Although the local rivalry between Gunn and Paly doesn’t quite bring this level of drama — barring incidents like September 2022’s football game, which was canceled due to student misbehavior — Gunn athletes find that it has its own intensity and competitive spirit.

When it comes to basketball, boys varsity team co-captain senior Ethan Fu feels that the larger crowds that rivalry games attract create an immense pressure to win.

“The crowd is always huge (when we play) Paly, and it’s disorienting at first,” he said. “But the pressure from the crowd isn’t just pressure to represent my school, but also pressure to show (up) for my friends and family who are there watching me.”

Varsity point guard junior Sam Little also highlighted the benefits of playing to an audience.

“The fan turnout definitely makes our team play better,” he said. “It keeps us alert and more in touch.”

Although Little acknowledges the idea of home-court advantage, he believes his wins and losses mean more when they happen at Paly.

“Especially when we play Paly at their home court, there’s this feeling of, ‘I want to crush this team in front of their own support, on their own home turf,’” Little said. “Above all, the game just feels more competitive.”

Both Fu and Little also emphasized how being the underdogs — Gunn is usually projected to lose matchups against Paly — imbues a game with extra emotional charge. While Paly has to defend their previous wins, Gunn is able to fight from the bottom up.

“When we win, it’s especially gratifying,” Fu said. “(It) feels like we’ve beaten the odds.”

Girls varsity lacrosse team member junior Sophia Howell finds an opposite dynamic to be true for her team, which has won every game against Paly since the 2021 season.

“Most of the pressure the team faces when it comes to playing Paly is around maintaining our winning streak,” she said. “But at the same time, having wins behind us alleviates pressure while playing.”

According to Howell, there isn’t much of a difference in crowd size when their team plays against Paly, so spectators don’t play a role in raising the stakes. However, similar to the competitiveness the Gunn boys basketball team brings as the underdogs, Paly girls varsity lacrosse brings its own spirit, fighting to break Gunn’s winning streak.

“We play a pretty clean game and tend to keep our cool (as a team), but when Paly is down (on the score-board), the game gets more physical and they sometimes commit petty fouls,” she said.

Fu sees a similar pattern in basketball.

“Both our team and Paly’s are pretty well disciplined, so I don’t think a fight or anything would ever break out, but it gets chippy out there sometimes,” he said. “It gets more physical, harder fouls, harder defense, but it’s all part of the game. That’s what makes it fun.”

For girls varsity track-and-field member senior Avery Adelman, the Gunn-Paly rivalry manifests itself differently due to the nature of her sport. Adelman competes in the 400-meter dash and 300-meter hurdles — both non-contact, individual events — which present a new kind of competition.

“For track, it’s less about racing your opponents and more about racing for time,” Adelman said.

Even so, she found that competing against Paly with the rest of the varsity girls team brought them together in a special way.

“In the last season, varsity girls beat Paly and we were all so excited on the way home,” Adelman said. “It definitely would’ve been a different feeling if we beat (another high school) or something, but we beat our cross-town rivals, so it felt like a big deal.”

However, the cross-town rivalry runs deeper. Last season, Paly runner Hillary Studdert — who is the sister of this article’s author — was one of Adelman’s biggest competitors.

“In the 400(-meter dash), Hillary had times that were similar to mine, so I was always really nervous before we (met) with Paly,” she said. “I was also just really excited to race because I knew she would push me to run a fast time whether she beat me or not. It was all good energy and she was a great competitor.”

Adelman feels that the local aspect of the rivalry makes the competition more personal.

“The girls who I run against from Paly, I’ve mainly ran against before,” she said. “We get to talk here and there, so there’s always a kind of sense that I know who I’m running against, which makes me want to compete harder.”

Fu also finds a sense of familiarity among his Paly opponents.

“A lot of the kids that I grew up playing club basketball with now play for Paly, so I’m friends with basically the whole team,” he said. “It adds a mix of intensity and fun, which you can’t find really with any other team.”

