Cadets

The No. 1 Archbishop Spalding girls basketball team led for most of the game, but St. John's (D.C.) slowly began coming back. And in the fourth quarter, the Cadets (31-1) had a scoring breakout to win, 54-44, in the championship game of the Bishop Walsh Invitational tournament in Cumberland on Saturday night. The Cavaliers (29-2) led 14-8 after the first quarter, but St. John's won the next two quarters, 9-6 and 17-16. Spalding's 36-34 lead at the start of the fourth quarter quickly evaporated during a 20-8 scoring onslaught.

A former volunteer firefighter who worked with youths at the Lansdowne department pleaded guilty Monday to sexually abusing a teenage boy he mentored in a training program at the station. Anthony Maurice Cottle, 23, who appeared Monday in Baltimore County Circuit Court, also faces federal charges. Cottle, a resident of Owings Mills, was also a paid firefighter with the Baltimore County Fire Department. He has been suspended without pay from that department since being charged in October.

An article in yesterday's Sun gave an incorrect figure for the number of Soviet citizens who were denied political asylum in the United States last year. The number is 51.The Sun regrets the errors.A Soviet tall ship was to sail out of the the Inner Harbor this morning short-handed, a day after two of its young cadets apparently took an unscheduled liberty to request asylum at the downtown office of the Immigration and Naturalization Service.The two cadets, identified by crew members as Alexei Litovko and Pyotr Zolotorev, apparently left the Soviet training vessel Kruzenshtern moored along the west wall of the Inner Harbor, about 1 p.m. yesterday.

An off-duty Baltimore police cadet was arrested in Glen Burnie after police said he hit a woman with a car in a domestic incident Thursday, the day before he was set to graduate from the academy. Baltimore police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the cadet, Zachary Michael Mitchell, 24, has been suspended from Friday's graduation ceremonies and police expect he will be terminated. Anne Arundel County police said they were told by a witness in the 100 block of Plymouth Lane about 4:30 p.m. that a man and woman had been fighting in the parking lot of an apartment building and that the man struck the woman with a car. The couple later went inside an apartment in the complex, where Mitchell lives, according to police.

Army cadets reportedly stole and returned Navy's three goat mascots - Bill XXXII, Bill XXXIII and Bill XXXIV - in a maneuver called "Operation Good Shepherd" this month. You can see film of the action on YouTube. So what happened yesterday? "Just a little pep rally," Army spokesman Frank DeMaro said. Military Academy cadets staged "Goat Buster Spirit Mission" at West Point in anticipation of Saturday's Army-Navy game at M&T Bank Stadium. You can see a photo of that on the United States Military Academy at West Point site.

FrederickCadetsCoach: Bob Campbell, sixth yearAssistant coaches: Shaun Carey, Mike Sanino, Dave Jackson, Phil Rhodes, Ron Cecil, Andre Jackson, Tom LohrLast year's record: 7-3, 4-2 in the Central Maryland ConferenceTop returnees: Seniors, offensive tackles Mike Kelly, Greg Stup, halfback Trenton Ambush, tailback Wayne Cook, running back MonteBryantCoach's comments: "I think we're strong in depth. It's pretty competitive. If there is a weakness, we are young time-wise. Other than (the players mentioned above)

Half a dozen Anne Arundel County police officers-in-training received a one- to two-second squirt of pepper spray directly to the eyes this week, amid temperatures that pushed 100 degrees. "God, it hurts!" one red-faced cadet screamed. "Please give me a wet rag!" another pleaded. "It is very severely painful, ma'am," another said, grimacing, to his training officer. The cadets were not being disciplined, and they were not being hazed. Enduring a spritz of pepper spray is part of the six months of training that every Anne Arundel County police officer must undergo before getting a badge.

NEW YORK -- Twenty-one Muslim cadets from the Middle East, who said they were harassed and beaten by their classmates at the State University of New York Maritime College, left the college and moved to a hotel Friday night. The students had declined to attend class since Tuesday.The departure of the Muslim freshmen, and the dispiriting circumstances surrounding it, sent ripples of introspection through the barracks in the Bronx.Cadets at Maritime train for careers in the shipping industry in a four-year program that resembles that of the Naval Academy.

With about 75 onlookers waving goodbye from the Inner Harbor dock, a Soviet training ship sailed for Europe today minus two naval cadets who jumped ship yesterday and apparently sought asylum at the downtown office of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.The two cadets were identified by crew members as Alexei Litovko and Pyotr Zolotorev, both from Kaliningrad and about 20 years old.The Sun reported today that the two left the tall shipKruzenshtern yesterday afternoon and ran straight to the nearby INS office in Hopkins Plaza, about four blocks away.

