The “cross-town rivalry” is a classic trope, but for the Pomona-Pitzer (P-P) Sagehens and the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS) Stags and Athenas, the rivalry is a bit more intimate.
Saturday, Oct. 5, kicks off the fall 2024 Sixth Street Rivalry weekend, pinning multiple P-P and CMS teams against one another. It will begin with a clash between CMS and P-P women’s soccer at 11 a.m..
While P-P prevailed with a 16-1-3 record compared to CMS’s 7-7-3 record in the 2023 season, P-P women’s soccer Head Coach Jennifer Scanlon explained that play usually levels out in the battle for Sixth Street.
“Some years [CMS] were the better squad, some years we were,” Scanlon said. ”But that never mattered when the game started, it was the Sixth Street Rivalry and anything could happen.”
As the day progresses, the men’s soccer teams will face each other on Pritzlaff Field at 7 p.m.. At the same time, CMS football will take its famed “Stag Walk” along Sixth Street to Merritt Field to kick off against P-P.
CMS wide receiver James Ryan CM ’26 — whose older brother Michael Ryan PO ’25 plays for P-P football — said the rivalry’s intensity is visible in the Sixth Street games.
“Seeing pictures and watching film from games in the past definitely shows how big this rivalry is,” Ryan said. “I definitely think it adds an additional layer of pressure, but a good kind of pressure.”
P-P football Head Coach John Walsh is no stranger to infamous rivalries, having been a collegiate athlete in the Amherst-Williams “Biggest Little Game in America,” which has been ongoing since 1884.
Walsh also experienced the Harvard-Yale rivalry — known famously as “The Game” — during his coaching tenure at Yale University. Yet even amidst these nationally known competitions, Walsh acknowledged there is something special about the one across Sixth Street.
“Everyone thinks their rivalry is the biggest,” Walsh said. “But in every rivalry I’ve been a part of, you get to go home after you win or lose. You’re separated for a year. Here, you’re playing a game and you’re at the same dining halls the next day. You can’t run away from it, you can’t hide.”
However, CMS defensive back Kirby Baynes CM ’25 said the rivalry does not always bleed into life off the field.
“There can be tension at times, but overall, there are little issues off the field,” Baynes said. “I’ve had classes with players from P-P and see them around constantly. I have no issue putting the rivalry aside to learn or study.”
While the rivalry heats up around game time, according to P-P linebacker Nicholas Kaufman PO ’25, things tend to cool down once play is over.
“I think when in season it’s not that easy to put the rivalry aside because everyone wants to win Sixth Street,” Kaufman said. “But once the season is over I feel like interactions between P-P and CMS players become a little more relaxed.”
David Nolan, currently the head coach of CMS’s women’s soccer team and previously the associate head coach for P-P, has witnessed the impact of the rivalry on both sidelines.
“The uniqueness of this rivalry is unmatched anywhere else in the nation,” Nolan said. “There is always an extra bite to the games.”
But for now, it’s all up for grabs this weekend on Saturday, Oct. 5 as P-P and CMS face off in women’s soccer, men’s soccer and football.
“There’s a lot of noise and a lot of bragging rights on the line,” CMS football defensive back Nick Wilde CM ’26 said. “It just means you have to focus even more.”
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