Wissahickon & Upper Dublin joined forces to turn a spirited neighborhood rivalry into a “Food Drive Blitz” competition that will benefit the Maddie N. Dixon Community Cupboard. (Photos provided by Jim Cairnes/Wissahickon)
It’s a rivalry that’s been going on for as long as anyone can remember, and there’s no mistaking - the rivalry between neighboring Wissahickon and Upper Dublin is one of the special ones.
“I started my rivalry with them in first grade when I started playing lacrosse,” Wissahickon senior Jason Michaels said. “It hasn’t faded at all. If anything, it’s gotten stronger.”
For the past two weeks leading up to Friday night’s season opener between the two squads at Cardinal Stadium, the Trojans and Cardinals have joined forces for a worthy cause, holding a “Food Drive Blitz” to support the Mattie N. Dixon Community Cupboard. Coming as no surprise, they’ve turned the food drive into a competition as well.
“It’s looking pretty close,” UD senior Brett Callahan said. “They’re weighing the food and whoever has the most weight is going to win. The bigger the cans, the better. I wish I had thought of that before – I would have bought bigger cans. I saw ramen, I saw things from peanut butter to apple juice to cranberry juice - any food that can be stored.”
The food was collected at the respective schools and then transported by members of the two teams to the Maddie N. Dixon Community Cupboard located at 150 N. Main Street in Ambler with Thursday at 3 p.m. the deadline for donations.
“At the end of the day, it’s friends helping friends in the community, so it’s cool stuff,” Wissahickon AD Jim Cairnes said. “The kids are competing in a good, friendly way. In this food blitz, there are no losers. The community wins.”
“It’s before the start of the school year – let’s have this good sportsmanship, this good friendly rivalry. We put it out to our entire school district, to all of our teams, and Upper Dublin did the same thing. Both schools share the same community. We want to do right by our community, and it’s a great way for these kids to give back to the community.”
The players assumed the task of spreading the word about the food blitz.
“I know – for me – it was just talking to family and friends, and then obviously the friends at Wissahickon are getting other sports involved,” said Wissahickon senior Aiden DeFeo.
“This is really a cool thing to do,” Trojan senior Chase Bethea said. “Just seeing the big impact we have on the community and how many people in our community are willing to help out and give to people who really need the food.”
According to Callahan, the Cardinals got creative trying to get the word out.
“We made a little video the other day with our video guy named Mike Young – he’s great,” the UD senior said. “We posted it on the Instagram. It was a nice community outreach – hey, we’re collecting cans for the Maddie Dixon Foundation. I think that did a great job. Everybody reposted it. We were all telling people to bring in their cans. We want to win this.”
It’s great to see the final product,” Michaels said. “I know a lot of our friends had little piles of food, and now it’s great to see the impact we’re going to make in the community. Another chance to beat Upper Dublin at something – it’s always great.”
The winner will be announced between the first and second quarter of Friday night’s game.
“It’s going to be good,” Cairnes said.
Friday’s game will be the second sporting event in the year-long battle for the Rivalry Cup, which is owned by Wissahickon for the 2021-22 school year after edging UD 18-16-1 in varsity contests last year.
“We have the cup for the entire year,” Cairnes said. “Upper Dublin won the first golf match, so we’re down 0-1 this year, but we’ve got plenty of time to make sure we win the cup again and keep it in its rightful home at Wissahickon.”
It didn’t take Matt Heiland – the new athletic director at Upper Dublin - long to figure out just how intense this neighboring rivalry is both on and off the field.
“I’m put into a quick fire of this Upper Dublin/Wissahickon rivalry,” Heiland said. “This is definitely a good thing to get things going for the fall season. Working closely with Jim, I know they started the cup last year, so it’s all good competitive fun. We are up 1-0 with the golf match and we want to keep it going tomorrow night with football.”
“This guy comes over for a week, and he’s already beat me,” said Cairnes. “I’m going to surprise Matt - in my passenger seat seat-belted up, I have the cup, so he can take a good look at it. We will take very good care of it.”
Cairnes has a foot in both worlds since his two sons - Tristan and Nate - play football for Upper Dublin. For the past two weeks, both teams were working toward a singular goal – wipe out hunger in their community, but Thursday’s friendly competition promises to get heated on Friday.
“No dirty looks yet,” Callahan said. “Any time you turn a rivalry with football into something better – into a charity event or something like that – it’s just a great opportunity to help out the community.
“I thought this was a fantastic idea. I just think it's great. It makes all of us feel good coming out here and doing something like this before the big game, but we want to win this just like we want to win Friday’s game.”
Stay tuned.
Photo ID: Wissahickon players, left to right, Chase Bethea, Aiden DeFeo and Jason Michaels. Upper Dublin players, left to right, Dan Nardo, Tristan Cairnes, Brett Callahan, Nate Cairnes, Chris Kohlbrenner & Cael Jamison.
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