Brittany

DOES ANY of this sound familiar?"Yeah. Right. Fine. Whatever.""Saw-R-E-E-E!""Don't worry about it, oh-KA-A-A-AY?""Oh, never MIND.""Fine!" (Stomp, stomp, stomp up the stairs. Door slams.)Congratulations! You are the mother of a middle-school girl!For the next several years, you will be on an emotional roller coaster that will make the wildest amusement park ride feel like the Christmas train in the mall.Your perfect little girl has become a perfect little -- well, it rhymes with witch."Sometime during seventh grade, it all goes south," a friend warned me. "You won't believe it."

It looked like a rebuilding season for the Archbishop Spalding volleyball team after the graduation of setter and All-Metro Player of the Year Brittany Born and second-team All-Metro hitter Colleen Seeba. Instead, the No. 5 Cavaliers have reloaded and are making a run to repeat as Interscholastc Athletic Association A Conference champions. Under coach Scott Rombach, the Cavaliers served notice on Friday with a surprising 3-1 triumph over then-No. 1 St. Paul's by scores of 25-15, 25-15, 19-25 and 25-19.

Afour-year starting guard and a team captain for Southern, Brittany Wiseman makes the offense go and has a penchant for taking care of the basketball. She has helped the team get off to a 9-2 start. Her clutch jumper with 20 seconds left gave the Bulldogs a 45-44 win over Annapolis last Friday. The victory was a county-career record 416th for coach Linda Kilpatrick. What does Coach Kilpatrick's milestone mean to you and the team? It means that we've been helping her set the all-time record.

First, there were the sheets of paper with original song lyrics on them that little Brittany Newsome's family would find lying around the house. Then there was the piano music wafting from downstairs -- unfamiliar, but every bit as sophisticated as other things her parents had heard her play.But perhaps the biggest clue that Lynn and Clarence Newsome might have a musical prodigy on their hands was when Brittany's piano teacher started letting the 14-year-old play her own compositions at recitals.

Top-ranked North County scratched across an unearned run in the fourth and Kellie Evans limited Severna Park to two hits as the Knights defeated No. 3 Severna Park, 1-0, yesterday in Ferndale.Evans, a senior, had all her pitches working yesterday, relying on a fastball with good location but using an occasional slow change to keep the Severna Park batters guessing.She struck out three and had plenty of defensive support. She also scored the game's only run after singling in the fourth inning.

My Best ShotMountain majestyBy William Somerville, Baltimore"When we arrived at Glacier National Park in Montana in late August, the weather was overcast and drizzly. Early the next morning, I awoke to a dazzling light show outside the window of our room at the historic Many Glacier Hotel. I grabbed my camera (a simple `point and shoot' model) and took this shot from the hill behind the hotel."A MEMORABLE EXPERIENCEBicycling through BrittanyBy Thomas DorsettSPECIAL TO THE SUN"My God, Thomas, where's your backpack?

At 9 years old, Brittany Eubanks whipped up an award-winning recipe that earned her $1,000 and her school $5,000. She didn't submit it to the state or county fair. Nor did she use the usual ingredients of flour, sugar and butter.Instead, Brittany beat together creativity, plain English and a lot of thought to come up with a recipe for professional success. And it won first place over 5,000 competing essays in Macy's "Follow a Leader" contest.The recipe, which she called Chef Brittany's Footstep Pie, calls for: "Ten cups of schooling; nine cups of determination; eight cups of hard work; six cups of talent; four heaping tablespoons of respect, responsibility and honesty; one huge dash of life; and creativity to taste."

Police logScaggsville: 8300 block of Sweet Cherry Lane: A gray 1988 Acura Legend, Maryland license plate 231-BBM, was stolen Tuesday.Ellicott City: 8100 block of Main Street: Someone broke into a restaurant Tuesday through an unlocked front door. A hammer drill was taken from the building.Elkridge: 13600 block of Highland Road: A black 1987 Chevrolet truck, Maryland license plate 33C732, was stolen Monday or Tuesday.Ellicott City: 4000 block of Brittany Drive: A white 1996 Chrysler Concorde, Maryland license plate TRB-757, was stolen Tuesday when someone entered an unlocked garage.

When 6-year-old Brittany King asked her family for $50 from her bank account to contribute to Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke's campaign to buy back guns, family members weren't surprised.Brittany, a first-grader at St. William of York School in Southwest Baltimore, has been looking for ways to help get guns off the street for much of her young life. Her father, Ken King, was shot to death in his home in 1991, when Brittany was 8 months old, and the girl who dreams of being a lawyer and judge doesn't want other children to lose their parents to handguns.

Peter Pan would be proud.As if powered by nothing more than pixie dust and good thoughts, the five students at St. Paul's Schools fly across the stage in a production of "Peter Pan" rich in special effects that opens tonight.And it looks so easy -- if you ignore the custom-made harnesses, more than 100 feet of steel cable, yards of rope and crew members taking cues through wireless headsets, all of which help get the young actors off the ground."These kids are doing phenomenal jobs," said director Paul Tines before dress rehearsal.

