A closer look: Old friends make new rivals

Beat ‘SC Week is a time for UCLA students to unite under
school spirit, but for some it may be a time for friends to become
rivals.

The legendary rivalry between UCLA and USC may rear its head
when Bruins and Trojans who went to high school together suddenly
get caught up in more than 70 years of history.

Dan Corman, a third-year UCLA history student, has known his
Trojan friend, Vince Lazalde, since his sophomore year of high
school.

When they realized they would be attending rival universities,
they turned it into a joke, Corman said.

“We definitely joke around a lot, especially during Beat
‘SC Week,” he said.

Lazalde said he would not want to be around UCLA during Beat
‘SC Week.

Although the rivalry at USC is not like at UCLA, where an entire
week is dedicated to the feud, students still display their school
spirit, he said.

“We have … people who have bears in nooses hanging from
their backpacks,” Lazalde said.

Corman and Lazalde said they have mutual friends from the rival
universities and feel no ill will toward them due to the feud.

“Everybody’s friendly (at USC),” Corman said.
“There’s no one that’s going to give me serious
problems.”

Though Corman and Lazalde are friends, they take sides when it
comes to sports.

Lazalde said the football game is an important event for him,
and he sits with people from USC during the game.

“One of my UCLA friends might sit with me at the next
game, but normally I wouldn’t want to subject someone to
that,” he said.

Charlene McCord, a second-year microbiology, immunology and
molecular genetics student, has an entire group of Trojan friends
with whom she shares the rivalry.

McCord met most of her Trojan friends during her freshman year
of high school, and she has known one of them since the fourth
grade.

When she and her friends applied to college, McCord applied to
UCLA but not USC, while her friends applied to both.

Her friends were not accepted to UCLA, so they decided to attend
USC, McCord said.

“Pretty much all of them wanted to go to UCLA, so I made
fun of them when they went to USC,” she said.

Now that McCord and her friends have attended their respective
universities for over a year, they have had a chance to get a feel
for the stigma each campus places on the other.

McCord said that sometimes when her Trojan friends introduce her
as the “UCLA girl” to other USC students, they ignore
her or make sly remarks about UCLA when she is around.

“I’ve been told by my friends to be cautious at
USC,” she said. “I’m afraid of what they’ll
do to me.”

Though McCord may not run around USC wearing her UCLA sweater,
she shows her school spirit during Beat ‘SC Week.

McCord attended the bonfires and games when she was in high
school and continues to do so now that she is a UCLA student.

“Me and my friends definitely go to our separate sides
when it comes to sports,” McCord said.

When first-year business economics student Shaina Zaidi goes to
the UCLA-USC game, she will not only be rooting against her high
school friend’s team, but soon enough she will be playing
against her.

Both Zaidi and her Trojan friend Eshaya Murphy are beginning
their college careers on opposing basketball teams.

As a participant in the athletics department, Zaidi said she
gets the chance to express her school spirit.

“I go to all of the sports events and rally and cheer for
our team,” she said.

At the games, Zaidi said she and Murphy only take the rivalry so
far.

“We sit on opposing sides, but we’ll go over to the
other side to talk to each other,” Zaidi said.

In addition to attending games, Zaidi expresses her school
spirit by wearing her UCLA sweater everywhere.

She said that although she has not had a chance to visit her
friend at USC, she would even wear her sweater at the rival
campus.

Zaidi added she would not be surprised if USC students did not
appreciate her wearing a UCLA sweater on their campus.

“They don’t want us to bring our spirit over there
just as I wouldn’t want them bringing theirs (to
UCLA),” she said.

Though McCord and Zaidi joke about the Bruin-Trojan rivalry with
their friends, they do not turn it into a serious issue.

“It’s all in fun. … But (Murphy) came to visit me
wearing a USC sweater, and I told her to take it off,” Zaidi
said.