Varsity Boys Basketball: A Game For Claire

By Ben Spector
Winning After MidKnight

                       

There will be a Varsity Boys Basketball game that will take place at Ron Engle Court between the Middletown High School Knights and the Smithsburg High School Leopards on February 19^th, 2015 with tip-off at 7:00 p.m.

The game will be Senior Night for Middletown and it will be a contest that has crucial implications to playoff seeding for both teams. But that won’t matter.

The game will be a test for the Knights heading into the playoffs and they would love to get a win to close out their home campaign with the chances of a home playoff game for basketball not being assured by any stretch. But that won’t matter.

The game will be a chance for Smithsburg to up their form heading into playoffs, knowing that the 1A West region is a region that is very much open and anyone’s for the taking. But that won’t matter, at least to the Knights.

For the Middletown community and the school this game tonight represents a chance to get back to normalcy and nothing more.

Just hours after the Knights were blown out by 25 points against the Frederick High School Cadets on February 10^th; Middletown High School senior Claire Knight would get into a car accident and be tragically killed.

As someone who lives and works in the Middletown community, this ordeal has been devastating. Me, like many, many people in the Middletown community knew Claire on a personal level.

To see something like this happen to someone you know is heartbreaking and something no human being should ever have to go through as long as they live.

And I was just a distant friend to Claire, nothing more and nothing less. The emotions that her close friends have felt, her family members have felt and others have felt cannot be measured, or at least not by someone like me.

The issue has hit much closer to home for the Knights varsity Boys Basketball team. Senior guard Cedric Ayenu was dating Claire. Their relationship was one that even I at face value could see was filled with love and admiration. Understandably, the Knights haven’t been in the right frame of mind to play basketball ever since the accident. They’ve had two games postponed simply because it was not the right time to play basketball. It was a time to grieve and be with family and friends.

But, now eight days after the accident and what has seemed like a lifetime to everyone who knew Claire it is time to play basketball.

And, in this match-up the statistics are inconsequential. Shots will be made and in the past games both teams have made shots. Fouls will be committed and in the past games both teams have committed fouls. Both teams have won games and both teams have lost games, and I’m sure (even though it is unfair) tongith they’re will be a winner and a loser and the winner and the loser will most likely be content with the result that comes their way.

Now make mistake, once the ball drops both teams minds will be in the game to a degree. But, I’d be remiss to say that there wouldn’t be a tinge of sadness that will radiate through the air.

This game represents something bigger for Middletown. A chance to grow together. A chance to honor they’re friend who surely will be watching from somewhere on high. A chance to, for a moment, lose themselves in a game, a game which come tomorrow morning where the result won’t matter. A chance to be a community and a school united.

And, if the luck hits right Claire might just help Middletown get a win, a win that has a greater meaning.