With this season’s Bellaire vs. Lamar football game approaching, it is only right to focus on the history, importance and excitement surrounding the rivalry and account what exactly it is like to be a part of it. One thing is for sure — it is electric. 

While as an athlete, coaches teach you to approach every game the same.

“The Lamar game always feels different,” senior and defensive back Walter Truitt said. 

And, with a rivalry as long and storied as this one, it is bound to feel different. 

The rivalry between the two schools has been legendary since both schools birthed successful football programs early in their history. Yet, while both Bellaire and Lamar have heavyweight football programs within the district, Lamar has been the older brother for as long as most people can remember. Since 2004, Bellaire is winless against its cross-town rival. This season, under such unique circumstances, the Cardinals are looking to add to their win column against the rival Lamar Texans. 

The beauty of the rivalry game is that no matter how good or bad a team has played up to the point of the rivalry game, nothing brings out the best in both squads as this matchup does. 

“We always try to have meaningful practices,” senior and linebacker Elijah Costa said. “During the week before Lamar, you can just feel the extra intensity and how badly everyone wants to win.”

Both teams refuse to go down easily, which creates an exciting game for both the players and the fans from both schools every year. The game is almost always close. It is almost always won or lost on one or two crucial plays — just the way a rivalry game should be. Unfortunately, those one or two plays just haven’t been going our way.

“As a team, we need to focus on avoiding giving up the big play and create turnovers,” senior and cornerback Lorel Fotso said. “We need to keep their offense off the field and win the turnover battle.” 

Bellaire enters the game with a different level of focus and intensity this time around. They want nothing more than to cleanse the bitter taste of last year’s crushing defeat, after going into the fourth quarter down only one. It certainly has not been forgotten. 

With the game meaning so much, every current or former player has their unforgettable moment from one of their games in this rivalry. Walter Truitt, now in his fourth year in the program, has many. None as lasting as this —

“A moment I’ll never forget was when the offense was running a reverse play, the wide receiver got the ball in the backfield then had to turn back around because of pressure from the defense,” Truitt said. “As he was running to our sideline the running back came in and hit a huge block on their lineman, just sending him in the air, hyping up the whole sideline and the crowd.” 

This time, every player on Bellaire’s team hopes to create a new lasting memory from the rivalry — being the first team in over 30 years to make history and come out of the game victorious.

In order to do that, as Truitt’s memory clearly shows, they will need all the fans’ support and noise. The student body is as much a part of this rivalry as the players, and it needs to be known — so make it known. If you can, do everything in your power to clear your schedule and show up to this electric football game. Maybe you will create your own unforgettable “Bellaire vs. Lamar” memory.