Sophomore Avery Adelman, who runs on the track and field varsity team, spoke about a warm dynamic between underclassmen and upperclassmen on the team. “We’re all pretty tight from running together and being in the same relays,” she said. “Even [as] an underclassmen with upperclassmen, I feel like I fit in.”

Sophomore Ethan Kitch, a member of the boys’ varsity basketball team who has played competitively since kindergarten, added that underclassmen players can be integrated with the team once they show commitment and determination. “I had to prove myself so [older players] respected me,” he said. “I became a part of the group once I proved myself.”

The relationship between underclassmen and upperclassmen extends beyond friendship to teaching, collaboration and friendly competition. Adelman recalled learning how to prepare for meets by eating well and hydrating from upperclassmen. “I’ve learned so much more just from watching the upperclassmen and seeing how they practice,” she said. “I’ve improved a lot more just from being able to get tips from them.”

According to Kitch, training with varsity athletes helps him rapidly improve. “You’re playing with more skilled players,” he said. “The overall plays are more advanced as well, which helps you improve because you have to keep up with everybody else around you.”

Not only do underclassmen on varsity get valuable tips from upperclassmen, but underclassmen on varsity also get more attention from their coaches than they would if they were on junior varsity (JV), according to freshman Luke Hines, who has played on both boys’ varsity lacrosse and JV water polo. “[In] JV water polo, we only had one coach for both varsity and JV, so [JV players] didn’t get as much coaching from him,” Hines said.

Being on varsity requires lots of commitment and effort, according to sophomore Nina Albers, a member of the girls varsity water polo team. “On varsity, you’re expected to be at every single practice and show up, do the work and make the games,” she said. “You want to show the coach that you’re working hard to earn a spot, [because] you can always get moved back down to JV.”

Skill level is the most obvious prerequisite to making any varsity team, according to sophomore Sophie Hahn. “You have to be able to compete with people who have had more experience than you and played longer than you,” she said. “You have to have improved at a faster rate than others.”

Adelman noted that playing varsity also requires self-motivation; players have to be passionate about the sport in order to become a starter at games, get more playing time or become an attractive candidate for college recruiting. “If you don’t like what you’re doing, you just don’t push yourself as much,” she said. “You can’t get where you want to get.”

In some cases, underclassmen on varsity serve as leaders for JV team members. Albers has been on the girls’ varsity water polo team for the past two years. She said she enjoyed helping out other sophomores or freshmen on the JV team this year, since varsity and JV practiced together. “I could even take more of a leadership role on the team, which was weird as a sophomore,” she said. “I could help teach them how we run practice and what we do in games.”

Practicing with better athletes isn’t always smooth sailing, however. In Kitch’s experience, being surrounded by more experienced players can cause imposter syndrome. “It was harder to gain the confidence I needed [for varsity] than if I was on JV because [on JV] I would already be one of the better players on the team,” he said.

Ultimately, Kitch realized that it is important to have trust in your abilities and your knowledge of the sport. “Once I realized I’ve been playing [basketball] for a long time [and] I know what I’m doing, [playing on varsity] became easier.”

In games, audience members may also expect more from underclassmen because they have to have reached a certain skill level to be on varsity. According to Hahn, this can result in a lot of pressure. “[The audience] pays attention to you,” she said. “If you do well or if you do badly, they remember it.”

Varsity practices are also more rigorous than JV team practices. Kitch recalls his team training for an average of 18 hours per week during the season. “The conditioning is rigorous,” he said. “On the first day of tryouts, we ran somewhere between 6 and 10 miles. That was definitely a surprise—I didn’t sign up for cross country.”

Although playing on varsity takes hard work, it’s ultimately worth it. Playing on varsity was a challenge that allowed Kitch to grow immensely as a player. “I was very glad I was on varsity because it pushed me to become better as opposed to just staying in my comfort zone,” he said.

As competitive and intense as playing for varsity is, Albers said that it’s important for underclassmen to enjoy the process and be confident in their skills. “You’re there because you’re supposed to be there,” she said.