Winning After MidKnight
Last year was
a banner year for the Middletown High School Knights Varsity Field Hockey team.
The Knights made it back to the state semifinal/final round of the Maryland
Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association for the first time since 2005 and
even though they fell in the state semifinal round, Middletown had found the
type of success that long periods of winning with a program can be built off
of.
The Knights
will hope for just that as they head into their 2016-2017 campaign but do so
optimistically but cautiously as this year’s Knights’ squad is much different
than last year’s squad and has seen a large amount of turnover when it comes to
their team.
Gone are the
key cogs of last year’s team including senior goaltender Emma Provost, who
graduated and is now playing field hockey at La Salle; Emily Delauter, who
graduated and will be playing lacrosse at Winthrop University; Ali Williams,
who graduated and will now be playing field hockey at Appalachian State, and
many more have created a need for new talent from Middletown to take hold of
the reigns.
It was a
special year for the Knights as they recorded two championships last season as
they took down the Tuscarora High School Titans to clinch the 2015 Central
Maryland Conference Championship and then took the 2015 Maryland Public
Secondary Schools Athletic Association 2A West Field Hockey Championship, as
behind a sturdy defense and goaltending, Middletown blazed a trail through
their opponents, with their only four losses coming against Carroll County
opposition or in the playoffs.
The Knights
will need multiple athletes to step up if they want to have another banner year
and the biggest hole needed to be filled comes in between the pipes for
Middletown.
Replacing
Provost will be tasked to current Knights senior Madeline Hillsman who was
Provost’s understudy and will look to import some lessons that she received
from her teacher. Hillsman though is by no stretch a newbie as she has started
for the Junior Varsity team for two years before getting the call up to Varsity
as a Junior and has a large degree of familiarity with the group that she is
playing with.
Middletown
will need a large contingent of Juniors to fill in spots this year as out of
their roster of 17, only six are seniors with the other eleven starting their
junior seasons.
Out of those
eleven juniors only one has significant Varsity experience as junior Tess Queen
has been one of the more dynamic playmakers for the Knights the past two years,
outlining the talent that this Junior class has shown.
Also needed
to step into big shoes for the Knights will be juniors Rilee March, who will
man the midfield with Queen and who will be called onto help replicate some of
the offense that Williams produced in her time here.
One of the
veteran voices for the Knights will be senior Lizzie Meighan who will look to
finish off her career at Middletown, with another smattering of championships
and even possibly a bigger title than she had seen in the past couple of years.
It will be a
tough run for the Knights as their region has not gotten any less difficult as
with multiple Carroll County schools inside it including the Century High
School Knights, who the Knights beat in playoffs last year and a newcomer in the
Manchester Valley Mavericks who are a combination of the North Carroll Panthers
and the old Mavericks – two teams who played each other in the 1A West-Section
II final last year and contain impressive field hockey resumes.
It wouldn’t
be a longshot for the Knights to do well again this year and in doing so
possibly raise themselves to having another banner year.
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