It’s four forty on a Thursday evening and Bob Ziegler is on his way to Middletown High School with his son, Judd Ziegler, so that they can get a pool work out in from five to six; an hour a day cardio that will become a ritual for the next few months. The difference between Bob and Judd’s experience this evening? Judd has a rod in his femur. He broke his leg in the fall during football and the rod was put in just two weeks ago during an intensive surgery. Judd’s pool time will be for recovery and strengthening while his father assists him.

“Pretty much before I was able to walk (after the surgery) my dad was taking me to the gym to lift for an hour, and Coach Lynott was letting us into the pool to swim for an hour.” said Judd Ziegler, “We continued this almost everyday until the doctor cleared me.”

After a hard hit at practice towards the beginning of the 2010 football season, Judd’s junior year, his leg began to bother him. As any determined athlete would, Judd pushed through the pain as he continued to play at nose guard, hoping for a successful season and possibly a shot at states.

His season was cut short.

During the second game of the season, Judd fell on his leg and snapped his femur. The result? Judd would be out for the rest of the football season and would need surgery to put a rod in his leg.

Fans could see Judd on the sidelines at every single Friday night game. He didn’t let his injury kick him off the team.

Not only did Judd swim and lift, his wrestling coach, Jim Schartner, let him go into the wrestling room during his recovery. This allowed Judd to stay familiar with the mats as he practiced wrestling to the extent he could.

Judd was determined to be able to wrestle the entire season. He pushed himself to limits his athletically driven body had never been to.  Coaches, friends, and family continued to support Judd; they seemed just as driven as him.

After hearing about Judd’s injury, his wrestling coach, Jim Schartner, was “disappointed for Judd and his family”.

“He had worked so hard to prepare for his wrestling and football season,” said Schartner.

Schartner immediately asked how bad the injury to his leg was and what needed to be done to help Judd with rehab.

Judd’s coaches and family were not the only people who assisted Judd in his recovery from his broken leg. His dad, Bob, said 2011 graduate and captain of the MHS varsity football team Chris Pironne was influential in Judd’s recovery as well as MHS boys varsity basketball coach and teacher Tim Leber and the UVA coach.

Pironne focused on telling Judd not to feel sorry for himself, Leber prayed with Judd and sent him scripture readings, while the UVA coach simply said, “Do you think you’re the only kid inAmerica who got a bad break? What are you going to do about it?”

With the overwhelming support that Judd had coming from all angles, he trained at full speed, hoping to recover quickly so he can get on the mat as soon as possible.

“I was confident Judd would give everything he had to return to wrestling.” Said Schartner.“Judd has tremendous work ethic and drive to accomplish his goals”

Three days after the start of wrestling season Judd was cleared from the doctor and wasted no time getting back to practice. He began competing immediately with more drive than ever before.

Schartner says Judd’s work ethic and drive makes him stand out among his peers.

His drive can be contributed to his parents and their reliance on faith. Bob would credit the reliance to his wife who “has taught the family to fully rely on God”.

Scharnter concluded that Judd had a “tremendous” 2011-2012 wrestling season as he was on the mat the first week of practice.

“He wrestled with the knowledge that he had to adjust to his style,” said Schartner.“He steadily improved each week.”

After winning regional’s in a close match prior to states, Judd was prepared as ever to wrestle in the Maryland 2A wrestling state championship.

Then, as if the broken leg wasn’t enough, another obstacle was thrown in Judd’s path.

Following regionals, Judd got a rare infection which prevented him from being able to wrestle in states. Ironically, the wrestler in which Judd beat in overtime during regionals went on to win states.

The Ziegler family continued with no hatred toward the infection or the wrestler.

“When Judd could not wrestle in the state championship; my wife thought, maybe the other boy needed the title,” said Bob.

“The experience as a whole really taught me to work hard in school and in wrestling.” Said Judd, “I don’t want to settle for second.” 

Once Judd hit high school, he knew he wanted to wrestle in college. In order to be noticed, his dad began to film his matches. The main filming Bob did was at the 2011 Disney Dual Championships. Bob then made a highlight DVD that he sent to colleges, hoping that they would be interested in Judd and recruit him.

“Coaches don’t want to see your kid winning all the time,” said Bob. “Coaches want to see your kid competing against the best, they want to see your kid losing and they want to see how he reacts.” 

Judd trained with top notch coaches from March to November. He competed in national level tournaments and did extremely well in them.

