|
| This will not be the only trophy on the line when archrivals Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Pomona-Pitzer square off on Saturday. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps athletics photo |
By Greg Thomas
D3sports.com
CLAREMONT, Calif. — Across the country this Saturday, most of the 240 football seasons that started with training camp in August will come to a close. Many of those will be culminating in a rivalry game — the result of which can often define a season’s success, regardless of any other results throughout the year.
Division III’s rivalry games come in all sizes, steeped in decades of tradition, each meaningful to the programs participating that those of us outside of those rivalries may not fully understand, but that we can all appreciate.
In Claremont, California one of the Division III’s most unique rivalries takes on unprecedented significance. When Claremont-Mudd-Scripps makes the quarter-mile walk down the street to play Pomona-Pitzer on Saturday, the winner will advance to the NCAA playoffs, marking the first time in the history of this rivalry that victory in the game comes with the promise of postseason football.
To set the stage, it’s important to know a little bit about the Claremont Colleges. Situated on one campus in Claremont, California; Claremont McKenna College; Harvey Mudd College; Pomona College; Pitzer College; and Scripps College coexist as a consortium of five of the top small, private colleges in the country. The colleges share nearly everything — course schedules, academic facilities, dining facilities, bookstores — but they split with intercollegiate athletics. The student bodies from Claremont McKenna, Harvey Mudd, and Scripps play for one athletics program, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, while Pomona and Pitzer’s students participate in the Pomona-Pitzer athletics programs. Each athletics program has its own facilities — effectively there are two full sets of small college varsity athletics facilities on one relatively small campus.
While the athletics programs are independent entities, all of the student-athletes exist in the same community and that closeness creates a rivalry environment unlike any across the division. “To see your, your biggest rival walk across your campus on a Tuesday afternoon is something different,” C-M-S head coach Kyle Sweeney said. “You know, and you're preparing for a game and you're seeing the other team walk down to practice. There's just nothing like that.”
“Or you see them in the dining hall; the guys actually share classes with them.
“So you know, you might actually have somebody play them on Saturday and on Monday you're doing a science lab with them. There's just nowhere else in the country that it's that way. And so that heightens everything. And of course that's the game that across the five colleges everyone pays attention to.”
In the Sixth Street Rivalry, one does not simply line up and play your rival once per year and part ways for the next 12 months until the rivalry is renewed. Because of the interconnectedness of the Claremont Colleges, student-athletes see their athletic rivals all the time.
Stiles Satterlee, a senior defensive back for C-M-S, tells ATN that being in community with his rivals only amplifies the intensity. “It takes everything to another level. You see them every single day. You'll be in the dining hall and you lock eyes with those guys and you know that you're going to play them on Saturday or you're going to play them at some point in the season.”
Will Radice, a senior wide receiver at Pomona-Pitzer, echoes Satterlee. “You just kind of coexist in a way, but there's always a little bit of tension there, just because you know, they're your rivals. We're allowed to eat in their dining halls and vice versa, so you kind of always see each other around,” Radice said. “It just makes it all that more competitive and sets it up for a great end of the year.”
Satterlee added, “For the rest of the year, you get to walk by those guys knowing you've either won or lost. It's a huge, huge pride thing for both teams. And it means a lot to every single person who's been in our program. It's one of the biggest games for us for as long as we play football.”
Pomona-Pizer coach John Walsh’s career has placed him in some of the oldest rivalries in the country. He’s coached in some of the oldest high school games in the country as well as the Harvard-Yale game and Williams-Amherst. “I've been a part of some unbelievable rivalries, traditions, et cetera. This one is the most unique I've ever been a part of,” Walsh said. “The thing I'm just so amazed with, and I don't know if I could have handled it as a player, they're in classes together, they're in dining halls, they're in social events. They're competing for jobs and internships, you know, against each other as well. So it's a competition and a rivalry that expands well past just the playing.”
Though the game is largely recognized as the last game of the season, the 2022 edition of the Sixth Street Rivalry comes with the added bonus of a trip to the NCAA playoffs for the winner. Both teams are also chasing a bit of history this weekend. For Pomona-Pitzer, a win on Saturday not only retains the Sixth Street Trophy, but would earn the Sagehens their first SCIAC championship and berth to the postseason.
