In high school, sports rivalries are a big part of the culture. The athletes, students, teachers, and even the parents take them very seriously. At Mount Vernon High School, some of our sports have rivals with different towns. For football, it’s obviously Solon, as well as for boys and girls basketball. But when it comes to wrestling our biggest rival is from the town across the street — the Lisbon Lions.
The football team’s rivalry with Solon has been around for a long time, even before all the current players were even born. The Solon game has been the biggest game of the year other than whenever the team goes to the UNI Dome. Last year’s game against Solon had 5,000 people in attendance. “Every play the crowd would erupt and that would fuel us and give us the motivation to continue playing,” said senior football player Kael Riniker.
In 2023, Solon had a 19-game win streak against the Mustangs, but that streak ended after a 17-14 Mount Vernon win. “That was my favorite win from that season,” said WR Cole Thurn, a senior.
The Mustangs later that season would advance to the UNI Dome and the players still held the Solon win over all the others. “Even though we lost to them this year it was still my favorite game from this year,” said Riniker.
There’s a certain feeling around the school when it’s Solon game week. “The practices leading up to the game are the most focused that they have been,” said Cooper Hird. This rivalry has so much history and importance to the town and school.
The biggest rival of both basketball teams is also Solon. For the Solon basketball game Mount Vernon does a double header, where the girls team plays them first and then the boys team plays them after. This game is also the most attended game of the year for basketball just like it is for football. This is the only game of the year where the gym is packed full of people. “The rivalry for basketball isn’t as intense as it is for football, but we still take it very seriously,” said senior basketball player AJ McDermott. The girls game even has a full gym during their game. This rivalry between the Mount Vernon Mustangs and the Solon Spartans brings the community together to support our teams.
There’s one more big rival to the Mustangs, the Lisbon Lions. The only sport we compete against them in is wrestling, yet this is still a rivalry that is cared about by the fans. This is always the most attended dual meet of the year. Lisbon used to be dominant in this rivalry but in recent years the Mustangs have become a force on the mat and dominated the Lions in their last two meetings. “This is my favorite dual of the year,” said junior wrestler Jase Jaspers. “The atmosphere in the gym during it is not like any other dual we have all year.”
Another reason wrestlers like the Lisbon dual is it takes place in January, so there is a weight allowance. “This dual is the first dual that we get the extra 2 pounds so everyone is usually in a good mood because of that,” said senior wrestler Jake Haugse, “but after the weigh-ins the mood changes and everyone’s back to being focused on beating Lisbon,” he said.
Besides duals at the state dual tournament this is the most exciting and some would even say the most important dual of the year. The fans at this meet are the loudest they are all year. Everyone gets the loudest they’ve been for the Lisbon dual.
For high school sports, rivals are a big part of the culture. Everyone from the parents, teachers and students get involved in them, and take them very seriously. Our rivalries with Solon in football and basketball are the biggest regular season sporting events of the year, and the wrestling dual against Lisbon is the biggest dual meet of the year also. These rivals give the athletes fuel and motivation to compete at their highest level.
