CALL HIM a dreamer, but Brian Bassett thinks he's found a budding technology that may be the answer to building a bigger audience for his favorite sport, rugby.
Bassett, a video producer with the Howard County public school system by day, is a tireless participant evenings and weekends in rugby with the Rocky Gorge Rugby Club. He is the coach as well as a player.
He is a promoter, too, telling sports folks last week that he is close to getting a half-hour show about the sport to be carried by Comcast SportsNet next month via the cable giant's Middle Atlantic outlets.
"We need more exposure, especially on television," said Bassett, a former Wilde Lake High football player who discovered rugby at, of all places, Frostburg State University. "The sport needs to grow in this country."
This weekend, Bassett and a small crew will be taping segments of the program at an annual charity match-up at Washington's Hyde Leadership Public Charter School between a team of New Zealanders who live in the United States and the Mid-Atlantic Men's All-Stars, a select team with a couple Rocky Gorge teammates on its roster. Other players are being drawn from teams along the East Coast from North Carolina to Pennsylvania.
The New Zealand-Mid-Atlantic game is the eighth such affair, Bassett said, and he is upbeat because the Americans won for the first time last year, so a two-game winning streak is possible. Tiny New Zealand is a big-time rugby competitor, in case that had gotten by you, which it has for many Americans, because we live in probably the only sizable former component of the British Empire where the sport isn't big time.
Oh, that technological finding we mentioned earlier. It's Web casting -- telecasting, if you will, via the Internet. Bassett says he is starting a business of covering the sport in this country and making it available via the Internet to anyone who might be interested.
But first things first, which means paying the bills for his cable TV project. You can learn more from Bassett at 442-742- 6636, or via e-mail at us rugbyvision@earthlink.net.
Another cutting edge
There is no question we will be hearing more in the months ahead about the pros and cons of private interests trying to get usage of county parkland. The Howard County Tennis Association's proposal for a new center in Elkridge is the first of other proposals to come, if you look at what is happening in the rec and parks biz these days.
Partnering with private and/or nonprofit interests to provide recreational services is hot stuff nationally, which is one reason it is on a list of questions we reported on a couple weeks ago to guide future growth of parks here.
The subject was raised by the department itself, said consultant Paul Driscoll of Urban Design & Research Co. in Bethlehem, Pa., the firm working up data for the local department's new five-year plan to satisfy the state's Program Open Space requirements.
If you think this is exotic stuff for parkland, it's not. You need only go just over the county line down U.S. 29 to Prince George's County's Fairland Regional Park, where, among other facilities, the lovely, three-rink Gardens Ice House skating facility is a prime example of what is going on elsewhere. The land is publicly owned; the skating rinks are privately operated, with local government getting a piece of the financial action. The rationale is that everyone wins; the public gets a recreational service and cash flow with relatively no investment by the county.
The price of land is what everyone is trying to avoid; that, and the fact that local governments everywhere are stressed these days for money to build anything.
"Typically, it's a [sandlot] baseball or soccer group that works out the arrangement," Driscoll said. But the proposed tennis center and Fairland's ice rinks "are the next level," he added.
One potential drawback is that everyone needs to be numbers-wise. "If you build it and they don't come, then the county or local government is left with a facility that's useless -- and no one wants that," said Driscoll.
Winter's a'comin'
Finally, today, a little housekeeping.
Winter sports have begun, with the annual Simon Decker soccer tournament in Columbia for recreation-level teams and youth football playoffs essentially ending the fall seasons.
Basketball has begun in some areas, hockey began weeks ago and wrestling is on the way. So, here is a reminder for leaders of youth and adult organizations involved in any winter competitive activity in Howard County:
We're interested in your teams, your leader, anyone or anything in your groups that others also might find interesting. And we welcome your questions and suggestions about what or who might be interesting. Don't be shy about calling or writing. Part of what newspaper people do is listen to suggestions. As always, you can reach us at 410-332-6525 or by directing e-mail to lowell.sunderland@baltsun.com.
If you're a new officer or publicity chairman for your group, add us to your mailing or distribution list.
