Winter Recap and 2026 spring preview

With the 2025 Winter Season coming to an end, we flip our attention to the Spring of 2026!
By: Ben Elliott

The 2025-2026 winter season was filled with a wide variety of emotions. From great successes to learning moments, both basketball seasons left us with building blocks for the very near future. With the winter in the rearview, we turn our attention to the spring season, with many questions left to be answered. The 2025 State Champion Lady Softball Gobblers look to mount their title defense while the Baseball Boys look to continue their impressive consistency filled playoff run.
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Overall, I am overjoyed to be writing to you once more. I look forward to telling the story (to the best of my ability) of the 2025-2026 basketball season, in addition to looking ahead to the spring 2026 softball/baseball seasons! 

I have long spoken highly of my time in the Boys Basketball program. Coach Walton and his staff made me fall in love with the game of basketball. A love which I’ve been lucky enough to have passed on to the kids I coach today. Their passion and love for the game shapes every high school boy who plays for that program. 

As I’m sure they would tell you, this year wasn’t what the team expected, or had hoped for. Following a year of growth in 2024-2025, the hope was that the team would’ve taken a leap forward in the standings. Despite the outcome of this season I want to stress one thing, I have the utmost confidence in not only the young roster, but in the coaching staff as well. A majority of the roster will be juniors next season. Nine out of the twelve players on the roster, in fact. It's been a little while since coach Walton and company have had a young group this large.

Youth isn’t an excuse for losing games. However, as young as I am, I’ve spent the better part of ten years involved in athletics at Broadway, which has taught me one thing: winning is very difficult to achieve for any amount of time. That’s what makes the competition aspect of sports special. As former Football Coach Danny Grogg used to tell us, if it was easy, everyone would be doing it. Experience is the only way to success. Sometimes that means you take your lumps for a while, which hurts, no doubt about it. However, I’ve seen teams turn around quickly, especially loaded with a great group like the program has now. 
The team's long-standing motto is one word, a word we all live by: Trust. I trust that the program will continue to improve and one day, sooner than one might think, the Broadway boy’s program will be undeniable, a group one cannot ignore. I cannot wait to see what comes of this program's bright future.   

As the keen blog readers know, I have been an assistant coach for the Girls Basketball team for five full seasons now. I’ve seen upheaval, I’ve seen classes come and go. I’ve seen failure in the short term but most importantly, I’ve seen success, especially over a long period of time.

We missed the playoffs in 2021-2022 but after that, the team has managed to make its way back to the playoffs every year since then. A whole class of seniors has played in the playoffs every year of their high school careers. That is an accomplishment that isn’t an ordinary feat. At the varsity level, it is difficult to win, no matter who you are. This makes me even more proud to have been a part of these wonderful teams. 

The 2025-2026 team was, per my estimation, the best team that I’ve coached from top to bottom. And that is saying something, given all of the talent that has come through this program over the years. We started the year with a tough loss to a very good Luray team that advanced to the VHSL State Tournament, but from there, we hit the ground running. We didn’t suffer a loss again until the New Year. We won all three games at the Strasburg holiday tournament for the second season in a row, which is a testament to how far this program has come during the five years the tournament has been held. 

We had wonderful victories over would-be playoff teams. Skyline, Turner Ashby, East Rock and the aforementioned Luray were just the first few examples of great teams we beat at one moment or another. I am reminded about how lucky we are to have played such great competition, which made our team better. 

At the end of the day, the greatest feeling as it is every year, is senior night. A culmination of all the hard work and dedication put in over the years. Now giving way to a new crop of seniors, who we’ve also had the pleasure of coaching for their entire five years in the umbrella of Broadway girls basketball. Which is by far the most rewarding part of the coaching experience. Seeing players go from JV, to varsity over the course of five seasons into becoming adults. Adults that will contribute positively to their communities for years to come. It was an absolute blast, and I cannot wait to see what next season brings for our program!

Friend of the blog George Laase has continued on a very similar path to the one the girls basketball team has paved over the past couple of years. He took over for the legendary Tim Turner in 2022 and since then, has continued the streak of playoff runs. Baseball is a funny game. Both individual and collective at the very same time. Something that coach Laase has stressed as part of his “one pitch at a time” philosophy. A philosophy that has served the program well, breaking the game down into a more concentrated effort. 
I am really looking forward to what’s in store for the BHS Baseball this year. As is the process in high school sports, the team will be without a pretty good senior class from last year. Yet as I made the case for both basketball programs, this is an opportunity to pass the torch. The finger prints of previous classes still remain on this program, fully intertwined into its very fabric. 

