Ed Waters

Ralph Durant, the driving force behind the Ed Waters Track Club for what seems like forever, has announced that a reunion of everyone involved with the club over the past 25 years will be held Aug. 18 at the Palladium on Reisterstown Road (3 p.m. to 7 p.m.)."We probably have 1,500 boys and girls who have competed with the club since 1971, and it would be great to see at least 300 of them come back and renew acquaintances, trade stories and have some fun," said Durant, who was a young competitor himself when the late Ed Waters got the idea for the organization.

Ralph Durant said he was "in the business of reinventing the lives of children." His lofty aspiration followed a simple design. Give the children of Baltimore an endeavor, in Durant's case age group track and field, that rewards only after it exhausts. Run them ragged for two hours. After they go home, eat and tend to schoolwork, they'll be too tired to go back out and get lost on the city's unseemly streets. Repeat, at least three nights a week and on weekends during the summer. A longtime employee of the city's Recreation and Parks Department and the founder of the Edward L. Waters Track and Field Alliance Club, Durant would have turned 55 next week.

Led by an AAU record-setting performance by its senior boys 4 X 400 meter relay team, the Ed Waters Track Club put on a strong showing at the AAU Junior Olympic Championships this past weekend in Tallahassee, Fla.In the boys 17-18 age group, the relay team of Tramont Evans (Poly), Ron Keene (Mervo), Jeff Fisher (Walbrook) and Kareem Lamb (Catonsville) set an AAU age group record with a time of 3:12.9 in the 4 X 400 event. All will be seniors in high school this fall except Lamb, who will be a freshman at Morgan State.

Coming off a series of fine performances at the Eastern States Invitational Track Meet in Gaithersburg last weekend, 42 local youngsters, including some top high school competitors, will journey to Cleveland Saturday to compete in the AAU national age-group championships next week.Sponsored by the City Department of Recreation and Parks and the Ed Waters Track Club, the Baltimore contingent will be led by All-Metro selections Tia Burley (Western), Alan McDavid (Calvert Hall), Kevin Merrick (Mervo)

Ralph Durant said he was "in the business of reinventing the lives of children." His lofty aspiration followed a simple design. Give the children of Baltimore an endeavor, in Durant's case age group track and field, that rewards only after it exhausts. Run them ragged for two hours. After they go home, eat and tend to schoolwork, they'll be too tired to go back out and get lost on the city's unseemly streets. Repeat, at least three nights a week and on weekends during the summer. A longtime employee of the city's Recreation and Parks Department and the founder of the Edward L. Waters Track and Field Alliance Club, Durant would have turned 55 next week.

Thori Staples, a senior to be at Joppatowne High, improved her stock on the national junior track and field scene by winning the AAU heptathlon for 17-18 girls at Tallahassee, Fla., Monday. Her score of 4,503 points was a personal best in the seven-event test, the women's version of the decathlon.Competing for the Baltimore City-based Ed Waters Club, Staples had personal bests of 34-10 in the shot put and 92 feet in the javelin, one of her weaker events. She covered the 100 hurdles in 15.9 seconds, and the 200 and 800 in 25.9 and 2:19, respectively.

Lauren and James Preston had grown accustomed to enjoying their daughter, Brandi, engaging in hobbies that might be considered typical of a 9-year-old girl."

A hamstring injury can be agonizingly painful to even the most sedentary individual, but when it affects the health of a sprinter, the discomfort can spread beyond the physical.Perry Hall junior Jim Banach knows that all too well.The 5-foot-7, 138-pounder was running for the Ed Waters Track zTC Club last summer and winning his 100-meter heat at the East Coast Invitational in Fairfax, Va., when he felt a sharp pain in his leg.He immediately knew what it was, but little did he know how irksome things would become in the next five months.

Ed Waters Track Club, sponsored by the city Department of Recreation and Parks, is playing host to next weekend's Mid-Atlantic AAU Regionals at Poly, an event that is expected to draw more than 2,500 athletes from Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Washington and Virginia."

Coming off a series of fine performances at the Eastern States Invitational Track Meet in Gaithersburg last weekend, 42 local youngsters, including some top high school competitors, will journey to Cleveland Saturday to compete in the AAU national age-group championships next week.Sponsored by the City Department of Recreation and Parks and the Ed Waters Track Club, the Baltimore contingent will be led by All-Metro selections Tia Burley (Western), Alan McDavid (Calvert Hall), Kevin Merrick (Mervo)

Ralph Durant, the driving force behind the Ed Waters Track Club for what seems like forever, has announced that a reunion of everyone involved with the club over the past 25 years will be held Aug. 18 at the Palladium on Reisterstown Road (3 p.m. to 7 p.m.)."We probably have 1,500 boys and girls who have competed with the club since 1971, and it would be great to see at least 300 of them come back and renew acquaintances, trade stories and have some fun," said Durant, who was a young competitor himself when the late Ed Waters got the idea for the organization.

It was a long-awaited matchup, their 400-meter showdown in the Baltimore City championships in mid-May. And neither Damean Johnson of Carver nor Mervo's James Carter disappointed.The longtime friends set a sizzling pace in the race, each crossing the line in an area-best 47.9 seconds. Johnson, who had come from behind to catch Carter on the final turn, was declared the winner, leaning his head over before Carter could do the same."It was a great race, but we haven't talked about it much," said Carter, who has known Johnson for four years.

Ed Waters Track Club, sponsored by the city Department of Recreation and Parks, is playing host to next weekend's Mid-Atlantic AAU Regionals at Poly, an event that is expected to draw more than 2,500 athletes from Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Washington and Virginia."

It was a long time ago when a kid, looking for something to do, wandered over to the local playground in the evening. He watched kids running, jumping and throwing and enjoyed himself enough to come back the next day."Can you run?" a man who seemed to be in charge finally asked Ralph Durant, the kid. He answered, "I don't know, I never tried."Durant didn't turn out to be a star in track and field, but the man who asked the question, Ed Waters, had a recruit, a person to carry on the task.

Lauren and James Preston had grown accustomed to enjoying their daughter, Brandi, engaging in hobbies that might be considered typical of a 9-year-old girl."

A hamstring injury can be agonizingly painful to even the most sedentary individual, but when it affects the health of a sprinter, the discomfort can spread beyond the physical.Perry Hall junior Jim Banach knows that all too well.The 5-foot-7, 138-pounder was running for the Ed Waters Track zTC Club last summer and winning his 100-meter heat at the East Coast Invitational in Fairfax, Va., when he felt a sharp pain in his leg.He immediately knew what it was, but little did he know how irksome things would become in the next five months.

It was a long time ago when a kid, looking for something to do, wandered over to the local playground in the evening. He watched kids running, jumping and throwing and enjoyed himself enough to come back the next day."Can you run?" a man who seemed to be in charge finally asked Ralph Durant, the kid. He answered, "I don't know, I never tried."Durant didn't turn out to be a star in track and field, but the man who asked the question, Ed Waters, had a recruit, a person to carry on the task.