Division

With the Maryland Scholastic Association having been discontinued after last year's final league wrestling tournament, the city's public and private schools have formed separate wrestling conferences, and two divisions within those leagues.Among the public schools, Mervo, Southwestern, Carver, Northern, Lake Clifton, Northwestern and Patterson will crown a Division I champion, while Dunbar, City, Poly, Forest Park, Walbrook, Douglass and Edmondson will yield a Division II winner.Most of the teams will compete in the Westside Tournament on Jan. 14, won by host Mervo last year, and the City-Wide Tournament on Feb. 10-11, won by Poly.

He would have preferred to be in Springfield, Ohio, but Andre Foreman would have been happy anywhere yesterday, when he was named NCAA Division III Player of the Year by the National Association of Basketball Coaches.A 6-foot-6 senior forward who finished his Salisbury State career with a Division III record 2,940 points, Foreman made the NABC's All-America team for the second straight year, and this time also led the Player of the Year voting done by an 11-person committee. Hershey Chocolate sponsors the award.

Paul Cantabene swivels a chair in his Owings Mills office, converted space that used to be the Ravens' and Colts' headquarters. Stan Ross text-messages his former players and plots a career change from his mother's home in Lutherville. Cantabene and Ross were teammates at Loyola College in the early 1990s. They were assistants at Towson University when it reached the NCAA semifinals in 2001. They had plenty of shared experiences during their respective love affairs with college lacrosse - until they became head coaches, one in a division that's booming, the other in a level that doesn't reflect the game's growth.

Edwin E. Taylor, a lawyer and former chief of the Baltimore City Police Department's criminal investigation division, died Saturday of complications from surgery at Good Samaritan Hospital. He was 82. A longtime resident of Phoenix in Baltimore County, Mr. Taylor was born in the city and raised in Fells Point. During the mid-1930s, he left school to work as a dining saloon steward aboard the steamers of the old Baltimore Mail Line. Those ships sailed from Pier 11 in Canton to Le Havre, France.

Division II Bowie State Affiliation: Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association Coach: Luke D'Alessio, sixth season at Bowie State (99-49) 2003-04 record: 23-6 (14-2 CIAA) Outlook: The last big name (Anton Jenifer) from the 2003 Division II final four team has departed, leaving the Bulldogs with a new look this season. The headliner is 6-foot-10 senior center Lee Cook, a first-team Division II preseason All-American who rang up impressive second-half statistics last season. Cook was second on the team in scoring (19.2)

One-hundred state troopers reported for work yesterday at the realigned Special Operations Division in Waterloo -- a "one-stop shop" police officials say will provide quick response to large-scale crimes, emergencies or disasters anywhere in Maryland.The centrally located barracks in Howard County will be headquarters for a strike force, a police dog unit, the commando-like Special Tactical Assault Team Element (STATE), a motorcycle unit and soon, a crash investigative team.Before the realignment, some of the units were part time, scattered around the state.

He worries too much about things he can't control, sometimes labors on tender ankles and doesn't really fit the mold of any collegiate basketball position.But Chris Wilson, Calvert Hall's 6-foot-7 center, is making do nicely.Entering a major test tonight against St. John's Prospect Hall of Frederick, Wilson is averaging 19 points and nine rebounds through three games and taking aim on the first team All-Catholic League honor that eluded him last season.When coach Joe Baker talks about Wilson, the word consistency constantly pops up."

Defenseman Al Iafrate sat in front of his locker Saturday, pondering the Washington Capitals' second loss in two days to a Patrick Division rival.The season is three games old, but with a 1-2 record, it's not too soon to be irritated by a two-game losing streak on home ice."Losing streaks, whether they're 10 games or two, aren't good," Iafrate said. "And you should never lose two in a row, especially not at home."These are the games we've got to win," he continued. "It's no joke that we came in second in the league last year, but we've got a lot to prove.

ON SOME SUNDAYS, the Ravens are going to look like a playoff team. On other Sundays, they will have the appearance of a team struggling to survive. Welcome to the NFL, which also could be called the AFL (Average Football League). After a year of rebuilding, the Ravens have reached the point where they have just as much of a chance to participate in the postseason as any other team. The Ravens could develop into a pretty good team and get hot in late November or December. If they don't, this could be another losing season.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - By a clear margin, NCAA members yesterday approved an amendment that thwarted attempts to eliminate Johns Hopkins' ability to offer scholarships for Division I lacrosse and play the rest of its sports at the Division III level. Proposal 65-1, a measure sponsored by Hopkins and seven other schools that offer scholarships for a Division I sport, passed with about 70 percent of votes cast on the final day of business at an NCAA convention at the Opryland Resort and Convention Center.