On a recent afternoon, a group of teenagers were playing Frisbee on a lawn on Marthas Vineyard, having a fairly typical conversation for children who grew up on this storied island: They were talking about how much they despise Nantucket.

We dont like Nantucket at all, said Zac Wannamaker. Like, not one bit, Augusto Bueno added. Pressed for reasons, both struggled for an answer. They just did.

Of the seven youths playing Frisbee, only one had even been to Nantucket. But for those who grew up on either of these islands, disliking the other is a birthright enforced through years of athletic rivalry culminating in the fierce Island Cup battle between the high school football teams. For decades, the coach of the Nantucket team visited newborns in the hospital to present them with a tiny football.

While the rivalry between Nantucket and Marthas Vineyard is very real, those on both sides say the root is simply this: Everyone needs a rival, and theyre the only other thing around.

Its little more than the old My-island-is-better-than-your-island thing, said Luke DeBettencourt, a fourth-generation Vineyarder.

But what has changed, natives say, is how rabid the rivalry has become off the field, especially among the summer people who couldnt care less who wins the football game but care very much about what their island choice says about them.

I like the Vineyard because I find its more diverse culturally and economically and socially, said Lisbeth Cooper, who has been coming to Marthas Vineyard each summer since the 1970s. When I go to Nantucket, I just feel out of place, she said as she paused from reading Anna Karenina on the beach in Oak Bluffs, where her son now owns an inn.

Oak Bluffs is just revolting, Richard Zahm said as he rode the ferry to his preferred island, Nantucket. Its like the Jersey Shore. The colors are garish.

Both islands, of course, are summer paradises of great natural beauty. They are also very expensive, very exclusive, and very preppy. Nantucket, the broad-brush argument goes, is just more extreme in all categories. In other words, many Vineyarders say, snobby.

We totally agree, Whitey Willauer, a Nantucket selectman, said to the charge of snobbiness as he sat with friends at the private Wharf Rat Club just off the ferry terminal. They tend to be movie-starish. We tend to attract CEOs and political persons. Its a different culture.

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Vineyard-Nantucket rivalry is part of islands' mystique