Students at New Trier and Evanston high schools are learning that the devastating consequences of hatred and natural disaster can produce unexpected opportunities for growth and repair.

The schools athletic departments formed a 15-member student-based sportsmanship summit and met Jan. 19 to discuss ways to mend a rivalry thats sometimes led to violence.

The meeting resulted in an initial plan to use New Trier Township High Schools and Evanston Township High Schools last varsity girls and boys basketball games of the seasonin which they play against each otheras a charity event.

The evening of basketball, called Hoops for Haiti, took place Jan. 29 at Northwestern Universitys Welsh-Ryan Arena.

The New Trier boys varsity team beat ETHS, 58 to 55. The New Trier girls team also won against ETHS, with a score of 48 to 37.

The home-game event was not the first time the teams have linked basketball and charitybut it took particular significance because of the summit.

Since the summit, there has been definitely a raised awareness about the need to establish relationships beyond a rivalry, said Oscar Hawthorne, principal at ETHS.

Interscholastic athletics present the opportunity for students to be challenged, to develop social-emotional skills, to develop intellectual skills and physical skills, said Randy Oberembt, athletic director at New Triers Winnetka campus.

We really view these programs as educational tools that permit growth on the part of students, and that growth certainly we hope will carry them through adult life, Oberembt said.

The summit came on the heels of an incident in December when four Evanston students were charged in the beating of a New Trier student after the first of their two basketball matches at Welsh-Ryan.

The incident played a part in forming the summit, said Chris Livatino, athletic director at ETHS. But, he said the summit is something he and Oberembt had been planning for a long time.

I think its a great idea to try to make every event about a charity, Livatino said. It takes a little bit of the emphasis off of orange and blue versus blue and green, and puts it on something positive that everybody can get behind.

At the game, student summit membersjunior and senior athletes from both schoolswore red Hoops for Haiti T-shirts, a color that gave nod to the red and blue Haitian flag.

The students also passed out blue rubber bracelets with the two schools names imprinted to raise awareness about the cause.

Collection boxes, an extra dollar tacked onto ticket prices, ribbons passed out with $1 donations and a halftime three-point contest served as fundraisers for the cause, with the contest bringing in $2,450 alone, donated by Bluestone restaurant in Evanston, Livatino said.

Overall, the event is estimated to have raised about $5,000 Oberembt said.

This was a great chance for us to remind ourselves of the things we have in common, said Timothy Dohrer, principal of New Triers Winnetka campus. Its good to cheer for your team, but not jeer for the other team.

Evanston senior and former cheerleader Jessica Williams, who sat on the summit, said the meeting changed her perspective on sportsmanship.

We learned that we should bring ourselves up, rather than push another team down, Williams said. I feel like it interfered with the actual game. People didnt let the players playit was just about the rivalry.

At the summit meeting the students were asked to explain what they respected about the other team, she said.

It was awful because we were speechless, Williams said.

In some ways the schools rivalry has to do with race and class, according to ETHS senior Aidan Murphy, a summit member who plays baseball and soccer.

[The summit] was a great chance to talk to them and figure out who they actually were, Murphy said.

The meeting helped surface unspoken problems, said New Trier junior Kristin Wright, who plays golf and lacrosse.

It really helped everyone open their eyes to the problems and see that were all very similar, Wright said.

New Trier-wide relief effort:

Bridging understanding across differences is what New Trier social studies faculty member Carolyn Muir hopes to achieve.

Muir heads a committee thats leading a school-wide effort to raise $100,000 for a village 4 miles outside of Port-Au-Prince called Petit-Goave.

We want to encourage our kids to have that attitude that when were helping others that in physical ways are less fortunate, we are looking at it as a partnership, Muir said. [Its not], We are here to help you, arent we great? Thats not the message.

Two security guards at New Trier have ties to Petit-Goave and approached the school about raising funds to repair a local school there called St. Joseph School.

Planning for a long-term fundraiser began last year and includes interdisciplinary school study about Haiti. It was scheduled to kick off this March, Muir said, but the earthquake sped up the process.

Now, St. Joseph School needs rebuilding, and has become part of a larger project, which also includes raising funds for an additional school, Muir said.

Hoops for Haiti was one of many efforts planned for the spring.
 

By Blair Chavis|Triblocal.com reporter

Triblocal.com photos by Blair Chavis