Heated debate

May 13, 2008

Anew interpretation of state athletic rules, designed to allow high school coaches to have more contact with their players during the summer, has split officials who have to enforce the rule right down the middle.

Recent columns

• Ball's in their court

  May 9, 2008

  If David Stern and Myles Brand had wanted a clearer illustration of what's wrong with the culture of youth sports in this country, they couldn't have asked for better examples than Billy Gillispie and Michael Avery.

• Nothing shy about Rams

  May 2, 2008

  Say this for Digital Harbor's baseball players: They are nothing if not audacious.

• Around here, passion for game runs high

  April 29, 2008

  Don Ellenberger chuckled as the procession of players walked briskly past where he sat at the Bachman Sports Complex the other night. Like businesswomen pulling computer cases through the concourses at Baltimore-Washington International Airport, the softball players, one by one, lugged their bats and fielding and batting gloves -- the tools of their trade -- across the grass and concrete in flashy bags.

• Maiden voyage

  April 25, 2008

  The best parenting comes not when a mother or father yells at a child when he or she has made a mistake or spilled grape juice on the carpet, but when the parent takes a moment to gather himself or herself emotionally before addressing the situation.

• Runner with a cause

  April 22, 2008

  Ben Levin could have run in the Boston Marathon yesterday. But for the first-team All-Metro wrestler from McDonogh, running in Boston or New York or any other glamorous marathon would not have as much meaning as the race he is running this weekend.

• Starting off

  April 18, 2008

  Three initiatives, one already in the books and two in the works, pledge to bring substantial changes in state public school athletics.

• Equal-access bill went too far

  April 15, 2008

  It's a long-held political truism that a legislative body can inflict its worst damage on its citizenry near the close of a session, when passions are high and legislators' attention is scattered toward the twin goals of getting bills passed and getting the heck out of town.

• Liberty honors teammate in 1st game after death

  April 10, 2008

  When Emily Burke got her changeup over for a strike, she had this little dance she did, emblematic of nothing more than expressing the joy of living and making sure you felt that joy, too.

• Big steps

  April 8, 2008

  Chris Turner had to know what Sunday's Charm City Challenge boys high school basketball all-star game held for him when he got into town Friday and saw the rosters of the local and U.S. teams.

• City limits

  March 18, 2008

  By all rights, Deon Queen should have been afraid Thursday.

• Low standards

  March 14, 2008

  Because of privacy requirements, we'll probably never know precisely how it came to be that Tyler Hibbs won't be pitching this spring for Arundel, or even who made the decision, and that's OK. Sometimes, you don't need to know how the right decision is made as long as it's made.

• Right turn

  March 5, 2008

  You won't find the road that Kim Rivers has traveled marked on any Atlas or available on any Global Positioning System. After all, how could you logically map a path that winds from the hustle and bustle of New York to suburban Missouri to Melbourne, Australia?

• Quietly effective

  February 29, 2008

  Oakland Mills girls basketball coach Seth Willingham arrived at practice the other day a little numb from a trip to the dentist's office for a routine cleaning.

• Dear Congressman -- Steroids not among area athletes' big problems

  February 26, 2008

  Beyond the sheer entertainment value of watching athletes and commissioners and union bosses squirm under the bright lights, there has been an oft- stated reason for the congressional hearings looking into the use of performance-enhancing drugs in sports.

• Secret's out on Marriotts Ridge

  February 23, 2008

  Marriotts Ridge boys basketball coach Marcus Lewis has a wish for the next three weeks and the coming state tournament.

• State stance on shot clock needs revisiting to keep game fast-paced

  February 15, 2008

  In a little more than two weeks, the state boys basketball tournament will begin with no shortage of intriguing story lines, including whether Randallstown can capture a fourth straight title, who will emerge from the scrum that is the Class 1A North region and whether Howard County can grab a state championship for an unprecedented third consecutive year.

• Wheelchair ruling is needed, but from schools, not courts

  May 18, 2007

  There's a chance the matter of how to include the scoring of disabled athletes in with those of able-bodied will be resolved in time for Tatyana McFadden to accumulate points in next year's state track meet.

• Hokies win tonight's baseball game on campus just by taking the field

  April 20, 2007

  How much healing can take place in four days, partic ularly when the wound has been cut so deep into the vein of a com munity? And how can a mere game, even one as wonderful as baseball, be a salve for people whose pain is still so close to the surface?

• High school athletes need Phelps to help them keep their lives afloat

  April 26, 2005

  DEAR Michael Phelps,

• Back after Olympic debut, Hoff makes splash at school

  October 3, 2004

  AH, THE IN-SCHOOL assembly. It's as much a part of the school tradition as the smelly locker, the mushy peas at lunch and learning the "Hora" dance during gym class.