September 11, 2003|By PAT O'MALLEY
Ed Harte, North County's veteran cross country coach, says he has "a loaded field of 23 teams" for tomorrow's 14th Knights Invite at 4 p.m. at Baybrook Park, which straddles the southern city line. A portion of the 3-mile course is in Brooklyn, a Baltimore neighborhood, and the rest is in Brooklyn Park, in Anne Arundel County.
Harte started the Knights Invite in 1990, when he took over coaching the North County cross country team, and it has become one of the premier high school events in the fall.
Arundel is the only county public school not participating. The other 11 public schools, plus Severn, St. Mary's and Archbishop Spalding from Anne Arundel, will compete with Baltimore's Archbishop Curley and Bryn Mawr, Baltimore County's Franklin, McDonogh and Perry Hall; and Carroll County's Westminster.
Broadneck, The Sun's No. 1 ranked girls team with blue-chipper Lauren Centrowitz, returns as the Knights Invite defending champion. Centrowitz was the girls individual winner last year, when the Bruins dethroned C. Milton Wright of Harford County.
"Centrowitz is incredible. I don't know if anybody can beat her," Harte said.
Those expected to challenge the Broadneck senior and reigning All-Metro Runner of the Year are Bryn Mawr's Laura Drossner and Perry Hall's Amy Morlock, who led the Gators to the Class 4A North region title as a freshman last year.
Wright was the repeat boys champion last year and, like its girls team, is not returning. No. 2 Broadneck, behind senior Andrew Younger and junior Kellen Hamill, will challenge for the team championship with No. 10 Archbishop Spalding, McDonogh and Westminster.
Favorites to take the boys individual title are Annapolis' Will Eden and Jonathan Julian, McDonogh's Tristin Thomas, Archbishop Curley's Eric Silwick, Old Mill's Larry Contrella and host North County's Joe Wojiechowski.
`Coed field hockey'
If required to forfeit its Sept. 22 field hockey game against Meade and its two boy players, Arundel will appeal to the board of control, athletic director Bernie Walter said yesterday.
He called yesterday's article reporting Arundel would forfeit inaccurate, saying instead the Wildcats simply won't play "as long as they have boys playing."
" `Not playing' and `forfeiting' are two different things," Walter said.
Not according to Marlene Kelly, the county administrator of athletics.
"The teams were given plenty of time to respond if they were not going to play Meade so the schedules could be adjusted," Kelly said Tuesday at Severna Park while watching brothers Josh and Jarrod Davis and Meade lose, 4-0. "We said after that, it would be a forfeit."
But Walter said that "after tryouts at Meade, field hockey went from being a girls sport to coed field hockey. If we are told we have to forfeit, we will grieve it, take it to the board of control. We expected to play girls field hockey, not coed field hockey."
The board of control rules on all matters involving public school sports in the county.
Kelly says she has gotten few complaints from parents but has heard from several coaches opposed to boys on field hockey teams.
Sideliners
Chiara Lee, who made the South River varsity girls basketball team as a sophomore but didn't play again until her senior year because of a knee injury and graduated in 1994, is the new coach of her alma mater's girls basketball team. Lee, a teacher in Prince George's County, succeeds John Wardell.
Wardell is an applicant for the vacant Severna Park girls job, opened because of the resignation of Bill Giblin.
Lauren Boyd, former Severna Park County Volleyball Player of the Year (1998) and All-Metro setter, is now a Falcons assistant to Julie Allen
New Broadneck quarterback Tony Marino, a junior, credits assistant coach Sam Steinmark for his development from JV to varsity. Steinmark, a former Navy assistant, coached his son, Broadneck All-County quarterback Freddie Steinmark, last season.
Marino was impressive in the No. 6 Bruins' season-opening 33-6 win over Chesapeake
The Northeast High Baseball Alumni Association's annual bull and oyster roast will be on Oct. 11 at Stoney Creek Democratic Club in Orchard Beach. Tickets are $25, with the proceeds going to improvements at the Harry Lentz Memorial Field. For information, call Al Kohlhafer at 410-437-6400 or coach Larry Williams, 443-286-7550.
Senior Billy Swift is a busy young man at Northeast, serving as manager for the Eagles' field hockey and volleyball teams and both the boys and girls basketball teams.
Call in scores: County coaches are urged to call in their scores and other pertinent information after games to 410-332-6200 or 1-800-829-8000, ext. 6200. Please provide the correctly spelled names for both teams. Line scores are of interest to parents, players, coaches and many others in our reading audience. The Sun wants to publish all scores, and the cooperation of coaches is vital.
Have a note? Call Pat O'Malley's 24-hour Sportsline at 410-647-2499 or send e-mail to patomalleysports@aol.com.
