With Michael Betteridge 2024-2025 Season Highlights This is the time of year when things slow down a bit. Typically, every July, we take a quick look back at the season highlights from September to June. Next month, we’ll begin the exciting journey in this column into the new high school sports 2025-26 season. 2024-25 Season…

With Michael Betteridge Two New Theorems for May Curiously, it seems like we just started spring sports. Already, we are winding down the high school spring sports season and heading into the playoffs this month. After a comprehensive study of the schedule, I realized that the fall, winter, and spring high school sports seasons are…

with Michael Betteridge We Are Blessed Last month, we were tracking the progress of our Catoctin Cougars sports teams, who were a disappointing 8-23 a month ago. Let’s see how we finished the fall season. Our Cougars football team finished the regular season 2-7. That’s a regression from last year’s 3-6 record.  They ranked 22nd…

with Michael Betteridge What Happened To Mountainball? High school sports opened the fall season officially on Tuesday, September 3, with golf, soccer, and volleyball. The following day, girls flag football and field hockey kicked off. The opening fall season sports week continued on Friday, September 6, with football, and then cross-country track on Saturday, September…

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…

with Michael Betteridge High school sports fans, now that the high school sports season has ended, let’s put a ribbon on the 2023-24 high school sports season with a few highlights, our local athletes of the year, and a personal July reflection. 2023-24 Season Highlights Football Best Cougars football game of the year: September 22,…

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…

BLAIR GARRETT Nine Catoctin High School (CHS) seniors officially signed on to further their education while playing sports at the next level. All nine athletes excelled in their sports, helping to propel each of their teams and teammates to be better every day. CHS held a signing day ceremony to let the head coaches share…

Dominance from Start to Finish Blair Garrett Catoctin High Football clinched its second state championship Saturday, December 7, defeating the Poets of Dunbar High School (Baltimore) 31-8 in a Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association (MPSSAA) 1A matchup. The Cougars stormed through the playoffs, yielding opponents just 41 points over the team’s five playoff victories…

Blair Garrett Fall sports for high schools across the country kick off each September, and Catoctin High’s student-athletes are finishing up training camp and entering their respective seasons, eager for the competition to begin. After a long off-season for summer break, Catoctin High athletics is just getting back into the swing of things. Preseason and…

Theresa Dardanell Catoctin High School (CHS) athletes who signed up to attend  colleges and universities in the fall.   Football: Will Bingman, Clarion University; Joey Fogle, Gettysburg College.   Soccer: Noah Olson, Frederick Community College.   Baseball: Ryan Fisher, Mount St. Mary’s University; Dylan Reid, Hagerstown Community College; Nick Ford, Frederick Community College; Brett Weatherly,…

For kids and parents alike by Anita DiGregory It’s that time of the year again…fuzzy sweaters, cozy blankets, crisp air, stunning colors, football, and pumpkin spice and everything nice. We are so blessed in this area by the beauty that autumn brings. With the spectacular sunrises, inspiring landscapes, and gorgeous sunsets, Thurmont becomes almost magical…