Every time I get the honor to speak in front of the program, I always stress the importance of carrying the torch forward, like those before you did. In many ways, it’s a circle of life for high school athletes. I look forward to doing games again with Micah and Joe and my father of course. I cannot lie, I love this season for that reason alone. No better group to talk baseball with. I don’t take that for granted whatsoever. 

You do not need me to recap the 2025 softball season. The very first state championship in program history. What a moment! The only thing I hated about that moment was how hot it was outdoors. I still get sunburned thinking about the weather. 

Nonetheless, beating a district opponent in the State Championship game is something you envision in your wildest of dreams. For the Lady Gobblers, that dream is now a reality, something that will outlive all of us, for generations to come. Out of all the games I’ve witnessed in BHS sports, that is one I’ll remember for the rest of my life. 

Now the challenge changes shape for Head Coach Becky Cantrell and company. As Ric Flair (and Jeff Elliott) always say, if you want to be the best, you have to beat the best. An instant target is on the program now. Every team who has them scheduled this season has the Broadway game circled on their calendars. Every game will be must-see TV. With that undeniable reality comes a ton of expectation and pressure. That might be where conventional thinking goes; however, I am not a conventional thinker. The way I see it now, you have not a thing to lose. Don’t mistake what I’m saying, this doesn’t mean you get complacent. What it means is, the expectations are null and void. You’ve already done what is perceived to be impossible, now the challenge becomes defending the title. That is no small task however, you have nothing left to prove to anyone outside of the locker room walls. 

If I were to say one thing to the team this year, it’s to enjoy the ride once more. Winning it all is like a weight lifted off of your shoulders. Now, you enjoy the success you’ve so rightfully earned in this arena. All’s that's left for you now, is to enjoy the ride together, and let the cards fall where they may. 

In conclusion, it was great to catch up with all of you wonderful readers once more. It’s been a while, I am now a full time college student at Eastern Mennonite University, which is different from the previous part-time status I held at Blue Ridge Community College. However, despite the difference in schedule, I still love talking about Broadway sports! In fact, there isn’t much more on this earth I enjoy more than that. Thank you all sincerely for reading and I look forward to seeing you all out at some games this spring! Go Gobblers!

2025-2026
Basketball Honors:
Boys Basketball:
Andrew Garber
All-District 2nd Team

Girls Basketball
Ella Yoder
All-District 1st Team
All-Region 1st Team
Mady Ennis
All-District 1st Team
All-Region 1st Team
April Gingerich
All-District 2nd Team
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Varsity Schedules

Baseball Schedule
3/19 @ Page Co
3/20 @ Wilson Mem
3/21 @ SML-Christian
3/24 vs. Page Co.
3/26 @ Strasburg
3/27 @ Central
4/2 vs. Strasburg
4/7 @ Turner Ashby
4/9 vs. Central
4/14 @ E. Rockingham
4/17 vs. Spotswood
4/21 @ Wm. Monroe
4/27 vs. Monticello
4/28 vs. Rocktown
5/1 vs. Turner Ashby
5/4 @ Luray
5/8 vs. E. Rockingham
5/12 @ Spotswood
5/14 vs. Wm. Monroe
5/18 vs. Wilson Mem.
5/21 @ Rocktown

​*Schedule Subject to change

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Softball Schedule
3/19 @ Page Co
3/20 @ Wilson Mem.
3/24 vs. Page Co.
3/26 @ Strasburg
3/27 @ Central
4/2 vs. Strasburg
4/7 @ Turner Ashby
4/9 vs. Central
4/10 @ Harrisonburg
4/14 @ E. Rockingham
4/17 vs. Spotswood
4/21 @ Wm. Monroe
4/27 vs. Monticello
4/28 vs. Rocktown
5/1 vs Turner Ashby
5/5 @ Harrisonburg
5/8 vs E. Rockingham
5/12 @ Spotswood
5/14 vs. Wm Monroe
5/18 vs Wilson Mem.
5/21 @ Rocktown
*Subject to change

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Broadcast Schedule

Valley District Website
(All Schedules)

The 2025 BHS Softball Team Celebrates after winning the State Championship