Junior Varsity Football Season Preview: Knights use youth football talent to advantage

By Ben Spector
Winning After MidKnight

                         

It would not be an unfair statement to say that the majority of people who follow Frederick County high school sports and especially football in Frederick County have an understanding of the pedigree that Middletown Football has and the talent with which the Knights have operated with for the past ten years.

What might not be known is not only is there a large history of success at the high school level but that level of success also extends all the way down to the youth level where constant championships are won and multiple payers from the youth ranks go on to have highly successful high school careers.

And, the most recent batch of youth football talent that has graduated is no different as the Middletown High School Junior Varsity Football team will hope to prove this, this season, under the direction of new head coach Andy Baker.

The talent on this year’s team is no different as a large batch of the talent on this year’s team has had success at the youth level. This includes the freshman class who made it to the semifinals for the Varsity division of the Mountain Valley Youth Football League and has made the playoffs at every level they’ve played at.

Surprisingly, that’s not the class with the best pedigree out of this team. The sophomore class has also succeeded a good deal of the time as both have had success in their time in youth football.

That youth football success has more often that not translated over directly to the Junior Varsity team as JV has been the lucky recipient of some of the talent that has come up the ranks to the high school level.

This year will be no different as multiple starters and even role players on the Knights team have honed their skills in the MVYFL. Name such as Eli Berger, Max Blumberg, Conor Faron, Roland Hockenberry, and Reese Poffenbarger have all made the transition from youth football to high school quite smoothly.

One change for the Knights this year that will have an effect is the lack of a freshman team due to FCPS budget cuts which means that the sophomores and freshman will be together on a team for the first time in a long time.

It will be interesting to see how this dynamic plays out over the year but with all the talent that has come up from youth football the Knights look to be in good shape either way.