College Coaches

Some of the nation's premier high school basketball players will converge on College Park this weekend, when Cole Field House and seven other floors on the campus of the University of Maryland will be in use during the ninth annual Charlie Weber HoopTV Invitational Tournament.Games begin at 5 p.m. today and conclude Sunday afternoon.The event will feature 64 Amateur Athletic Union teams, and another bracket of 16 under-16 teams, a first for the Weber Invitational.Several nationally ranked players will participate.

A federal jury in Kansas ordered the NCAA yesterday to pay more than $22 million in back wages, penalties and legal fees to 1,900 assistant college coaches whose salaries were found to have been illegally restricted.The penalty, which was tripled to $66 million under federal antitrust law, is by far the largest court assessment against the association, which regulates and administers major intercollegiate sports.The verdict came after five years of often tortuous legal wrangling, in which the coaches contended that a blanket rule imposed by the NCAA in 1992 to restrict the salaries of certain assistant coaches to $12,000 for an academic year had stifled competition and deprived them of fair market wages.

Mary Urban will try to savor next week's Association of Independent Schools basketball tournament enough to last six months.That's how long it could be until she plays her next game.On March 5, Urban is scheduled to undergo surgery to correct scoliosis. In a four-hour operation, doctors will insert a metal rod into her back to help straighten the lateral curvature of her spine.She should be able to walk in about a week and swim a few weeks later, but she cannot participate in full contact sports for about six months.

This will be the 22nd year Memorial Day weekend has meant an overflowing of soccer in Howard County, and so participants began arriving in droves yesterday from Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, IllinoisAnd that's just college coaches -- nearly 250 of them that organizers of the Columbia Invitational Soccer Tournament know about. In fact, more will likely have passed through by midafternoon Monday when the last championship game ends on Fort Meade's parade grounds."A lot of them like to keep a low profile," said Karen Nickles, a former college player who at 33 is one of two coordinators of the powerful college aspect of this youth tournament.

An article in Friday's edition erroneously omitted the names of the Carroll County girls selected to compete with Team Maryland at the United States Field Hockey Festival Nov. 28-30. Those players are Lisa Duke and Carli Harris, both from Westminster.Eleven top local field hockey players will spend Thanksgiving weekend in Palm Springs, Calif., trying to impress college coaches.As part of Team Maryland, they will compete at the United States Field Hockey Association's Hockey Festival Nov. 28-30.

Eleven top local field hockey players will spend Thanksgiving weekend in Palm Springs, Calif., trying to impress college coaches.As part of Team Maryland, they will compete at the United States Field Hockey Association's Hockey Festival Nov. 28-30."

Megan Boehm is never home for the holidays anymore.As soon as school lets out for a few days, she leaves town to play soccer. Christmas day, Boehm catches a plane for Miami and the Junior Orange Bowl invitational with her club team, the Columbia Spirit.Over Thanksgiving weekend, she competed at an inter-regional tournament in Boca Raton, Fla. Last Easter, Boehm made her first international tour with an under-17 regional team in London and Paris."[Being away for the holidays] was a change at first, but once you get to know the team, it's OK," said Boehm.

Maintaining that he doesn't want to be pushed, Spirit owner Bill Stealey says it may be weeks or even a month before he selects a new coach.The leading candidates at the moment are Spirit assistant coach Mike Stankovic and former Blast goalie Keith Van Eron. Stealey says he wants to expand the search after indicating last week that he hoped to fill the job this week."Mike and Keith have good attributes," Stealey said. "But we don't have enough candidates. I want to talk to some others, including a few college coaches."

It's one-stop shopping for dozens of college recruiters at the 19th annual Columbia Invitational Soccer Tournament this weekend.Seventy-three college coaches are registered to check out the talent at the three-day event that concludes tomorrow with championship matches in 11 boys and nine girls age groups at the Fort Meade Parade Grounds. Tourney publicity and field coordinator Mike Curry said at least another 20 to 30 coaches would arrive unannounced.There's no day at the beach for serious youth soccer players this holiday weekend.

It was at this time last year that certain people were after Dan Hart's head. Behind the scenes, disgruntled parents, opposing coaches and members of the lacrosse officials association were campaigning for the ouster of Hart as the Annapolis boys lacrosse coach.Hart endured cheap shots and adversity, won his job back and Wednesday night at UMBC led his Panthers to the state 3A-4A championship with a 7-5 win over Centennial.It was more than a state title. It was redemption and self-victory, further proof that the guy, who rubs some people the wrong way, is a motivator and a pretty good coach.

