It's been a remarkable fall for the Glenelg cheerleaders. The team joked about its ninth-place curse, but at the recent Howard County cheerleading championships, the Gladiators placed second and were among the four county teams that advanced to the North Region competition. There Glenelg scored 127.8 points to finish fourth behind three Anne Arundel County schools.

Last Saturday, the Gladiators made their first trip to the state championship meet and they finished a respectable seventh out of the 13 teams competing.

"Our routine may not have had the most difficulty, but it was clean, and clean always wins," Carissa Doody told sports editor Carol Gralia.

For the record, South River won the state title with Broadneck finishing second.

Turf now or later?

Will the high schools in Howard County have turf fields? Eventually, they probably will. Will they get them as soon as some people would like is another question.

I was initially told that two high schools — Hammond and Atholton — would soon be getting turf fields. That plan apparently fell through when the school board decided to rethink its capital projects plan. It is a complicated and divisive issue. Lots of people would like to see turf fields. I happen to be one of them.

Turf fields cost $800,000 each. Multiply that by 12 high schools and you can see the problem. With the economy sluggish, the school board has other spending priorities. The question then becomes how high on the priority list are turf fields. We know the advantages of having turf vs. grass fields but are those advantages high enough to propel the board to okay turf fields now.

Citizen input played a major role in the high schools getting stadium lights. Would citizen impact have a role again?

I personally like turf. It is cheaper in the long run to maintain and those fields would be open for use by organizations outside the school system. Most of our grass fields barely hold up as it is. Turf would provide more usage and access, and that would be good.

Howard County will get turf fields. The only question is when.

Suter, Weil and Van Allen take top honors

Last week I wrote about Erica Suter, a River Hill graduate who has had an outstanding college soccer career at Johns Hopkins. Her coach, Leo Weil, said it was a "no-brainer" that she should earn the Centennial Conference Player of the Year award.

Leo was right. The conference team was named late last week and Erica indeed walked away with the top honor.

In addition, Leo was named Coach of the Year. It's the second time he's earned the honor.

A second Hopkins coach, Centennial graduate Bobby Van Allen, was named cross country Centennial Conference Coach of the Year.

Congratulations to all.

Suter scored in Hopkins' first-round playoff win over Eastern Connecticut State. The Blue Jays also won their second playoff contest and will play in this weekend's Sweet Sixteen round.

Iron Girls are quick

For those who intended to take part in the 7th annual Athleta Iron Girl Triathlon set for Aug. 19, the news is you are already too late. Registration opened at 9 a.m., Nov. 9, and the TriColumbia web site was overwhelmed in the first minute.

Registration closed out in just over three hours with 2,400 female athletes securing their place in the field. Columbia may have been the fastest Iron Girl to sell out anywhere in the country.