After many phone calls with college coaches and visits to colleges, Judd narrowed down Maryland, Kent State, and Princeton for his top three colleges to wrestle at. Judd didn’t plan on committing until March. 

Division One Princeton stood out among the other schools to Judd and his family, and he committed in December- earlier than expected because of an athletic spot on the Princeton wrestling team that needed to be filled. 

Bob Ziegler says Princeton is a “perfect fit”.

He says Princeton has academic challenges and the coaches are great.

 “They are trying to run a D1 program, but more importantly are trying to develop young men into mature and responsible adults,” said Bob. “As far as the campus, it might be the prettiest place I’ve ever seen.”

The knights got out to an early lead, starting with a 19-5 run at the end of the first quarter. Ethan Winn scored 11 of his game high 17 in the first quarter.

In an article by the Frederick-News Post, Winn said, “I just try to drive, but if the 3 is open I’ll shoot it.”

Middletown also received big contributions from Michael Pritts and Ben Lewis. Pritts had three assists and Lewis had nine points in addition to nine rebounds.

Walkersville’s leading scorer was Matt Guyton who scored a total of ten points. The team’s leading rebounder was Paulen Atemeking. Although the efforts of those two were not enough to the keep the Lions from falling, the two teams will meet again later in the season.

This is their first meeting since last February when the Knights prevailed with a 59 – 49 win at home. The Knights are looking for the same type of result they got last year against the Lions; however, the Knights are making the trip into Lion territory, giving home-court advantage to Walkersville.

The Lions come into this game with one loss against Linganore and a win against South Carroll.  Orlando Rosa of Walkersville has proven to be the teams leading scorer in the first two games. Rosa came away with 22 points against Linganore and finished with 19 against South Carroll.

Due to the Knights state title in football, they were forced to cancel two of their games in the first week, but they did come away with 61–41 victory against Smithsburg Dec. 7. Connor Mills was the leading scorer for the Knights with 14 points.

“It will be a really good and competitive game; especially since we will be playing at Walkersville,” said Mills.

Although the Knights are at Walkersville, they will have much support from Middletown High School students, who plan to bring a copy of the Frederick-News Post front page from the Knight’s football state championship to hold up while they announce the Walkersville players. MHS beat the Lions by a slim margin of 27-21 in the regional finals game for football.

This sure to be a hard fought battle for both teams and this may come down to the last final seconds.

Round Table sports reporter, Dylan O’Toole, covers the boys basketball
season opener against Smithsburg high school on Dec. 7.

The football team was victorious in bringing back the state title from M&T Bank Stadium on Saturday Dec. 3, but now some of the key players from that team are immediately shifting their focus to the upcoming basketball season.

With the boys basketball team having its first game on Wednesday, seniors Michael Pritts and Ben Lewis, two of the key players on this years championship-winning football team, are now quickly transitioning from the different sports.

“It’s a tough transition to go from basketball to football so quickly but the fact that we won states makes it easier,” said Pritts.

“I’m going to have to run a lot and get into basketball shape,” said Lewis, who hasn’t played any serious basketball since last June.

“Although I don’t think me and guys like Mike (Pritts) are that far behind because we played last year and we know a lot the stuff the coaches are going over right now,” said Lewis.

Lewis knows it will be all about hard work if the team wants to receive another state title.

“We have been playing football”, Lewis says “but in basketball there are no significant breaks. It is non stop running up and down the court” 

Now that the Knights have its full team back and ready to play, they are hoping for another trip to a state championship, this time in basketball.

Finish 14 Middletown Knights from Casey Zanowicz

Penn State University and the University of Syracuse have both been rocked by the scandals that have sprouted from their sports programs. While it may be obvious that the scandals have shaken the foundations of these schools, the scandals have also caused those in the Middletown community to reflect.

Jerry Sandusky, the former Penn State defensive coordinator, faces 40 counts of sexual abuse of several young boys over a 13-year period. Bernie Fine, the assistant head coach of the Syracuse men’s basketball team, is under investigation for child molestation.

Since the scandals, people have been questioning the morality of people in positions of higher power, as well as themselves.

Rena Egan, a guidance counselor at MHS and former social worker, said that it is not uncommon for certain individuals to “gravitate towards positions of authority” in order to gain easy access to children.

Egan also noted that the abusers tend to be more males than females and that children are “not valued” by society as much as adults or people of power or popularity. Egan said the reason that abusers aspire to become people of authority, such as priests, is that they have easy access to children and that they earn the trust of children and parent.

