Few things make sports more fun than a good, old-fashioned rivalry.
The crosstown rivalry is a staple of high school sports, and everyone in our town knows the Durant-Plant City stakes are always a little higher.
What’s made this rivalry so fun to cover is that everybody seemed to be on good terms but still wanted to try a little harder than usual for those lighthearted bragging rights.
Much to my dismay, I found out last week many people have been taking it too far.
I’ve been clued in to some bad news — directly related to the rivalry, over multiple sports — that needs to be addressed.
I hope kids — and parents — know it’s possible to enjoy matchups without getting ugly in the stands, parking lots or school halls. There’s no reason for kids to fight because they play sports for different schools. There’s no reason to post things on social media that, if any college sports program caught wind of, would result in a lost scholarship. There’s no reason to take anything about a high school rivalry personally, period.
This rivalry’s roots trace back to one family and, with some administrative changes in recent years, is now more embedded with the family than it’s ever been. And, you know what? Those people still love each other.
Can’t everyone come together, more like a family, and enjoy this crosstown rivalry?
Of the many things on Durant head baseball coach Butch Valdes’s mind right now, changing the attitudes of both schools’ athletes and fans for the better is near the top. Valdes, one of the longer-tenured coaches in the area, knows this rivalry better than most and is fed up with the unneeded drama.
He and I sat down Friday, April 22, to talk about the state of the Redman Rivalry and how it can be restored to what it was created to be: a friendly one. I’ve decided to get his point across in his own words:
"I want Plant City to be one community. I don’t want it to be divided and have a boundary line of Plant City and Durant. You can have respect for your schools and support your schools. But, outside of that, everybody needs to be a family. That’s what we preach here: we want it to be that way around the entire Plant City area.
Unfortunately, it’s become a rivalry at times, where people take it the wrong way. We don’t want to see that. I don’t want to not like a team. I respect Plant City High School coach Mike (Fryrear). I respect everything that that young man does. He’s great for the program, and I’d like to see both of these schools thrive and get these kids to college, or MLB — whatever it may be — or just become great citizens. Doing that is just having that rapport between each other.
We can’t fight every time, just because it says Plant City and Durant. I don’t want to see that. It’s going to be a good game. I know that it’s going to be a battle every time that we walk out there. But, at the same time, when it’s over, it’s over. It’s a game. We’re going to get up, we’re gonna go to school the next day and we’re going to go back to work.
If your mother would not like you to do it, don’t do it. It goes back to the old way of teaching things: if you don’t want it to be said to you, don’t say it to somebody else … We don’t promote the social media garbage back and forth.
And we tell them, every time: this is what comes back to haunt you when you run your trap. And they bought into it. They understand it and respect it. And I believe that other people around the community respect them because of the way they are.
I’d like to see that throughout all of Hillsborough County. We’ve just got to start with one area at a time … I just don’t want that animosity between each other. I don’t."
Contact Justin Kline at jkline@plantcityobserver.com.