Keeping enemies close with rivalry friendships

MINERAL COUNTY – It is said to keep your friends close and your enemies closer. The Mineral County athletes take this wisdom and enhance it as strong friendships form from the competition between teams. One of the big rivalries in the county is between Superior and St. Regis. With only 15 miles between the towns, a competitive relationship has built between the schools. The proximity also means the athletes interact outside of sports frequently. According to Superior junior Sierra Bruning, many of the girls on the teams have played against each other since junior high. As they play and interact, the teams start to learn who the other girls are. “It’s always a battle when we step on the court,” Bruning said. “But off the court, we’re just people and we try to get to know each other.” During basketball season it was common for the girls to interact as friends while they worked against each other. They would have friendly conversations as they guarded each other on the court. “When we step on the court we bring it all, we want to win and we want to beat them down,” Bruning said. “But at the same time they’re our friends…It’s fun to step out on the court and play with people you’ve known forever, play your heart out and be able to share experiences.” For Bruning, there were no hard feelings if her friends won a game. During the Superior Lady Bobcats’ final home game of the season, the girls played against St. Regis. They suffered a loss by three points after an intense double overtime game. When Ashley Cheesman, the St. Regis junior who made the winning basket, approached Bruning to congratulate her after the game she did not get a warm reply. “I just looked at her and was like ‘don’t even talk to me,’” Bruning said. “But it was just a joking matter. It definitely doesn’t strain the friendship, it kind of makes it stronger because you have to battle through it together. At the end of the day it’s just about having fun.” In Bruning’s experience if friends pushed each other away after a game, it was usually from a need to process the loss. While there were some moments of strain, they did not impact the relationship as a whole. The friendships have been easier for the athletes to form with how small the district is. Bruning said the students gets to know everyone else fairly well in small communities and it is easier to make friends. She noted even the coaches tended to develop friendships. “Everyone is just so friendly and they come up to talk to you,” Bruning said. “You really get to know each other.” For Alberton senior Keir Sanzano, some of his good friends also came from St. Regis. When St. Regis and Alberton combined for a co-op football team there was resistance among the players. Sanzano compared working with the Tigers to nails on a chalkboard. “It would be our last year playing football together,” Sanzano said. “We wanted to go out as Panthers with the team that we had always played with.” After it became clear they would not get their way, he made the best of it and began to work with the members of the rival team. In the end three of the former opponents joined with Alberton to create the Clark Fork Timberwolves. Once the dust from the new team’s tryouts had settled, the rivals began to form new bonds of teamwork and friendship. As the group practiced together they got used to each other and started to become a tight-knit group. “Going through competition together helped a lot too,” Sanzano said. “It made us feel like family and we eventually threw the rivalry aspect of things out the window.” After the co-op team dissolved with the start of basketball season, the rivalry had the opportunity to start up again. While he admitted the relationships referred back into a competition, Sanzano said he was still friends with the athletes from St. Regis. The rivalry was mostly kept on the court. Sanzano is confident the friendships will stay strong after everyone goes their separate ways for college. Bruning agreed and said there was a good chance she would go to college with her former rivals at the University of Montana. After building the relationships in sports, she felt college would give them a good opportunity to expand the friendships and make them stronger.