“If you're on this campus, during this week it's different. You can't hide it,” Walsh said. “With the amount of phone calls that we get as coaches or our players get from alums or parents or family who are flying into this game, you're not going to pretend that it's just a normal game.”
“Yeah, it is something that we've talked about,” Radice added about the Sagehens being one win away from a program first. “There's really no hiding it, like everyone knows. So there's no real point in keeping it in the back of your mind. [Sixth Street] is always a big game, no matter the implications. No one wants to be done right now. Everyone wants to move on. Everyone wants to keep playing for another week, be with the team for another week.”
For C-M-S, a win would not only extend the Stags’ 37-28 series advantage, but would clinch the first unbeaten, untied SCIAC season in the program’s history. Sweeney has his team focused this week around all of the noise that comes with the rivalry game: “I mean, obviously we know that stuff's out there. We've been very good about staying focused on getting ourselves one more win.
“Yes, it makes it a little sweeter if you can deny your rival. But our conversations around here have been about just getting one more win, winning the conference, going to the playoffs. Those were the goals we set out when we started the season and now we're a few days away from having a chance to make those materialize.”
Because of the proximity of the schools — literally down the street — one of the unique aspects of the game is the travel. The visiting team traditionally will dress and warm up at their home locker room and facility, and literally walk into the other team’s stadium. On Saturday, it will be C-M-S’s turn to make what they’ve coined The Stag Walk.
“We don't walk a straight line,” Sweeney said. “We kind of wind our way through in between where all the dorms are at Claremont McKenna, and down in front of the dining hall and then, and then down to the field and. Just drawing as much attention as we can to where we're going and what we're doing.
”It is something special. I mean, the students are outside and they're yelling and a lot of them are jumping in the line and walking with us. It's one of the coolest things I've ever done in college football.”
Satterlee has been a part of a couple of Stag Walks and confirmed, “It's one of the funnest things you get to do. You get to warm up, get ready in your own locker room, get prepared, and then as a team, fully dressed, walk into battle basically. And you're marching that whole way thinking about the game, knowing what's coming, and you're walking through your campus, people are joining up behind you, fans are following you.”
Claremont, California, is the epicenter of Week 11 on Division III’s west coast with a unique rivalry game that is always historic on the campus of the Claremont Colleges. This year’s edition of the Sixth Street Rivalry guarantees program history for the winner. In a regular season that has delivered over and over, the Sixth Street Rivalry is poised to join the long list of games that have made 2022 one of the best seasons of Division III football in memory.
On tap
Activity and content picks up in Week 11 at D3football.com as we get you ready for Selection Sunday and the announcement of the Division III National Football Championship field of 32 teams. By the time you read this, you will have had a bonus Around The Nation podcast with special guest and Division III football national committee chair J.J. Nekoloff. Here’s what you can watch for this week at D3football.com:
Tomorrow: Quick Hits featuring our panel’s predictions and insights into this weekend’s games
Saturday: Game day. The D3football.com Scoreboard has all of your links for stats and broadcasts to all of the rivalry games and games that will decide conference champions. When the dust settles Saturday night, D3football.com will publish our projected bracket, including how we see the at-large selections being made and where all of the teams could be playing in Round 1.
Sunday: The NCAA Selection Show for the Division III Football Championship will be revealed at 5:00 pm EST. You’ll also see the latest D3football.com Top 25
Monday: Around the Nation podcast. Pat Coleman and Greg Thomas recap the weekend that was and preview the weekend to come in Division III football.
Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday: Team of the Week honors, Road to Annapolis features, playoff team capsules
Thursday: Around the Nation column
I’d Like To Thank…
Special thanks this week to head coaches Kyle Sweeney and John Walsh, student-athletes Stiles Satterlee and Will Radice for taking time to talk about the Sixth Street Rivalry with Around the Nation. Another round of thank yous to Clremont-Mudd-Scripps Director of Athletics Communications Jeremy Kniffin and Pomona-Pitzer Director of Athletics Communications Sam Porter for coordinating these conversations!
Read options?
Small college football is actually pretty massive. Division III is home to 240 teams, many thousands of student-athletes and coaches. There are so many more stories out there than I can find on my own. Please share your stories that make Division III football so special for all of us! Reach out to me at greg.thomas@d3sports.com or on Twitter @wallywabash to share your stories.
