Every season, Trinity athletes circle a few key games on their calendars. Rival schools are all competing for the same thing in conferences: victory. This year, Southwestern University and Berry College topped the list of Trinity’s biggest rivals.
Southwestern is one of Trinity’s competitors, facing off the Tigers in most sports. J.C. Bunch, head coach of baseball at Southwestern University, was also formerly the assistant coach at Trinity. For Bunch, rival schools shape college sports teams.
“A lot of times, rivalries in sports deal with teams that are very familiar with each other. They’ve played against each other their whole lives,” Bunch said. “In a college setting, [teams] are recruiting from the same location of kids, so some of the kids may have played together in high school or a club, and now, they’re on a different college team. That creates a natural rivalry because you always want to beat your friends. There’s a familiarity aspect to it.”
After entering the SAA in 2017, Trinity’s football team established rivalries with the other teams in their conference, including Berry and Southwestern. Senior quarterback Collin Bishop commented on the team’s preparation before rivalry games.
“Our rivals are typically the teams we play when the stakes are at the highest. It’s the teams we’ve seen consistently over the last four or five years,” Bishop said. “For us, it’s always about proving who we are as a program every time we play a team, and more so whenever we play a big rival. We want to make the claim, and we want to make it known that we are the team to beat.”
Over the weekend, Trinity football played Southwestern and won 65-14. This win added to the team’s undefeated 4-0 record in the 2025 season. Bishop explained the team’s mentality going into a game.
“From a game plan standpoint, we’re going to approach it like we do for anybody else. Just because they are a rival doesn’t mean we’re going to scout them any differently or game plan any differently,” Bishop said. “There’s just going to be more urgency in the way that we approach that week, and I think that’s just natural.”
Trinity’s volleyball team is also establishing new rivals. This year, the team is transitioning from the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference to the Southern Athletic Association (SAA), which brings different teams and new rivals to the court. The team was originally a competitor in the SAA before splitting off. Sophomore Brynn Bishop said the team is adjusting to their new competitors upon reentering the SAA.
“It’s fun to hear what our coach has to say about the teams because on all four levels, no one knows much about any of the teams, so it’s all new,” Bishop said. “It’s fun getting to learn every team’s habits, like what they do well, and what areas we can emphasize on our side of the court.”
Starting off their conference play on Sept. 20, women’s volleyball defeated Berry with a set score of 3-0. The team’s overall record in the SAA is 6-0 with their most recent win against Millsaps College on Sept. 28 with a score of 3-1.
“We take every team as it comes, and we want to keep our level of play consistent as much as we can,” Bishop said. “If we’re playing down to the other team’s levels, we know that we’re not playing to the best of our ability. The week coming up to the games is a lot of excitement, and everyone is just looking forward to the game.”
Trinity’s baseball team, which moved to the SAA with Southwestern this season, begins their season in Feburary and will play the Pirates at some point. As a head coach, Bunch encourages his players to be competitive when playing rival schools like Trinity.
“I love playing Trinity because I know when we play, both of us are going to compete relentlessly,” Bunch said. “It’s going to be straight-up baseball, and the winner wins, and the loser tries to get better.”
Trinity beat Berry in volleyball a few weeks ago and they will face another rival, Southwestern, on Oct. 24 in Georgetown, Texas. Trinity football will follow their victory against Southwestern with a game against Berry on Oct. 11 in Georgia. With back-to-back matchups on the horizon, anticipation is building as the Tigers face their rivals in the upcoming weeks.
