Girls Basketball: Gritty Knights look to play underdog role in rebuilding year

By Ben Spector
Winning After MidKnight

                       

The Middletown High School Girls Basketball team has admittedly been in a rebuilding year. Although, no one would want to admit it with first year coach Amy Poffenbarger at the helm for the Knights the focus for Middletown and the school was more about getting the program back to where it once was.

Just a year removed from a berth in the state championship the Middletown Girls Basketball program was in shambles with unhappy players and just a general discontent between members of the team and the coaching staff that was palpable to even those on the outside of the program.

So, in the spring of 2014 a change was made with the goal of returning the Knights back to year after year success that was the trademark of Middletown’s girls basketball teams of the past.

Out were former head coach William Miskell and his assistants, in were Amy Poffenbarger, a main-stay in the Middletown youth basketball coaching ranks.

Poffenbarger would bring in her assistants Randy Adkins and Rachel Levine-Adkins to help along with former Middletown High School Boys Basketball head coach and Middletown basketball legend Ron Engle to assist the Varsity team and coach the JV team.

Like in any rebuilding season, there have been good moments and there have been bad moments for the Knights.

Middletown has had good moments like taking Walkersville up to the wire twice this season before falling to the Lions, both times losing just by single digits. The Knights also were five points away from upsetting the Oakdale High School Bears at home on January 23^rd.

The Bears were widely regarded as the best team in Frederick County and hold a record to back up the claim (24-1). The Knights would take the Bears down to the wire and end up losing by 9 but not after showing some real promise.

There have been bad moments for the Knights too. An overtime loss to the Boonsboro High School Warriors and a loss to the Smithsburg High School Leopards, two teams that most everyone predicted the Knights to beat were the darkest of the down times for the Knights.

The Knights will get a chance to avenge that loss against Boonsboro when they take on the #3 seed Warriors in the sectional quarterfinal round of the 2015 Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association (M.P.S.S.A.A.) 2A Girls Basketball State Tournament.

The Warriors beat the Knights 42-40 on January 19^th and ever since that the Knights have looked forward to this match-up. The Knights, being in a rebuilding mode have been looked at as underdogs throughout this whole season and it won’t be any different for the Knights.

When asked about the underdog mentality, Knights junior guard Rilee Bradshaw admitted it would be hard for the Knights to ignore.

“It’s been in the back of our minds but to me that’s motivation to prove to them that we are better than that,” said Bradshaw, who had 3 points in the Knights loss to Boonsboro. “So, we just gotta work together.”

The grit that Middletown has showed will be evident in Boonsboro tonight as Middletown took the loss to Boonsboro back in mid-January personally and they’ve used it as motivation for the playoff game on February 27^th.

“We definitely have something to prove,” said Bradshaw who has been invaluable off the bench for the Knights. “Last time we played Boonsboro we didn’t come out and play to our ability. We wanna win big.”

The Knights will need to play a game without a lot of errors if they want to beat the Warriors, as last time the Knights and Warriors played, errors end up costing Middletown the game.

Middletown would miss their final four free throws of the game on January 19^th, gifting the Warriors the win. Middletown has had a tendency to play up or down to the skill level of their opponents, but Bradshaw says that it won’t be a factor.

“We’re a very aggressive, athletic team and the last time we played Boonsboro, we didn’t show it,” said Bradshaw. “We know what needs to be done tonight in order to win.”

The Knights will look to prove to the state that they aren’t underdogs during this playoff run and with a little bit of grit will look to prove that a rebuilding year isn’t a throwaway.

“Our coaches have always said that (the) playoffs is a whole other season,” said Bradshaw. “We’re in a position to prove ourselves because teams have thought of us as weak and that’s far from where we are.”