SPORTS TALK
with Michael Betteridge
History Doesn’t Repeat Itself… Sports Columnists Do
High school fall sports in November means playoffs, and the playoff structure is always a moving target. The governing body of high school sports, the MPSSAA (Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association), determines which schools are in the four divisions: 1A, 2A, 3A, and 4A. The divisions are based upon enrollment—smallest to largest. Then they are broken down further by region: north, south, east, and west.
Catoctin football is in the 1A North. What makes it confusing is that all other Catoctin fall sports are in the 1A West—soccer, field hockey, and volleyball. Go figure!
In the new kinder, gentler world of high school sports, where we’re all winners, everyone makes it into the playoffs. That has bred a new coaching mentality that—for an old-school coach like me—is hard to understand.
Recently, a Frederick County football head coach told me that since everybody plays in the playoffs, coaches now approach the regular season as a “preseason” for the postseason. He said the postseason is the season that matters! He uses the regular season to correct problems, determine strengths, and fine-tune their on-field product. Injuries are still the wild card, but he can avoid them by platooning players. Platooning is a system of rotating skill players in and out of a regular game, depending on the situation, to keep fresh legs on the field and avoid injury.
Last month, I questioned why Catoctin sports has so few wins. It appears that part of that could just be that the incentive to win is not as pressing as it used to be, or it could just be a convenient excuse for teams that are losing. One thing is sure, the regular season at Catoctin has been tough so far. Catoctin football is currently sitting in 6th place in their region in a field of eight in football. Catoctin field hockey has one win in the season and is sitting in 27th place in the state. Girls soccer is in last place at 0-8. Boys soccer has fared a little better, sitting in 2nd place with a 3-4 record as of mid-October, but there are only three teams in their region. And, finally, Lady Cougars volleyball is sitting in 5th place in a field of six with two wins on the season.
In mid-October, the Cougars fall sports season is a combined 8-23.
Case in point, last year in the playoffs, after a difficult regular season, Catoctin football went on a playoff run that no one expected, pulling off a couple of upsets to beat Loch Raven and then Patterson Mill. The season ended at eventual State champion runner-up Mountain Ridge. That’s a pretty respectable postseason after a disappointing regular season. My theory is right on track.
It has always been difficult for small high schools to perform consistently at a high level. Winning takes talent. Skilled players are hard to find. It’s simply a numbers game. When you have a larger pool of talent, it’s easier to put a better team on the field. Oakdale has 66 players on their roster. Catoctin has 30. With smaller school team sports, the talent comes in waves. It’s not enough to have one really good kid playing soccer or football. You need several. That explains my new Catoctin sports theory: the decade wave. You have a couple of four- or five-win years and then, all of a sudden, a six-win and then an eight-win and then WHAM: 14-0 in 2009! The next year, five wins. Then you hover around five for a couple of years, throw in a bad three-win year, and then an eight-win year, and WHAM: 13-1 in 2019! See how that works?
So, here is the good news. We are five years past our last championship football season. We had five wins last year. Right on target. Mark 2029 on your calendar. If my theory holds true, we should all turn out to support our Catoctin Youth and Football League, especially the class of 2030. They are the ones to watch.
To paraphrase a famous Mark Twain saying: History doesn’t repeat itself…sports columnists do. Go Cougars!
