Lane Tech-Taft: A rivalry gone digital

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Rosie Langello​
Special Contributor to CSNChicago.com

In 2003, Mahmoud Abdelfattah was standing at the foul line on Taft's Senior Night with two minutes left to play when a fight broke out in the stands. When he looked up, the entire student section started running towards him.

"Before I knew it, I didn't even have the ball anymore," Adelfattah said. "There was elbows and punches being thrown and security was trying to break up the hundreds of students."

That was a memorable moment in one of the most heated rivalries in the city. Taft and Lane Tech are the two largest high schools in the Chicago Public School district and stand only six miles apart.

But in recent years, the 25-year old rivalry has drifted from fist fighting, to keyboard punching.

"This has been going on for years and it's pathetic," said Lane Tech senior Almina Sabanovic. "Just recently we played Uplift High School, who is very good at basketball, and we got dunked on by one of their players. Taft printed out that image and they also posted it everywhere. It's very disrespectful."

Over the years, social media has exaggerated the rivalry and a lot of the tension has nothing to do with the players at all, said Brett Nishibayashi, in his 15th year as Taft basketball coach and an alumnus of the school.

Read the full story at Medill Reports Chicago.

CSN Chicago, in partnership with Northwestern University,  features journalism by students in the graduate program at Medill School of Journalism. The students are reporters for Medill News Service. Medill faculty members edit the student work. Click here for more information about Medill.

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