Yellow probably won't be a very popular color in girls lacrosse this season. In an attempt to rein in what some believe has become overly aggressive play and preserve the integrity of the women's game, officials will be calling it more tightly. That has already resulted in more yellow cards in college games and high school scrimmages - and now they bring stiffer penalties. Each yellow card takes the offending player off the field for three minutes with no substitution. Last season, teams substituted for the offending player through the first three yellow cards, then lost one for each yellow thereafter.

One day soon, the Division I lacrosse powers might be recruiting middle school players. It sounds impossible, but unless the NCAA does something soon, that's where lacrosse is headed. Loyola High coach Jack Crawford and Boys' Latin coach Bobby Shriver say recruiting is one of the sport's biggest problems. "It's gotten out of hand," Shriver said. In some respects, lacrosse recruiting is worse than big-time college football and basketball because the sport is played in the spring. At least football and basketball players get to play through their senior seasons in high school.

At one point during summer 2007, the volume of mail arriving at Bailey Webster's Towson home so overwhelmed the postal carrier that she knocked on the door asking to meet the person getting so much mail. When the door opened, she met the No. 1 volleyball prospect in the nation, a 6-foot-3 powerhouse of a hitter for St. Paul's. More than 200 coaches initially recruited her, inundating her with letters and media guides. "At one point, we were getting 25 to 30 pieces of mail just for her a day, and that doesn't include e-mail," said her mother, Cedrina Webster.

Allen Iverson had a profoundly successful two years at Georgetown. He went from all-rookie to All-American to first pick in the NBA draft. But his success was hardly considered a given when John Thompson offered the guard a scholarship in April 1994. A year earlier, Iverson had been convicted on three felony counts in connection with a bowling alley brawl in his hometown of Hampton, Va. He had spent four months in prison before being granted clemency by Gov. L. Douglas Wilder. Iverson's mother reached out to Thompson, figuring the coach could lend a strong hand in guiding her son. He in turn saw a young man who deserved a chance.

Last week I got an offer from Georgia. It's the second Southeastern Conference offer I've received so far, with the other one coming from South Carolina. Right now, all the schools are kind of the same to me since I haven't gotten the chance to really visit any of them yet. What makes the Bulldogs' offer a little different is that they're recruiting me as a slot receiver. Most of the other schools that have recruited me want me to play running back, but I wouldn't mind playing receiver.

School. Track. Junior Days. Spring games. SATs. Official visits. Summer workouts. The start of the 2008 football season. Narrowing the list of colleges to five. Going for another state football championship. Making a college choice. Over the next 10 months, that's my schedule. Go to school and track practice five days a week. I've been visiting some schools for their Junior Days - which is when colleges invite some of the top junior football players in the country. I try to ask them as many questions about their school as possible.

My cheap sports watch loses a minute here and there over the course of a few weeks, so yesterday I double-checked to make sure I had the right time. I did. It was, in fact, the year 2008. It wasn't that obvious. After all, among the hot topics this week are: The DH rule. Hair length. And basketball players going pro early. Apparently, the first two will never be resolved. As another baseball season opens, purists are well into their fourth decade of griping about the desecration of the game brought on by pitchers not batting.

DEAR CAL -- We're starting to fill out college baseball recruiting questionnaires for our son, who's a great contact hit- ter who rarely strikes out. However, last year he went through a streak during which he was hitting the ball, but right at the other team. It really affected his batting average. On the questionnaires, there's no place to indicate how few times he struck out. Do you think I should contact the coaches to explain that? It doesn't seem that the average tells the whole story.

Guests need to watch their step when entering the bedroom of Hereford running back Lonnie Liggins. The Bulls' leading rusher wouldn't want anyone tripping over his shoes. With a sneaker collection that includes Air Jordans, Air Force Ones and practically every other "Air," the soft-spoken senior with a knack for making big plays could give Foot Locker a run for its money should he decide to open up shop. Not that he'd want to get rid of any of his prized possessions. "Shoes are kind of my thing," Liggins said of his collection, which formed a multicolored perimeter around his bedroom floor, making for easy access to them.

Cliff Tucker had just left Maryland basketball coach Gary Williams' office and was ready to start a tour of Comcast Center when his cell phone buzzed, indicating a text message had just arrived. We're still interested. Tucker, a highly touted recruit from El Paso, Texas, ignored the message from an assistant coach at Connecticut. Unbeknownst to Maryland assistant coach Keith Booth, who was leading the 6-foot-5 swingman down the hall to show off the weight room, Tucker's phone buzzed with a second message.