Winning After MidKnight
In the course
of an athlete’s high school sports career there are some experiences that stand
out more than others. A certain game or a certain place they played at will
always hold a special place inside their hearts and minds.
For the
Middletown High School Volleyball program one of the more unique match-ups of
the season is when the Knights Junior Varsity and Varsity teams will take on
the Maryland School for the Deaf Orioles on Tuesday September 13th.
These matches
hold a certain degree of uniqueness for a large degree of reasons. The first reason
for this is that a lot of the Knights’ teams don’t get a chance to play schools
that are outside of the usual public schools that are on the schedule year in
and year out. The Knights are bound to play all the teams in the Central Maryland
Conference in most sports leaving a select few dates available to be filled on
the schedule and usually those are taken by public schools from neighboring
counties such as Williamsport, Century, or North Hagerstown.
Another one
of the things about this match-up that makes it unique is the traveling fan
support that the Orioles bring. Being that volleyball is the only girls sport
offered during the fall sports season for the student body at Maryland School
for the Deaf is able to give the volleyball team it’s overwhelming support and
it creates an atmosphere that is similar to playoff games.
The final
reason why the match-up is so unique is that the Orioles are one of the top
deaf schools in the country for volleyball. In that regard the Orioles have
quite the program history as they have won eleven National Deaf Interscholastic
Athletic Association (NDIAA) Division I Volleyball championships including a
current streak of three in a row that dates back to the 2013-2014 season.
Simply put,
the Orioles are a very talented program.
This means
that it will be quite the experience for the Junior Varsity Volleyball team, as
the freshmen who make up a large part of the Knights roster will get their
first experience playing the Orioles.
But, it
wouldn’t seem as if the Knights would be nervous about this opportunity because
if they’ve had nerves before this season in their other two games Middletown
has not shown it as they have taken down the Liberty High School Lions and the Urbana
High School Hawks in straight sets in both matches.
This will be
the Knights biggest challenge of the season as the Orioles have strength in
their program down to the JV level but Middletown has shown no indication that
they are close to faltering as they have played extremely well and have not
shown the type of rustiness that sometimes causes issues at the start of the
year.
For the young
Knights it’ll be an eye-opening experience in more ways than one. They’ll get
to play in a loud atmosphere against a school that they have no experience but
for the Middletown is it an experience worth having.
That
experience would be made just a little bit sweeter if they come out on top.
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