Severna Park's Jon Sakalis is tearing them up in the American Frontier Hockey League playing center for the Vail Avalanche in Vail, Colo.
Sakalis, an 18-year-old who played lacrosse at Severna Park but no high school ice hockey because there is none in the county public school system, had a hat trick and has averaged two goals in each of his last five games.
Growing up in the Severna Park area, Sakalis started skating at Benfield Pines and played the last few years with the Washington Little Caps. He was captain of the Little Caps and made the Lake Placid Select 17 team where he was noticed by scouts from Vail.
With the 5-foot-11, 155-pound Sakalis, the Avalanche has won 13 straight on its home rink at Dobson Ice Arena and has emerged as a force in the second-year league for 17-20-year-olds. Former Washington Capital Gary Sampson coaches the team, which was an AFHL co-champion last year.
The AFHL was formed to give quality junior players exposure in front of college and pro scouts from the NHL. The league consists of seven teams in the Rocky Mountains. They play 53 games.
"It's been an education living and playing out there," said Sakalis, who hopes to land a college scholarship and maybe play in the NHL one day.
"It gets boring at times, but I hope to return to Vail next year. I have to talk it over with my parents."
Ten players from last year's Vail squad are playing college ice hockey.
Dedications
A couple of field dedications are planned this spring at Archbishop Spalding and Annapolis high schools.
Spalding will dedicate its new multi-purpose stadium on March 25 with a boys and girls lacrosse doubleheader against Park School of Baltimore.
"The new stadium will be used for lacrosse, football, soccer and field hockey," said Spalding athletic director Domenic Pachence.
The facility is near the old tennis courts at Spalding and is yet to be given an official name.
Annapolis High will dedicate its long-awaited new baseball facility on April 12. The Panther Boosters raised money and put in a lot of volunteer time to make it happen.
Lentz update
The dean of county baseball, Northeast's Harry Lentz, who has been battling cancer since the fall, told a group of county baseball coaches who visited his Glen Burnie home this week that he intends to be ready for the start of baseball practice at Northeast on March 1.
Prime time
Roger Omwake, whose daughter Alyssa plays, on the unbeaten Arundel girls basketball team, called Tuesday night after the Wildcats' big 35-33 victory over Severna Park. Omwake made a very good point.
"The girls game was played at 5 and drew a significantly larger crowd than the boys game at 7 p.m.," said Omwake. "So much for the girls playing 7 o'clock prime time.
"It's the quality of the game, not the time that gets the fans and parents out."
Omwake was referring to the gender equity proposal of flip-flopping the traditional game times of boys (7 or 7:30) and girls (5 or 5:30) basketball games.
Stags & Poets vs. Panthers
Annapolis boys basketball coach John Brady hopes to add national powerhouse DeMatha and possibly Dunbar of Baltimore to the Panthers' 1995-96 schedule.
"I'm waiting for Morgan [Wootten, DeMatha coach with over 1,000 wins in 37 years] to get back to me with a date, but it looks pretty good," said Brady.
"And we hope to set something up with Dunbar, too."
The Annapolis girls team of Dave Griffith has scheduled a couple powerhouses, too. The Panthers will play at the Western Mixer and Lake Clifton is coming to the Cap City Classic during the holidays.
Brady also said he will be interested to see how many county teams go out and schedule top-notch teams with the advent of the open tournament next season. Everybody qualifies for the playoffs under the open-tournament format with records meaning zilch.
"We'll see how many teams schedule tough teams despite the open tournament," said Brady.
Brady agrees that the open-tournament concept takes a lot of the fun out of the season.
"The outcome in doubt at this time of the year as to who finishes where keeps things exciting, but we lose that with the open tournament," said Brady.