Academics

Harford Tech junior forward Malik Mack, 6 feet 1, is averaging 10 rebounds, along with eight points, even though he has been playing organized basketball for only two years. "He's sort of like a pogo stick," coach Bill Jones said. "He'll jump three or four times, because he's playing against guys 6-4 and 6-6, and then he'll keep jumping and tip the ball to himself." Mack carries a 3.8 grade point average and is a peer tutor and a member of the National Honor Society. He also serves on the student council and wants to attend Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Teira Pendleton's fierce competitive streak shows on her face in every Poly basketball game. Intensely focused and in the moment, her physical inside presence has been a factor on both sides of the ball as the No. 8 Engineers advanced to the Class 4A state semifinals for the second year in a row. The 5-foot-8 junior forward-guard leads a young team into Thursday's 3 p.m. state semifinal at UMBC against Walt Whitman with 12.5 points and 8.4 rebounds...

Since November of his junior year, recently graduated River Hill lacrosse standout Jim Marlatt has thought about playing for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. He will soon be doing just that, but there's one more uniform he'll sport first. Marlatt, who earned All-Metro second-team honors after leading the Hawks to the state title game, is one of three players among the public schools in the area to be invited to play for the South team in the Under Armour All-American Classic set for Saturdayat Towson University's Johnny Unitas Stadium.

It's common practice for football recruits to say their college choice is based primarily on academics. Whether or not that popular refrain is true is often up for debate. But when Bishop McNamara safety and honor roll student Milan Collins says academics were a major factor in his choice, you believe it. “You can only go so far in the game of football, so when that curtain call comes, when you have to wrap it up, for me, it may be my senior year in college. I want to give myself the opportunity to get a job and provide for myself and my family,” said Collins, who will sign with Maryland next month.

When it comes to college athletics, it's time to speak truth to evil. You might think evil is too strong a word for what's going on in college athletics, but consider how Webster's Dictionary defines evil: morally reprehensible; causing harm; offensive. That pretty much sums up the state of big-time college sports today. The inane move of Maryland and Rutgers to the Big Ten is simply the latest example. Here's the current reality of college sports: •NCAA Division I sports - especially at Football Bowl Subdivision schools - has nothing to do with education.

When Anthony Gunn transferred to Arundel last season, coach Chuck Markiewicz saw potential. He also realized patience was going to be required. The Wildcats run a no-huddle offense that takes a while to learn. When it's running smoothly, though, it's the opposing defense that has trouble picking it up. And when Gunn got comfortable, Arundel was able to make the opposition very uncomfortable. The proof is in the numbers. Thirteenth-ranked Arundel outscored its opponents, 321-106, in 10 regular-season games.

After accumulating 13 goals and 11 assists and being named second-team All-County last fall, Hollerbach will sit out this season. She tore an anterior cruciate ligament last spring and will be on the sidelines as a team captain. Hollerbach, who has a lacrosse scholarship to Penn State, will play that sport in the spring. How tough will it be not playing this season? It will be very frustrating because field hockey is a lot of fun and I've really enjoyed playing. But I am still a captain and will help my teammates with pointers and encouragement.

WASHINGTON - Al Gore will be the next president of the United States. He is, after all, two whole inches taller than his Republican rival. And, as statisticians will tell you, the tallest guy always wins. Nope. George W. Bush will take the White House. He's up against a sitting vice president. And, political scientists note, the incumbent administration's vice president usually loses if he runs. Think again. It's Gore. The economy is good, the president is popular, so the incumbent party wins.

Britni Lonesome won't soon forget Dec. 13, 2005. For the Poly senior, who has concentrated on playing basketball and pursuing a math or science career since middle school, everything came together that day. First, she helped the No. 14 Engineers win their first game of the season, 56-22, over defending city champion City. Afterward, she learned she had been offered early admission to Johns Hopkins University. "I was so excited," said Lonesome, 17, a four-year varsity player. "It was great, because the coach [Johns Hopkins assistant coach Wanda Richardson]

AFFIRMATIVE ACTION is how colleges do business, a familiar practice we don't want to change. I know this from my years on the academic job market, having been told at seven different colleges that I was either the wrong race or the wrong sex for a professorship. (I told one would-be employer that while I could teach out of field, I couldn't change my race and wouldn't change my sex.) Yet despite my own experience, I support some racial preferences in college hiring and admissions. Academics argue - correctly, in my view - that we have an obligation to offer our students diverse learning communities, to broaden them.