A Healthy Rivalry

Relatives Join Together to Cheer on Local Basketball Teams

posted on January 10, 2014

For Pine Ridge basketball, this week was a historic one.

For 22 years, games between the two biggest high school teams—the Pine Ridge Thorpes and the Red Cloud Crusaders—were held off the reservation in Rapid City. The longstanding rivalry between the teams had intensified, and incidents of vandalism were reported. At the time, school administrators felt they had no choice but to change venues.

But this week, for the first time since 1992, both the girls and boys basketball teams from Pine Ridge and Red Cloud met on the court on Red Cloud’s campus. The anticipation for the games was so great that a line began forming in front of the Paul ‘Dizzy’ Trout Memorial Field House nearly two hours before the first of the three games were to start.

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Red Cloud’s Athletic Director and Head Boys Basketball Coach Christian McGhee ‘08 was thrilled to see the game back at home.

“It’s better for both teams to be back on the rez,” he said.

“For a long time we had to take on the expense of renting a facility in the city—just to play our relatives!” said Ted Hamilton, superintendent of Red Cloud Indian School. “You know, we all live here and raise our children here. It’s about smiling and have a good time; about kids being kids and playing a game they love. A few adults made this rivalry into more than that—and that’s an adult problem. We are one community, and it was time that we acted like it.”

Final Scores:  

Girls, JV:   

RC, 42  -  PR, 51  

Girls, Varsity:  

RC, 53  -  PR, 80

Boys, JV:   

RC, 37  -  PR, 55   

Boys, Varsity:  

RC, 46  -  PR, 69

The roar of the crowd could be heard from the parking lot during the games. Spectators filled the field house to capacity and squeezed together on the bleachers to cheer on their student-athletes. One man visiting from Rapid City remarked after the boys’ varsity game that he believes basketball games held on the reservation are the most exciting to watch.

“I’ve never seen such school spirit at games as I have here tonight,” he said. “It was just wonderful!”

“The girls played hard on Tuesday, and Thursday’s boys game was a great competition with amazing energy. Someone wins, someone loses—what matters is the process,” said Hamilton.  

After the games, both teams joined together for a pizza party in good spirits. Hamilton shared he hopes that Red Cloud was able to be as good of a host as Pine Ridge was last year—the first time the games were brought back to the reservation since the 1990’s.

“These kids know each other and grew up together. It’s really not like it used to be,” said Christian following the last contest. “These games are always loud and just fun—I love that it’s back here, where it should be.”

All Content, ©Red Cloud Indian School, 2014