SPORTS TALK
With Michael Betteridge
One Tiny Spark
Every year at the end of the high school sports season, I traditionally like to wrap up the Catoctin spring sports season in this column on a high note and thank our seniors who are heading out for larger pastures and broader horizons.
The big news this spring season was the weather. I can personally say this was the weirdest weather season I have ever seen in 19 years of broadcasting high school sports. If it wasn’t the wind, it was the drought. If it wasn’t the drought, it was the flood. We found ourselves embroiled in dust devils swirling in our faces, lifting our broadcast canopy into the air, hanging on desperately to the frame with one hand and the laptop with the other. When the dust wasn’t choking us, the wind was blowing us around like paper dolls. Baseball and softball, it didn’t matter. This was a terrible year to be playing high school spring sports and trying to run a broadcast.
Case in point: we set up our mobile broadcast booth behind the backstop on field #4 in Glen Burnie for the state softball semifinals. We had Linganore on the schedule at 4:00 p.m. and Urbana at 7:00 p.m. It was a hot, burning, dry 97 degrees at game time. By the second inning, our gear and our clothing were covered in a layer of dirt and dust. The softball field had a trench forming in front of the pitcher’s circle. Bachman Field is normally a men’s softball complex. The State has been using it for high school softball state semis for 28 years. It requires major changes to the basepaths, pitching circles, and outfield to make it compatible for high school softball.
In our first game, the dirt in front of the pitcher’s rubber disintegrated under the pressure of the pitcher’s planted foot. It was too dry to absorb the impact. By the end of the evening, there was a foot-deep trench in front of the softball pitching rubber. The pitcher’s plant foot would disappear on each and every pitch. It was terrible! There was very little outfield grass, only dust. It blew steadily in towards us. We were covered in a layer of brown. I took two showers when I got home.
And then a polar shift occurred. The next week, the coup-de-gras: RAIN! Massive rain, inches, pouring down, drowning fields covered in tarps, days at a time, and right at the most crucial point in the season: the state championship week. Organizers struggled to prepare fields. Coaches looked at the brackets and schedules and scratched their heads. Athletic directors tried to calm frayed nerves. Postponements wrang out from the MPSSAA websites. Friday and Saturday championship scheduled days were gone. There was a faint hope that on Monday—Memorial Day—the rain would stop. But, it didn’t. It was a last-ditch rain date for the State. We played anyway. The games started at around 11:00 a.m. and finished just before midnight, with numerous rain delays throughout the day in College Park and Aberdeen. What a mess! I heard scientists mention we are in a super El Niño. Maybe that’s the explanation for the weather this spring. I can tell you firsthand, there is nothing “super” about this child of the Pacific.
Shifting gears now, I would like to look back at our high school spring sports season. Let’s start with our Lady Cougars softball team. After dropping their final game of the season to undefeated Boonsboro, they cried a little, hugged, packed up their gear, and went home. But what they didn’t realize was that Boonsboro was headed for the same pain they experienced last year in the state championship against the same team, Mardela, but this time, it was a train wreck for Boonsboro. Last year, Mardela scratched the winning run across the plate with a fly ball to right field in the bottom of the 7th against Catoctin. A walk-off RBI to end the game sent our Lady Cougars home as runners-up in the 1A Maryland State softball championship. That train wreck Boonsboro experienced against Mardela a couple of weeks ago came in the form of two runs in the first inning and nine in the second. By the fifth inning, the mercy rule was invoked, and Boonsboro suffered the first defeat in their 2026 season, 11-0, and Mardela had back-to-back state championships.
Just to give you an idea of what to expect next year with Catoctin softball, the only senior on the Catoctin team, Kassidy Kreitz, broke her wrist in a car accident and missed most of the softball season. The Catoctin Lady Cougars softball team battled all the way to the regional final without one senior on the team. In comparison, the 2025 Cougars State championship runner-up team had five. They are young and deep. Most of these ladies play multiple sports, so imagine the potential and development they will bring to the 2027 softball season. Personally, I can’t wait!
Our Catoctin boys baseball team finished their season in the regional quarterfinal at Boonsboro. Our guys had no problem putting runs across the plate. Where they struggled was keeping the opponent off the scoreboard. Coach Delawter, in his first season, stamped his own competitive nature on this team, that same competitive nature that made him one of the best left-handed pitchers and first basemen in Maryland at Catoctin during his high school career. The team responded to his leadership, and next year will be even better.
Catoctin boys and girls lacrosse would like to see Middletown leave the 1A and go back to the 2A where they belong. Both the boys and girls lacrosse teams drew Middletown in the regional final brackets and watched their seasons end. The boys lacrosse team finished 9-5, and the girls team finished 8-7. An excellent year for both teams. Footnote: Our very own Tyler Wilhelm, who has been with WTHU since he graduated from Shepherd University with a degree in sports communications, stepped out of the broadcast booth to become an assistant boys lacrosse coach this spring at Catoctin. We are very proud of Catoctin alumnus Tyler Wilhelm for taking on that role.
