from Morgan, Cromwell, or Valley. Three times – two of the teams were competing against each other. Over that time, HK has not seen the championship. 

“In terms of basketball, I never really saw it because at the time we grew to a level where we were competing, the games against Cromwell and Valley Regional were, just there was more on the line,” said Rossi.

And the matchups show this as well. Over the last three seasons, the Morgan and Cromwell match-up has been tight. In 23-24, Cromwell went 20-3 along with Morgan. That year, they faced each other in the Shoreline championship with Cromwell taking the victory. 

In 24-25, Morgan did not make States or Shorelines and only faced Cromwell, the normal two times, losing both. This year, Cromwell was another top competitor, and Morgan ended up sneaking into the Shoreline conference playoffs. They played and lost to Cromwell.

There has not been the same level of intensity for HK games. They only saw HK twice in the regular season, both this year and last year. A real rivalry needs to have both teams getting after it in pressure situations.

Some teams keep the rivalry though. Since 2020, baseball is 9-5 against HK, and four out of the five losses came with a differential of less than 3. Morgan soccer has had a long rivalry with HK, ending the most recent season

losing the Shoreline championship and the state semifinals to HK. 

I could be true that teams like boys soccer are keeping the rivalry alive for the younger players developing in the program. The heart breaking losses in the semifinals of states and the championship for Shorelines really kept the fire alive.

However I do think it is different in some other sports. Boys tennis has had a recent rivalry with Westbrook; This is the main reason why the rivalry has changed and not died. HK is not as good as Morgan at every sport and Morgan is not as good as HK in others.

It is also very possibly a time problem, or according to History teacher Michael Meizies , a size problem. With less kids in the school, less will play sports and even less will care so much about the rivalry. “It’s shrunk a little bit overall, ’cause the schools aren’t as large. Back then Morgan was almost 700 students. And I think now it’s about 430,” said Meizies.

Meizies talked about a memory he has from 2000, when Morgan and HK faced off on homecoming. “We went to the playoffs in the year 2000, the fall of 2000. We finished 8 and 2, and we played HK, I believe it was on homecoming, and I want to say we beat him, like, 35 to 6, and it was a great victory,” said Meizies

In order to develop a cut-throat rivalry, the two teams have to be competing against each other at a high level and with some pressure, and have to be doing that for multiple years across multiple sports. 

“Typically, Valley Regional and Cromwell were the places, and were those games, where I feel like we’ve had [a cut-throat mentality] more so compared to that against HK,” said Rossi.

So if we want a real rivalry with HK, we need to value the games against them more. Even if they aren’t important, we must value playing them, and we must show up as an entire community to will our teams to beat HK.