Sports have always provided narratives of rivalry at the collegiate and professional levels between teams and athletes. In baseball, it’s the Boston Red Sox versus the New York Yankees. In soccer in the US, it’s been the Seattle Sounders versus the Portland Timbers, in college football it’s Michigan vs Ohio State. In Everett, WA, a rivalry between two colleges that has recently been born.

In order to have a rivalry, there needs to be a close proximity between the opposition. Edmonds Community College is the closest college to Everett Community College.

EvCC was established in 1941, Edmonds was established in 1967. But there no official rivalry between their athletic programs had existed until now. The two colleges play for the newly christened “T-Trophy.”

“Spencer Stark (Edmonds Athletic Director) and I wanted to do something to play up the rivalry between the two schools,” says Trojans Athletic Director Garet Studer. “It was something we thought that would be fun to do and try to get all our sports involved.”

Studer and Stark talked about the possibility of rivalry trophy over last spring before the 2018-2019 school year. “It developed more over the summer to get logistics in place and we were able to get it launched by fall,” Studer says.

The winner of the trophy is determined by all the regular season fixtures of all the sports that are played throughout the school year between the two colleges. The college who has the most wins will be the champion.

With the joy and bragging rights that come with it, the college who loses must give the trophy to the other colleges who will hold onto it for the entire year unless it is won back.

While the T-Trophy is not a trophy that determines an actual fixture for the postseason, it provides the student-athletes from both colleges the opportunity to amplify the pride of the school. “It’s fun; it’s a part of college athletics. I think at the highest levels you see what rivalries can do to your fanbases and the excitement that it creates,” Studer says. “We wanted to bring that to our campus and give to Edmonds campus as well.”

Unfortunately, in its inaugural year, Edmonds edged out Everett, winning the T-Trophy. Studer believes the Trojans teams will be eyeing redemption to win the trophy back the following school year. “I think all our teams are getting better and on the upward trend and I thought we had a shot it this year we just came up a couple of games short. We’ll definitely go after it next year.”

The T-Trophy rivalry is only in year one of this competition and is still starting out small but Studer hopes the T-Trophy rivalry will grow for the years and decades to come. “I hope this goes on for another 50 years,” Studer says.  “We have several places on the trophy to add plaques year after year hope to fill it up with Trojans stuff.”

Gallery • 5 Photos

Simon Krane

Trojans midfielder Mamadi Sarr (EvCC #2) passes the ball as Tritons forward Hector Palomera (Edmonds #32) attempts to dispossess him during the trojans home game at Kasch Park on October 13. Palomera would score the only goal in the Edmonds 1-0 win