Approximately two miles away from Aragon lies the illustrious Hillsdale High School, where Aragon students’ old middle school acquaintances roam the halls. But they lead different lives now. They live by different rules and revere a metal clad figure. One might not find the person they knew several years ago under the red and blue face paint.
Hillsdale, Aragon’s longtime rival, is always shown as the villain in the Homecoming rally skit, even dating back to the ’70s.
English teacher Sandra Skale, an Aragon alumna and former cheerleader, says, “The schools here in San Mateo were built pretty close in time and so because of the close proximity there was a rivalry. They actually stole something from us or we stole something, but I’m not really a 100 percent sure [of] the factual beginning of [the rivalry]. We wanted to beat them, and they wanted to beat us. Just like San Mateo and Burlingame.”
Skale continues, “Before the Homecoming game, the Hillsdale cheerleaders and the Aragon cheerleaders went out to breakfast in the morning beforehand that day, and we exchanged little gifts with each other because we were trying to be nice, but that was counter [to] the idea of a big rivalry. But maybe it was bigger back then, although Aragon back then was a school that didn’t have a whole lot of school spirit. I remember when I was a senior and there were certain activities planned at the end, and they had to cancel them just because of lack of interest.”
English teacher Jennifer Wei says, “I went to Abbott Middle School, so I knew lots of students at Hillsdale. I was friends with a bunch of Hillsdale students. So when you’re friends, maybe you don’t personally feel that rivalry that much. I personally did not feel a strong rivalry although I was certainly very, very happy to be at Aragon instead of Hillsdale.”
Both Wei and her best friend transferred to Aragon. Wei continues, “We felt like our high school experience was very happy. I did have friends at Hillsdale that weren’t as happy. I don’t think I would have run for student council if I had gone to Hillsdale. I tried to get involved in as much as I could at Aragon.”
Freshman Arya Natarajan is on the basketball team and looks at the rivalry from the standpoint of being on a team. “It’s just some kind of competitiveness when it comes to sports or robotics or some kind of team competition. I want our team to win so we can have that thing where we can say, ‘Yeah, we won and we beat our rivals,’” says Natarajan.
“The only depiction of [the rivalry] around the school is the painting in the hallway of the Don fighting the Knight and that’s about it. The only time you can feel the rivalry is that one game,” says junior Tyler Smith.
Freshman Karan Nevatia adds, “The only thing that I have seen that is a rivalry is the mural in the building and the homecoming rally.”
Leadership student and sophomore Isa Ng says, “We like our ‘rival’ leadership class, so I don’t think [the rivalry] is a really big deal. For sports, it is very competitive, but for everything else, I don’t think it is competitive.”
Sophomore and football player Danny Halawi has several friends who go to Hillsdale. Halawi says, “There’s definitely some pressure, but before the week of the game we always prepare extra for our rivaling team. We always practice harder. And I think we get together more as a team. It’s not something we get scared of. It’s more a thing we get excited about.”
