SPORTS TALK
With Michael Betteridge
The Real Reason for the Season
Every December, we move from fall high school sports into winter sports. It’s a difficult transition from warm weather to cool weather, then cool weather to cold weather. We move from football, soccer, and field hockey outside to basketball and wrestling inside. I always use this as an opportunity to review the Catoctin Varsity High School fall sports season. This is my feeble attempt to put a “ribbon” on the first third of the high school sports season and move to the second. As you can see, I’m already starting to get in the Christmas spirit, using gift wrapping analogies in a sports column.
Last year, Catoctin finished the fall season 10-34-2. That was a combination record of all fall sports. This year, the football team regressed a bit. Our Catoctin Cougars football team was only able to squeak out one win all season, finishing 1-10. It was a tough year with a couple of close calls against TJ, Smithsburg, and Brunswick. It was a young team with a first-year coach. They never let up and battled through to the final game. This team learned a lot about themselves and their new coach.
Boys soccer finished 3-13, and girls soccer finished 5-13. Girls volleyball went 3-16 on the season. Field Hockey finished 7-14.
Catoctin’s fall season record stands at 15-40. That’s an eight percentage point improvement!
Even though our beloved Catoctin High School sports teams are in the rebuilding phase, Frederick County sports have fully matured. We had four football teams in three divisions in the State quarterfinals: Oakdale, Linganore, Urbana, and Walkersville. The championships take place in the first week of December. We’ll certainly see at least one trophy come back to Frederick County, maybe more. I’m going out on a limb with that prediction. It will be Linganore.
Speaking of predictions, check out our new website at fredcosports.com to get a peek at our Frederick County boys and girls basketball predictions for 2025-26, live broadcast schedules, podcasts, blogs, and more.
I am so grateful for our local sports community. Especially since, as a community, we have become more and more isolated and polarized. The weather is colder. There is more time alone indoors. Holiday demands and preparations distract us. All around us, politics divide us. We spend more time in our cars stuck in traffic and more time in soulless box stores shopping for that “perfect” gift. Local high school sports help us gather together to celebrate and remember the gift of children and youth.
Following the local high school teams on the radio in December is always so rewarding. We begin the month with the biggest game of the year, the State football championships, and just as quickly as the cheers fade and the lights in the stadiums dim, we find ourselves inside a packed basketball gymnasium, cheering our Cougars on and laughing at the antics of the “Catoctin Crazies.” Several years ago, the Crazies, who inhabit the east end of the bleachers on the home team side, came to a Catoctin girls basketball game dressed up as sports broadcasters. They had their own cameras, microphones, and headsets, and they set up right alongside us, running their own courtside sports podcast using a phone during the game. It was hilarious. Coach Rick Little, Coach Brian Burdette, and I understood that this was a way for the kids to make fun of something by having fun with something. That “something” was us. We were no longer the center of attention, and we loved it. For two hours, we were all on the same team: players, fans, broadcasters, Crazies, parents, and spectators. There were, however, a couple of nervous administrators lurking about, wondering if this could get out of hand. But I could see an occasional grin from them, too. It was the most wonderful time of the year.
MY GIFT TO YOU: On Friday, December 19, at 7:00 p.m., Catoctin will host the team that knocked them out of the playoffs earlier this year: Smithsburg. It was a heart-wrenching loss for our girls, with a lot of tears and stunned silence.
I am personally inviting everyone reading this column to show up for that game at Catoctin High School to pack out the gym and show Smithsburg that in Thurmont, our girls are always winners! WTHU will broadcast the game live in case you can’t make it or if you are stuck in traffic. The game will be live on the radio, or you can watch our super-popular videostream on your mobile device at fredcosports.com.
As I wrap up this month’s column (see, I did it again), I am truly thankful for our great high school sports community. The kids give up a lot to play sports during the holidays. There are long hours of practice and preparation. Time spent in the weight rooms, conditioning, and working hard pays off. But do we allow the kids the time to be kids? I have an idea. This month, go to one of the high school coaches—boys and girls basketball, wrestling, indoor track, and swimming—and ask: “Is there anything I can do for the kids?” Maybe you could bring in some pizzas and have a party, or organize a sports choir to go caroling, or have an angel tree for one of the kids on a sports team who may not have the kind of Christmas you and I will have. That’s just a few ideas for you. I’m sure you can come up with many more that are better.
After all, they give us such joy from September to June.
Isn’t that the real reason for the season…giving just because it feels good?