On August 17, 2009, RUSSELL C. SIKORSKI, devoted father of Brittany; loving grandfather of Grace; brother of Edward, Charles, John, Victoria, Doris and Pam; son of Elsie and the late John Sikorski. Services Saturday, August 22nd, 11 A.M. at Lake Shore Baptist Church. In lieu of flowers donations may be made to the American Diabetic Association.

I'll Never Be French (No Matter What I Do) Free Press, $24 Mark Greenside, the author of this enchanting book and an American from California, came to France - to a small village in Brittany - at the behest of his girlfriend at the time. In retrospect, it seemed a brave thing to do, especially because he didn't speak a word of French. And the last time he was there was not a pleasant experience. Even worse, he hated to fly. "Let's go to Saskatchewan," he suggested instead. But of course, they do go, and he begins to fall in love with a tiny Breton village with 500 inhabitants.

Libby and Fred Arnold, of Harwood, announce the marriage of their daughter, Brittany, to Jesse Cline, son of Nancy and George Elliott and Susan and Phil Cline. Cecilia Petro officiated at the October 25th, 2008 ceremony, which took place at the home of Brittany's parents. The reception took place at the Chesapeake Beach Resort in Chesapeake Beach. The newlyweds enjoyed a honeymoon in Hawaii. The bride was given in marriage by her parents. The Maid of Honor was long time friend Kristen Karkosh.

Fourteen-year-old Brittany Archer stood at the base of a 40-foot climbing wall in Leakin Park and confidently declared, "I'm going all the way up there." But after watching friend Tre Smith, 14, slip and stumble to the top, the East Baltimore eighth-grader suddenly wasn't so sure. Wearing a harness and helmet, she approached the wall, closed her eyes and put her hands over her face. "I'm scared!" she squealed repeatedly. With six Baltimore City police officers cheering her on, Brittany made it to the top, triumphantly rang a bell and rapelled back down, where she was congratulated with a hug from Smith and high-fives from the officers.

Brittany Banks says she's tired of missing out on a normal adolescence. She never went to a prom, never had a first date. Ever since seven boys allegedly attacked and sexually assaulted her at a Baltimore middle school six years ago, she's been through dozens of psychiatric wards and residential facilities for troubled youths. She had hoped to find freedom on the night of Sept. 10, when she jumped out a window of an Upper Marlboro group home where she was supposed to have been under 24-hour supervision.

Six years ago, a 12-year-old girl with mild mental retardation charged that seven boys attacked and sexually assaulted her in a math class at Southeast Middle School in Baltimore. She and her mother won a $100,000 judgment against the city school system, the maximum permitted by law. But the incident left Brittany Banks, now 18, so traumatized that she spent most of her adolescence in and out of psychiatric facilities and is unable to live at home. And on Sept. 10, according to her mother, she was permitted to walk out of a group home in Prince George's County where she was supposed to be under 24-hour supervision.

Nervous is how St. Vincent Pallotti senior defender Jazzmine Chandler described the moment. Even a little scared. She didn't feel the jittery flash before the two Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland A Conference championship games she has played in, or any of the many times a top-notch forward was trying to race past her. So what had Chandler frazzled? The day after tryouts during her freshman year, the new team was assembled and each player was asked to stand up and say what she could improve on for the coming season.

On Sunday, July 13, 2008, STEVEN MATTHEW BASHAM of Elkridge, MD; loving father of Brittany Basham and son of Dorothy L. and Edward Z. Basham, Jr.; brother of Laura C. Mallory and Edward Z. Basham, III. He is also survived by three nieces and four nephews. Family and friends are invited to gather at Gary L. Kaufman Funeral Home at Meadowridge Memorial Park, Inc., (Exit 6 off Rt. 100) 7250 Washington Blvd, Elkridge, MD on Thursday from 3-5 and 7-9 P.M., where service will be held on Friday, July 18, 2008, at 10 A.M. Interment Meadowridge Memorial Park.

On May 18, 2008, FRANCIS J. "BUD". Beloved husband of the late Olga E. Raysinger; devoted father of Lois Krok and husband Michael, Barbara Rzepkowski and husband Thomas; grandfather of Michael, Brittany, Matthew, Adam and Alec and Brittany, girlfriend of Matthew; brother of Mary E. Unger, Dolores T. Eckerl, Angela Rizzo and the late Dorothy A. Reeder. Friends may call at Gonce Funeral Service, P.A., 4001 Ritchie Highway, on Tuesday from 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 p.m. where services will be held on Wednesday at 11 a.m. Interment Holy Cross Cemetery.

Suddenly on March 31, 2008, KRISTOPHER K.C. BRANAMEN; beloved son of Ken W. and Pearl Branamen; devoted father of Brittany Branamen and Nicki McGinnis and her husband Jay; dear brother of Ken G. Branamen, Sr. Also survived by his beloved dog Petie. A Funeral Service will be held at the Family Owned Ruck Towson Funeral Home, Inc., 1050 York Road (beltway exit 26) on Saturday, at 1 p.m. The family will receive friend on Friday, from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. Interment private. Memorial contributions to The American Heart Association will be appreciated.