Duke UNC Rivalry Comes to Harrison at Prom

We all know the names, Krzyzewski, Jordan, and Laettner. Next year two members of the Harrison High School class of 2010 will be enjoying that prestigious rivalry on Tobacco Road.

Melissa Shulman competed at elite levels in high school athletics over the past few years. She played field hockey and lacrosse for the Huskies this year and next year she will be a member of the University of North Carolina Tar Heels student body.

"My athletic future is up in the air right now, it depends a lot on when I actually get down there," said Shulman, "I am not ready to give up lacrosse, I may join the club team, or play intramurals, I may try to scope out the scene with the school's team but that probably won't happen. Most likely it will be club if I have enough time."

Shulman had a multitude of options in colleges. She applied to ten schools known for both athletics and academics and she got into every single one, but being a legacy she felt she was meant to be a Tar Heel.

"North Carolina is a great school in communications and more importantly public relations," said Shulman, "my father went to UNC and I have pictures of me as a four year old in the cheerleading outfit, it was pretty much destiny."

Brady Klein was one of only 10 three-sport athletes at Harrison in his senior season. He was captain of the school's tennis team along with being an important part of the soccer and basketball teams. In September Klein will be a member of the 2014 class at Duke University.

"I am aiming to try out for club tennis," said Klein, "it may be too much, intramurals may be competitive enough for me. Duke's sports programs are very time consuming so we will have to wait and see where I fit in."

Klein looked at several schools and says that he could see himself going to UNC had they had a quality engineering program. However after he was accepted to Duke early action he withdrew from the other schools and signed his letter of intent to Duke.

"I really wanted to go to a school with a good engineering program," said Klien, "Duke offered me the best balance of academics, athletics and having the programs I wanted to it was the best school for what I was interested in."

Shulman and Klein have been friends since their first days at Purchase School in kindergarten. This June Klein asked Shulman to the senior class prom. Their new-found college rivalry didn't discourage the couple from going together; in fact it played a large part in the prom process.

On his visit to Chapel Hill Klein purchased a Carolina winter beanie and after he had decided to go to Duke Shulman begged him for the beanie. The suave Klein used the beanie when he asked Shulman to prom.

"I was telling her about the beanie for a while but never with the intention that I was asking her to prom," said Klein, "had I figured it was great that I had something that she wanted and I could use it when I asked her to prom. I ended up giving her the beanie with a note inside of it and left it in the mailbox at her friend's house while she was there, and she said yes."

The couple even carried their rivalry into prom night as it accidentally influenced their wardrobe.

"I was looking online at some dresses," said Shulman, "I found one that I loved well before I had a date to prom and it just so happened to be Duke Blue. I knew it was the dress I wanted and it was purely coincidental."

"I took some fashion liberties of my own but I knew I had to blend," said Klein, "we didn't match but we blended. At one point I texted her a picture of a shirt asking her if it was okay and she approved."

Even though the tension of the rivalry is often tangible both young adults are happy they are staying close to one another.

"It's pretty funny it worked out this way," said Klein,"I am happy I will have one of my best friends close to me, I will be able to travel to and from school or home with her and we can always make times to see one another."

Said Shulman, "we both love the craziness of the rivalry. It is a culture in both universities to hate one another, and it's an accepted culture."

In the next few years both Shulman and Klein have said that they think it is possible that they would go to a rivalry game together but they don't think they would be able to maintain their normal level of friendship.

"With technology today we plan on keeping in touch as much as possible," said Shulman, "we are good friends and with things like video chats and text messages we can easily make plans to see each other, and we have buses that go from campus to campus so we both plan on staying close."

Last year the Blue Devils beat North Carolina twice on their way to a national championship. But both teams will surely be restacked next year giving both Melissa Shulman and Brady Klein several years of championship quality basketball in the near future.