with Michael Betteridge If Rodeo Was Easy, They’d Call It FootballMy 21-year-old granddaughter, Maida, lives on a farm up in Ortanna, Pennsylvania. She is an accomplished barrel racer, competing often at the Chambersburg Saddle Club. For many years, I coached her brother, Stephen, in Fairfield youth football. My daughter, Corinne, their mother, and her family…

Sports Talks with Michael Betterridge Every year, at the beginning of every sports season—fall, winter, and spring—I find that I always have a pre-conceived narrative developed in my head about how the season will turn out before it even starts. And I am certain that the narrative will come to fruition simply because I love…

with Michael Betteridge This month, we tack on an extra day to the end of the month: February 29. This is called a leap year. We do it every four years. But, since the advent of the atomic clock, which is even more precise than the Gregorian calendar that Western civilization has used for hundreds…

with Michael Betteridge Prediction: Christmas Will Come Early This Year Here in December, many of us are out shopping for Christmas gifts for our loved ones. Flush with the delicious smells of the Thanksgiving kitchen and basking in the glow of tryptophans, we pull out the wrapping paper, ribbons and bows and we start wrapping…

with Michael Betteridge Comfort Is The Enemy Of Greatness Our hometown Catoctin Cougars’ fall sports season began on August 9 at 7:00 a.m. at Catoctin High School, when our guys and gals came streaming through the doors of the school, carrying their gym bags, equipment, and hopes and dreams for the fall 2023 high school…

with Michael Betteridge There Is Something Special Happening on Sabillasville Road It’s not like Catoctin Baseball Coach Mike Franklin has never been mentioned here on these pages before. Coach Franklin is in his 24th season coaching Catoctin baseball. He was honored here in the Banner as Fellowship of Christian Athletes Coach of the Year in…

with Michael Betteridge “How Do We Measure Success?” What has been the most successful team in Catoctin Cougars’ history? Was it the 1986 football team, or that amazing 2009 football team, or the 2019 football team winning it all over again a decade later in Coach Doug Williams’ last game? Perhaps, it was the 2013-14…

Blair Garrett Basketball is a game of momentum. After dominating the majority of the game and a last-minute comeback, Catoctin Boys Hoops steadied the ship to edge out Smithsburg, 67-63, on January 14. The team then kept pace with the region, taking out Clear Spring and Williamsport consecutively. The Smithsburg win was hard-fought with a…

Blair Garrett Catoctin High School football has cruised through the first two rounds of the playoffs, crushing its opponents with a combined score of 100-12. The team followed up those performances with another offensive explosion, smashing its quarterfinal opponents by 20 points. The Cougars clashed with the Southern Rams in the first round of the…

Editor’s note: The Catoctin Banner, in cooperation with Dave Ammenheuser, wrote this story.      It has been almost 40 years since John Campbell, Duane Gigeous, Dennis Grandstaff, Larry Martinez, and Mark Williard stood together on the Catoctin High School basketball court.  They were members of the 1979-80 Catoctin boys’ basketball team that finished with a 14-8…

Blair Garrett Catoctin Cougars roar past Frederick in the team’s home opener. The Cougars’ 45-15 tossing of Frederick was in part to an electric offense and a suffocating defense that held the Cadets in check for the majority of the game. It was all Catoctin early on, as the team opened the floodgates against the…

Catoctin High School Senior, Payne Harrison, has been tearing up the turf on football fields all over Maryland. After completing his final season with the Catoctin Cougars, he was selected to play in the first annual East West All Star game, along with his team mates Braden Thomson and Noah Dell, hosted by the Baltimore…