by Aaron Warner

The Barre Auditorium was heating up despite punishingly cold winter conditions outside.  The number four seed Mid-Vermont Christian School (MVCS) Eagles took on the number one Richford Falcons in a battle of high soaring offenses and tight clawing defenses.  

Mid-Vermont’s inside presence with seniors Lydia Dickey and Kira Gray along with junior Jorja du Plessis balanced by their speedy guards Rebekah Roberts and Myranda Goodwin faced a highly skilled team from Richford who breezed into the semis with a 66-31 trouncing of Long Trail.  

You may recall it was Long Trail’s team who boasted a boy playing as a transgender girl back in the 2021-22 playoffs which thrust MVCS and their coach Chris Goodwin into the national spotlight for refusing to put their girls in danger and violated their religious conscience by having girls play against a 6’1” young man.  Vermont’s governing athletic body, the Vermont Principal’s Association (VPA).  This past year a federal court ruled in the Christian school’s favor allowing them to return to competing in Vermont division four athletics after banning all student athletes following the school’s principled stance. 

The first quarter saw the Eagles put the first points on the board getting out to an early 4-2 lead holding the high-powered Falcons down until the final two-minutes in the quarter when star sophomore Sophia Derby hit a deep three pointer followed by an off-balance lay up to end the period up 7-4. 

Bouyed by a raucus fan base the Richford faithful cranked up the decibels as their squad pushed at 11-4 early in the second.  However team leaders Dickey and Roberts worked the inside out game to cut the lead to just three before Derby landed another deep three.  With time running out the Eagle’s found freshmen Kaia Gray on the wing who buried a deep two as the buzzer sounded lifting the crowd back in Mid-Vermont’s favor.  Richford led 16-12 at the half.  

The third quarter saw the teams playing some of the best girl’s basketball seen in Barre Auditorium in some time.  Crisp passing, timely blocks, slashes to the lane and physical inside play on both sides built the tension in the air as both 20 win teams were out to prove who deserved a chance at the championship.  Richford appeared poised to run away with the game getting up 23-14 only to see the scrappy Eagle’s fight their way back to close the quarter down just three 24-21.  

The fourth quarter opened with Richford’s junior forward Clara Vengert swishing a three only to be matched by Eagle’s counterpart Roberts.  Vengert then stole the ball and went the length of the court for a layup which seemed to be the momentum shift they needed.  Up 31-24 with four minutes to play the Falcons went to a suffocating man defense (no pun intended) and drained down the clock on offense by playing corner ball keep away.  

The final score of 39-27 was a moral victory for coach Goodwin who has been stacking up moral victories ever since he decided to take a stand against the woke insanity that was making a mockery of American athletics.  Since the school’s controversial decision to stand against the gender non-conformist ideology the country has seen the NCAA and other governing bodies follow suit by banning biological men from competing in women’s sports.  However were it not for the courageous coach and their girl’s team from tiny Quechee, Vermont, with the help of the Alliance Defending Freedom legal team being willing to endure public scrutiny and shaming for literally honoring both God and science, we may still be witnessing the hostile takeover of girls and women’s sports.  

After the game coach Goodwin’s assessment of his team was encouraging.  “They were the best team in our division and it showed tonight.  We don’t love ball pressure and they forced a couple bad turnovers, we missed some layups and maybe left twelve to fifteen points out there.  Our goal was to hold them under forty to give us a chance and we did that.”  

Never mind the Eagle’s school has had to weather three years of unfair discipline by a state body in the VPA that will ultimately use the same parents tax dollars to pay the lawyers they sent after tiny girls team.  Nor the fact they had to change leagues, find rides, pay more in gas money to play teams out of state and face rejection of their towns who wouldn’t allow Mid-Vermont athletes to play in sports not offered by the school per the VPA’s unfair ruling.  

As Christians they are told to “count the cost” of following Jesus in a world that hated Him first so don’t be surprised “when they hate you as well”.  However despite the spiritual, physical and financial cost to both the school and state-wide tax payers, the real victory can be found in the scripture emblazoned inside the school gymnasium from where their mascot’s get the name Eagles:

“…those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” (Isaiah 40:31)

There is no price or reward that can ever match the value of being used by God to literally live out the Bible verse your school encourages to identify with.  As a fan and reporter of their story it has been truly humbling to watch these little ladies take on the giants and win the bigger victory for girls and people of faith everywhere.  

Thank you Eagles!

The author is a VDC columnist and Upper Valley regional reporter. He lives in Hartford, VT where he owns two award-winning small businesses. He is a graduate of Leadership Upper Valley class of 2010.