The start of the new year means it’s rivalry and bragging-rights time among Arlington’s six (three boys, three girls) varsity public high-school basketball teams.
Which girls and boys team will finish with the best record against their rivals after all games, regular season and playoffs, are completed between the Wakefield Warriors, Washington-Liberty Generals and Yorktown Patriots?
All of those contest are yet to be played, with the first coming next week. Big crowds often turn out for those contests, no matter where and the night of the week the games are played.
Last season, the Wakefield boys had the best mark among the three rivals at 4-1. The W-L girls had the same record. No trophies were awarded for those best marks, but the bragging rights indeed meant a lot to the Warriors and Generals.
A number of the basketball games were close last winter. The Yorktown boys defeated both Wakefield and Washington-Liberty in games by two points each, and the W-L boys nipped Yorktown by two in overtime. The Yorktown girls defeated Washington-Liberty by four in one of their two meetings.
The Wakefield girls played W-L tough in a district-tournament game, losing by seven.
The first of those rivalry games this season, usually doubleheaders played at the same site each night at 5:45 and 7:30 p.m., are next week on Tuesday (Jan. 14) between Yorktown and Wakefield, then Thursday (Jan. 16) with Washington-Liberty hosting Wakefield.
Yorktown and W-L play Tuesday (Jan. 21) and Thursday (Feb. 13). Wakefield and Yorktown meet again Monday (Feb. 10), as do Wakefield and W-L on Friday (Feb. 7).
