A preview
With the fall sports season slowly trickling to an end, many area teams are gearing up to head indoors for the start of the winter sports season. Basketball season is quickly approaching, and practices have been in full swing for the past few weeks. At Midway High School, the Lady Raiders have been working with a full roster, but the boys’ team is still short-handed, with many of their players still committed to the football season.
Girls
The Lady Raiders are slated to hit the court for their first game on Wednesday when they welcome South Johnston into Spivey’s Corner. This game will undoubtedly be a big test right out of the gate for Midway, but head coach Susan Brown is excited about the upcoming season and believes that her team is as well. Brown says that practices have gone well and that turnout this year will allow her to have both junior varsity and varsity teams. In recent years, she hasn’t had that luxury, and younger players have, unfortunately, gotten lost in the shadow of upperclassmen. That won’t be a problem this season, as the presence of a proper JV team will allow the underclassmen to see quality time on the court.
Brown says that she is excited about the talent that has come up from the middle school and is glad they will be able to see valuable playing time as JV players. This, she says, will be especially beneficial in the long run as these players get older and eventually transition to the varsity team.
Speaking of varsity, Brown says that the Lady Raiders will still be fairly deep with experience filling the lineup beyond her starting five. Last year’s season wasn’t exactly a fantastic one for Midway as they finished 7-14 overall and 1-10 in the Southeastern Athletic Conference, but Brown attributes that to a grueling schedule, both in and out of conference. With the realignment this year, however, everything is brand new, and the Lady Raiders are excited for a clean slate.
After South Johnston on Wednesday, Midway will also have contests against Triton, West Johnston, Union, Lakewood, and Clinton. Their conference lineup of Princeton, Rosewood, Goldsboro, James Kenan, Spring Creek, and Wallace-Rose Hill.
Brown admittedly stated that winning games and having a successful season are certainly among the top of the list of goals the Lady Raiders have set, but ultimately, Brown says, she wants the girls to have fun and have a memorable season. Winning isn’t what it’s always about; rather, developing an overall positive attitude and instilling life-long values is what she considers especially important.
Boys
The Midway boys are also hard at work at practice, but they have far trickier waters to tread this season, with a lot more moving parts. First, most of their team is still playing football and not actively practicing. Not only are they having to adjust to the new conference and classification, but the Raiders are also having to adjust to a new coaching staff. First-year head coach Jermaine McNeil and his new staff have certainly brought plenty of changes this season. He is inheriting a Midway team that has had some solid seasons in recent years, but thanks to the extended football season, the window of opportunity for coach McNeill and Midway to get fully acquainted is quickly closing. Still, the Raiders return several key pieces from last year’s team, which went 16-6 overall and finished in third place in conference play at 7-4.
The ingredients are there for another strong run, but Midway will have a tough schedule right out of the gate. The Raider boys are slated for a home game on Wednesday against South Johnston, followed by a couple of games against Triton and West Johnston, all of which are fairly back-to-back. After that, Union, Clinton, Lakewood, and Hobbton round out Midway’s non-conference lineup.
The Swine Valley 2A/3A Conference isn’t exactly going to be a walk in the park, either. Princeton, Rosewood, Goldsboro, James Kenan, Spring Creek, and Wallace-Rose Hill have also been fairly consistent teams in years past and will undoubtedly be quite challenging for the Raiders as the season marches on. It will be exciting to see what the results of all the newness this season will be when the season is all said and done.