The cheer went something like this: "Whoooaaaa." It was a shout-out of sorts, a show of respect to mothers, fathers, teachers and shift leaders who worked with members of the 15th graduating class of the Freestate Challenge program, a military-style academy run by the Maryland National Guard for young men and women. Parents and teachers responded yesterday by jumping to their feet and giving the 92 cadets - many of them former high school dropouts - a standing ovation. All this before the cadets had even received their diplomas.

The No. 1 Archbishop Spalding girls basketball team led for most of the game, but St. John's (D.C.) slowly began coming back. And in the fourth quarter, the Cadets (31-1) had a scoring breakout to win, 54-44, in the championship game of the Bishop Walsh Invitational tournament in Cumberland on Saturday night. The Cavaliers (29-2) led 14-8 after the first quarter, but St. John's won the next two quarters, 9-6 and 17-16. Spalding's 36-34 lead at the start of the fourth quarter quickly evaporated during a 20-8 scoring onslaught.

Phil McConkey wasn't surprised to hear that Navy's mascot had been goatnapped last week, for the umpteenth time, prior to Saturday's Army-Navy football game. That the animal was left tethered to a post, outside of the Pentagon, didn't surprise him either. "The goat is a smelly old thing that defecates all the time, and Army probably couldn't deal with it (after the heist)," said McConkey, a star receiver for Navy in the 1970s. "They also stole our goat when I played there, 34 years ago, and I said the same thing then: "Good riddance, let Army have it. " After 112 years of hijinks and hoopla, Army and Navy can still find ways to torment each other in advance of their storied rivalry.

Anne Arundel County may get a new police academy to replace a facility that was built by the military as a Nike missile site more than a half-century ago. The existing facility includes the dilapidated original military office building - which has been renovated and expanded over the years - as well as an underground missile silo that has been turned into an exercise center where the mats have to be rolled up before a storm so the many leaks don't...

The Northern Chesapeake West Point Society held its Annual Founders Day Celebration March 16 at the Maryland Golf and Country Clubs in Bel Air. More than 85 people representing graduates, cadets and parents of cadets, former professors and friends of the academy attended. The date marked the 210th anniversary of the founding of the United States Military Academy at West Point in New York; on March 16, 1802, Congress approved legislation establishing the academy. West Point is one of the oldest military academies in the world and is the oldest continuously run military post in America.

The third quarter has been the separating factor for the No. 1 Aberdeen girls basketball team all season, and it made the difference Thursday night as the Eagles avenged last year's state title loss. The Eagles scored 12 straight points early in the second half to turn a nine-point game into an 80-50 romp over defending champion Frederick in a state Class 3A semifinal at UMBC's RAC Arena. The victory avenged last year's 76-71 loss to the Cadets in the final. That's something the Eagles (26-1)

The day many Americans were celebrating the freedoms that Martin Luther King's life stood for, some Harford County residents were experiencing another freedom - the freedom of flight. The Harford County Squadron of the Civil Air Patrol,U.S. Air ForceAuxiliary, took part in orientation flights with their cadets on Monday, Jan. 16. The orientation flights introduce cadets to aviation and flight instruction. For many of the cadets, this is their first experience in flying, much less at the control of a plane.

Waiting outside the auditorium at Baltimore County's Milford Mill Academy, Quaneeshia Minick shuffled around the hallway, expending her last bit of nervous energy.Minutes later on stage, Quaneeshia stood perfectly still, about an arm's length away from 14 other Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps cadets, as three military judges graded her posture, her political knowledge and her all-black uniform."I was so nervous, my hands were sweating," the 16-year-old sophomore at Woodlawn High School said later.

Incoming ninth-grader Asia Jones is so determined to do well in high school that she is enrolling out of district at Atholton High. There, she will participate in the school's Junior ROTC program, which emphasizes citizenship, teamwork and academic success. Asia's home school, Long Reach, does not offer the program. The 15-year-old said friends "told me they [Junior ROTC officials] have a no-tolerance policy and I like that" because it sets high standards for students. "I like the discipline.

On July 27, two Civil Air Patrol cadets from Japan and four from Canada took part in a Black Hawk ride over Harford County, thanks to the International Air Cadet Exchange program and the Army National Guard. Cadets and staff were treated to a flight in a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter over the Susquehanna River in northeastern Maryland. The flight lasted an hour and allowed the cadets to experience pre-flight and the different maneuvers that the Black Hawk is capable of. The International Air Cadet Exchange is an annual exchange of visits by air-minded youth of the U.S., Canada, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, East Asia, and the Pacific Rim with the objective of promoting international understanding, good will, and fellowship among the youth of the world.

Recently, I participated, observed, and learned from the Baltimore Police Department. For the past few weeks, I had seen notices about a Community Safety Day that was to be held at the Police Training Facility on Northern Parkway and Park Heights Avenue on Sunday, June 26. So I went. It was a very interesting afternoon, especially to see the different equipment, vehicles, supplies that are available to the police in its job of not only protecting Baltimore citizens but also in teaching safety in all areas.