Egan believes that “men’s codes” contributed to the communication breakdown amongst the Penn State elite.

“As a woman I would’ve been so enraged. I would’ve immediately helped,” said Egan.

Men are slow to aid in these situations due to their specific values, Egan said.  For example, perhaps to Paterno the lives of the abused may not have been as important as the depth of his coaching staff and the success of the football program.

Championship-winning, head varsity football coach Kevin Lynott believes instances such as thePenn State and Syracuse atrocities are caused by “mentally disturbed individuals.”   These “sick” people obtain a position of power that “unfortunately, taints their profession,” he said.

“I hope that (the scandals) are isolated incidents,” said Lynott.

Lynott, like Egan, noted that these situations occur in every walk of life and that the athletes are not the cause of such atrocities.

“It has nothing to do with the athletes,” said Lynott.

Gathered in a circle, the students of one of MHS basketball coach Tim Leber’s athletic coaching classes spoke their minds and offered their own personal opinions.

Sophomore Ben Spector believes positions of power undoubtedly correlate with abuse.

“They’re in control; they can do anything they want. They have the power. It should be up to the people to stand up,” said Spector.

Tisa Mullins,  junior, suggested that thorough background checks should be conducted during the interview process when hiring coaches or other positions in which adults are given the responsibility of children.

According to an article from www.npr.org, after Sandusky retired in 1999 following an investigation by the Pennsylvania Department of Welfare, he was still given access to Penn State facilities, including the showers in the boys locker rooms.

 Mitch Sgrignoli, sophomore, points to this false sense of security that people placed in Sandusky.

“Everyone around him trusted him,” said Sgrignoli. “It’s your word against their word.”

Sophomore Tristan Wenger believes that the safety of children should be handled as a “worst-case scenario” and that proper preventative steps always be taken when dealing with children.

“Working with kids is a huge responsibility,” said Leber.

The Middletown Knights Varsity Football team will head to M&T Bank stadium Dec. 3rd to face off against Frederick Douglass High School, in hopes of grabbing its first 2A state title.

During the course of the season, the knights dominated the field leading up to its only loss against the Urbana Hawks, the previous 2010 4A State Champions.

“We got a little over confident,” said Middletown High School sophomore Brad Rinehart, “but the loss really opened our eyes and that’s when we stepped up our game.”

The Hawks defeated the Knights 28 to 6 resulting in the first and only loss of the season.

“Since the Urbana game we’ve stepped up the intensity and competitiveness in practice and created more game-like situations,” said MHS Senior and Quarterback Michael Pritts.

Following up the Urbana game, Middletown went on and defeated the Thomas Johnson Patriots, Tuscarora Titans, Linganore Lancers, and Walkersville Lions making Middletown’s record 10 and 1.

The Walkersville Lions were undefeated prior to playing the Middletown Knights. The Knights defeated the Lions in the last regular season game which resulted in a home season advantage during playoffs. The Knights crushed the Lions again during the second week of playoffs making them the 2A West Regional Champions.

 “Coming out with the win against our rival Walkersville who had an undefeated record felt amazing,” said Pritts.

The road to states continued with a huge win over Edmondson, Middletown defeated the Red Storm 48 to 8.

Now the Knights head to M&T Bank Stadium hoping to grab their first state title and bring it home to Middletown.

“States means everything to our team, it’s what we worked for all year,” said Rhinehart, “we have a chance to become the first Middletown football team to win the state Championship.”

By Dylan O’Toole
Round Table sports reporter

After the Middletown High School girls basketball varsity team lost last year in the state championship, they are hoping to take away the trophy this year. The journey starts on their first game on Dec. 5.

With only two seniors on the team, the team is looking for players to step up and obtain that leadership role.

“We are a smaller team so we are working on conditioning to get ready for the challenge of facing teams with bigger players,” said team captain and senior Caitlin Roy.

Bill Miskel, the MHS girls basketball head coach said, “We will be a young team, but are very excited about the skill level and athletic ability of the team.” Miskel also had high praise for the two captains, “We have great leadership in our captains Caitlin Roy and Brittany George.”

“We play in a very tough division,” said Miskell, “but I think that we will be very competitive this season.”

“Honestly I think we can make it to states, although it might be rough at the beginning because of our lack of experience, I’m sure we will come through at the end,” said Roy.