By Candace Barczyk
Andrew Stillman has been the athletic director at Vermilion since 2015. A year later, his brother, Ty, became the athletic director at Firelands. Out of the friendly rivalry between brothers was born the Stillman Cup, which is awarded to the winner of the athletic battles between the two schools at the end of each year. The cup travels with the team that won the latest contest, and Andrew said as a result of the trophy, he and Ty have been able to schedule more contests between these Vermilion rivals.
“We keep a tally of wins and losses for the year. My brother was at Oberlin first, and then went to Firelands,” said Andrew. “We started this during the 2016-17 season. During the first year, Vermilion won 5-1-2. During the second year, Vermilion won again 7-2-1. Currently, it’s close, Vermilion is winning 5-4, which I’m not happy about. This is just another thing to create a great experience for the kids.”
“We have cousins playing cousins, brothers playing brothers. There’s a lot of crossover family-wise. When the kids get together, they know each other. It adds just something a little extra.”
Andrew said he has a whiteboard in his office constantly keeping track of the rivalry. There are the more traditional sports like football, but then there is track and field. “Firelands runs at our track meet, and we keep track of the points. At track and field, we keep track of the girls’ points and the boys’ points and come up with the winner. It goes back and forth all year long.”
Until the end of the season, we will all be waiting to see if the Stillman Cup continues to sail in Vermilion or flies back to Firelands.
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