Let’s talk Catoctin Tennis state tournaments for a moment. Zachary Kerr advanced to the regional quarterfinals. Blake and Connor Smith played in the boys doubles round 1 regionals. Grace May played in the girls singles regional quarterfinals. Madelynn Myers and Adalyn DeGrange competed in the girls doubles regional quarterfinals. Delaney Hench and Jackson Starliper competed in the mixed doubles regional quarterfinals.
In the Catoctin boys track and field championship competition, Owen French placed 6th in the 100- and 200-meter prelims. Noah Riling placed 3rd in the 3200-meter final. Isaac Hernandez, Grady Abruzzese, Sean Hoyle, and Noah Riling placed 9th in the 4×800 relay finals. Conner Dodson tied for 5th in the boys high jump. The Catoctin boys track and field team placed 10th in the Maryland State Championship meet in a field of 27 schools.
Our Lady Cougars track and field competition saw Layna Durrschmidt compete in the 200-meter prelims. Kaydense Cox, Layna Durrschmidt, Olivia Baker, and Olivia Hoyt placed 6th in the 4×200 relay finals. Olivia Baker, Adalynn Mucker, Isabel Brodsky, and Olivia Hoyt placed 4th in the 4×800 relay girls track finals.
Kayla Jones and Raquel Owens competed in the girls discus. Catoctin girls track and field team also placed 10th in a field of 20 schools.
I would like to broaden my focus a bit as we wrap up the high school spring sports season. In Frederick County, Urbana finished the season as the top team in Maryland, with an historic four championship spring sports titles: Urbana baseball, boys lacrosse, girls lacrosse, and girls track and field. Congratulations to Thurmont native and Urbana principal Donna Clabaugh and all of her “team” for leading the best spring sports school representing Frederick County! Oakdale and Middletown baseball went all the way to the state quarterfinals. Just to put a little perspective on how competitive Frederick County high school sports can be: We had six teams in the state baseball and softball quarterfinals representing three of four divisions: 4A, 3A, and 2A: Urbana, Middletown, Linganore, and Oakdale. Linganore softball came within one game of playing for a state championship. Urbana softball, playing in the Maryland 4A state softball championship, dropped a thriller in the bottom of the eighth to Broadneck 1-0. That may have been the best softball game we have ever broadcast. It is available in our archive at fredcosports.com, if you would like to check it out.
A special shoutout to Olivia Baker, the MPSSAA “Minds in Motion” scholarship award winner, recognized for excelling on the field and in the classroom!
And now, on to our wonderful Catoctin senior athletes:
Baseball: Ethan Burkhart, Brennan Conrad, Mason Ferrell, Owen Furry, Levi Misner, and Zachary Williams.
Basketball: Ella Burgee, Kassidy Kreitz, Kelsey Troxell, Brooke Williams, Ben Belluomo, Jaiden Moore, Brendan Orr, Aiden Pierre, Cooper Wiles, and Zachary Williams.
Cross Country: Reine Tichom.
Field Hockey: Madison Ball, Darby Karson, and Lillian Grable.
Football: Konnor Dodson, Payton Edwards, Blaine Lenhart, Tyler McCallion. Levi Misner, Devin Phillips, Kai Ridenhour, and Jayden Worthington.
Golf: Delaney and Griffin Hench.
Lacrosse: Caryn Blum, Josh Dayton, Wyatt Ferson, Blaine Lenhart, Tyler McCallion, Brendan Orr, Devin Phillips, Kai Ridenhour, Connor Stahley, and Ethan Williams.
Soccer: Olivia Baker, Brianna Montoya, Caroline Sanders, Mason Brown, Lucas Cabellero-Perla, Chase Jackson, Zachary Kerr, Jared Turner, and Aiden Wooters.
Softball: Kassidy Kreitz.
Tennis: Madison Andrew, Melanie Applegate, Delaney Hench, Caroline Sanders, Callie Schenck, Maddox Cabellero, Zach Kerr, and Jackson Starliper.
Track and Field: Olivia Baker, Leyna Durrschmidt, Ellen Hossain, Tatiana Owens, Keegan Schneider, Keira Shew, Titchom Tchagam, Konnor Dodson, Griffin Hench, Aiden Pierre, Chase Jackson, Maria Perella, and Michael Thornton II.
Volleyball: Aubrey Calhoun, Jocelyn Hernandez, Mya Horman, Cadence Lovejoy, and Tatiana Owens.
I bid you farewell with one of my favorite Scottish blessings: “How great a fire you can kindle with one tiny spark, how great a tree you can grow from one tiny seed.”
