Every sports team in Chelsea has a rival. Chelsea and Dexter have been rivals for a very long time, but recently, competition has increased between another team: Tecumseh. Some teams have different opinions on which is the biggest rival in their sport.
“When we play in a rival game, we never stop playing, even if we’re down,” Sam Borcherding (‘25) said. “We just keep our heads in the game and keep battling no matter what.”
Rival games can sometimes be the most difficult to play in, but the intense energy between both teams can help fuel the drive to keep going.
“I mean, every game is gonna have competitive energy,” Maggie Mckale (‘25) said.
“When you have rivalries, the gyms are usually more packed. There’s more energy from the crowd. There’s more of a tension between the teams. It’s different for sure.”
Rivalry games can be very intense, but that energy can also be exciting energy.
“We’re a lot more excited and hyped up. And I think there’s a lot more pressure, even though we play well under pressure, but it’s also a lot more energetic.” Ella Root (‘26) said.
Right now, Chelsea’s two biggest rivals are Dexter and Tecumseh. Each sport has a reason for which one is the bigger rival.
“I think our biggest rival for basketball is definitely Dexter, because we go back and forth with them more, and it’s kind of long-standing. Chelsea-Dexter rivalries are like a tradition here, rather than Tecumseh.” Avery Lay (‘25) said.
Dexter has been Chelsea’s rival for years and now Tecumseh thinks that Chelsea is their rival for some sports.
‘The Tecumseh rivalry in football is kind of a rivalry that they made up, because we’ve always been rivals with Dexter, and Tecumseh didn’t have one,” Borcherding said, ”So I feel like it’s just kind of us beating them every year, showing them it’s not really a rivalry.”
The rivalry is big between Dexter and Chelsea, but some sports feel that it may be different.
“I’d say we have a bigger rivalry with Tecumseh in volleyball, just because we want to always beat them. And Dexter, of course, you want to beat them on Dig Pink, But I feel like the majority of the time it is Tecumseh.” Root said.
Tecumseh happens to be the number-one team in the state for girls’ basketball right now. Beating the number one team can be better than winning against Chelsea’s traditional rival.
“I think it would be a bigger win to beat Tecumseh, just because they have all the press of being the number one team in the state for basketball,” Mckale said.
Even though Tecumseh is number one in the state, Chelsea normally sweeps them every year.
“Tecumseh has only beat us once, so I don’t really consider it a rivalry,” Lay said.
