Suniland Park, 1990: under the bright lights of the field, the Killian baseball team gathers around Head Coach Pete Hertler after winning the last game of the regular season. They have officially beat their number one rivals, Miami Palmetto Senior High, for district qualification. Adrenaline and excitement filling the air around them, Coach Hertler makes a legendary post-game speech that the team will remember for the rest of their lives:
“Get the **** out of here!”
As the Killian players sprint to the parking lot away from one of the most controversial games of MPSH baseball history, the Panthers sprint back to the bases in an attempt to continue the game while the coach protests to the umpires, already undressing.
At the bottom of the 7 with the Panthers down by two, Varsity Baseball player and 1990 MPSH alumn Brett Blatcher was called out twice on the same play.
“We call [the game] the Double Blatch,” 1990 Varsity baseball shortstop Eric Weissman said.
34 years later, players from both teams still laugh and taunt each other over the disputed end of the game and the Panthers’ season.
“I was the starting pitcher, that’s why I remember it. I’ll still tease Eric,” Killian Varsity baseball pitcher and 1990 alumn John Patterson said. “The Double Blatch game was definitely our favorite.”
Since the ‘80s, the Panthers and Cougars have had one of the fiercest rivalries in the county, certainly with some of the most history. From baseball, to basketball, to soccer and football, competitive spirit with Killian has been a pillar of MPSH athletics for as long as anyone can remember.
“Yes, Killian was definitely our main rival,” MPSH Varsity soccer player and 1994 alumn Alan Segrera said. “I think at that time, Killian had seven state championships and Palmetto didn’t have any.”
Though Segrera’s team would go on to the district finals and beat Killian almost every time they played in the next two years, the fierce rivalry led to some close calls.
“One game, we were down 1:0 with maybe five minutes left, and we ended up scoring in the last minute. The goalie got hurt, and we scored again with like 30 seconds left so we won the game 2:1,” Segrera said. “That was the beginning of, ‘We could beat these guys.’”
The ‘94 boys soccer team was extra determined to beat Killian for more reasons than their record, though. The Cougars they faced on the field were also some of their best friends. Carrying their competitive spirit into club practices through taunting, pranks and more, both teams felt a need to back up all their trash talk.
“For high school, we were playing against each other, so that actually made it a lot more fun,” Segrera said. “So, that week of practice at club soccer, it was just a lot of trash-talking until we play.”
Growing up in the same community, Panther-Cougar friendships are what make the historic rivalry so unique. The same could be said for Weissman and Patterson’s teams, sharing some of their most precious moments from childhood leagues, to parties to district semifinals.
“The ultimate sign of respect was my senior year, 1990. Killian advanced to the state Final Four for the first and still only time in school history, and we beat Palmetto in the district semifinals to get there. Eric Weissman and three other varsity [MPSH] players actually rode on the team bus with us and went and rooted for us,” Patterson said. “These were folks that were brothers in arms. They wore blue, we wore yellow and green, but the point is: we played basketball together growing up, we played baseball together, we went to each other’s bar mitzvahs. I mean, it was definitely sort of an extended family.”
Despite the rivalry with Killian being less intense than it was in the past, current MPSH players carry on the legacy of the feud and Panthers’ victories — shoutout to the football team’s stellar win against Killian last Friday.
For some, the gene for cougar hunting runs in the family. Segrera’s son and Varsity soccer player Luca Segrera recognizes the history between the teams and feels the age-old passion despite the games not being as popular anymore.
“I mean, [when we played Killian] there was a little bit of excitement because of the historic rivalry, but when it actually came to game time not many people showed up,” Luca Segrera said. “When [my dad’s team] played [Killian] everyone came out to watch. It was a good game – always close.”
Nowadays, with so many more schools competing in the county, the best way to keep this legendary rivalry alive is Panthers’ presence. Current players and alumni alike encourage students to show their support in the stands for athletes to continue the timeless tradition of crushing Cougars.
One might think this catfight ends at graduation: they are sorely mistaken. In a text string of Varsity Killian baseball players who graduated from around 1988-1992 — which is still active — all it takes is Patterson’s report of one interaction with a Panther they played in their glory days to reignite their competitive spirit.
“Tell that son of a [Panther] that home run I hit off him at Suniland Park is still rolling down US-1,” Patterson’s teammate said.
