One of the biggest excitements of high school is your team playing their biggest rival. Most rivalries occur through being geographically close to each other or, over time, the level of competition has grown between schools. For Holy Trinity as a whole, our biggest rival is Melbourne Central Catholic. MCC, the closest Christian private school, is HT’s rival through its geographic location and HT’s lower school being the filter for MCC before the upper school was built. However, for most teams, these school rivalries may vary from sport to sport. 

Each season, our teams and players go into a specific game wanting to come out on top. Depending on the season, those rivalries can change. The competitive level of these schools can change but players always have a sense of really wanting to win. 

“Our team’s biggest rival is not our common rival, MCC, but actually Bayside,” said senior varsity baseball captain Sal Carlson. “Two years ago, we played them on their senior night and they expected an easy win against us, but we ended up taking them into 19 innings. Walking off the game, with my bunt that won the game for the team. Last year, I got ejected from the game because the kids were being aggressive, still mad about the loss. So I’d say Bayside is our biggest rival.”

 “During our regular season, we don’t really have a rival. But during the postseason, once we make it to regionals, our biggest rival is Lake Highland or Windemere Prep,” said junior Kayden Shah, varsity swim captain. 

“I think our biggest rival is Edgewood because last year on our home court they beat us in the district final,” said junior Maya Collins, a varsity volleyball player. “It was a really hard loss for us, so this year we came back with the mentality that we needed to beat Edgewood in order to move on. We played them once in the regular season and it was a really big game. We played them again in districts and we won. Viera is also one of our biggest rivals because a lot of us play club volleyball and we play on the teams with these girls. It’s fun to be able to play against them but it definitely makes it big rivalry games because we know the girls on the other side of the net.”

“I would say Viera because in preseason we tied them 1-1,” said junior Lani Watt, a varsity soccer player.

“Our biggest rival tends to be MCC. But this season they will not schedule us anymore because we tend to beat them by 30 points each time, but we will definitely see them in the playoffs,” said sophomore varsity basketball player, Izzy Henderson. 

“Cocoa Beach is our biggest rival. We often tie with them or are one or two points away. We are good friends with all of the girls and it’s one of our favorite teams to play,” said junior Mia Glover, a varsity golfer.

“I would say Cocoa Beach, but a close second and third would be Viera and MCC. Cocoa Beach is more of a rival because of the type of people and parents they have,” said junior Justin Cole, a varsity lacrosse player. “The constant talking and disrespect they have shown is really what led to the rivalry. The major rivalry game started because we meet them in the district finals every year. Viera could be considered a rivalry game because lots of players on both sides play travel together. MCC used to be a school rivalry because we were the only original private schools, but we haven’t had to worry about them in a while.”

“Our biggest rival is probably MCC. They weren’t a very good team this year but it’s still satisfying beating them because they have had really good teams in the past,” said senior varsity golfer Mitch McCullar.

“I would say our biggest rival is Viera. Mainly because every year we play them it’s always a really close game and the gym gets pretty packed with student sections,” said senior varsity basketball player Sammy Chaffiot.

“Our rival is West Shore because it’s always a really close game and really fun to play in,” said junior Andrew Turner, a varsity soccer player.

“We like to beat Merrit Island because it is Coach Brown’s old school,” said junior Camden Rethwisch, a varsity football player.

“I think our biggest rival would be Satellite,” said sophomore varsity lacrosse player Victoria Nelson. “We used to be able to beat them but now with them getting more incoming experienced players, it will make it harder for us to beat them. Many would say MCC because they are our school rival but it’s really Satellite that poses our challenge at districts each year.” 

“The cross country team’s biggest rival is probably Circle Christian. Circle Christian is both in our district and region and over the past years has been our most consistent competition for district champs,” said junior cross country captain Sophia Weiner. “We also come across them a few times prior to the championship series in the regular season meets.”

“MCC is our biggest rival because they’re the biggest competitor in our division,” said junior Cali Perillo, a varsity softball player. 

“I would say Edgewood because they usually win districts every year and we always get runner-up. We always have trouble playing them in singles but doubles are fine,” said senior varsity tennis player Karenna Mathews. “I would also say West Shore because they have a lot of older players and are much taller but our team this year is really good.”