Football Team

The 2012 Navy football team will visit the White House on Friday for a ceremony with President Barack Obama . The team will be honored for winning the Commander in Chief's Trophy for the eighth time in the past 10 years. The time and location of the ceremony has not yet been determined. The Midshipmen were victorious over Air Force (28-21 in overtime) and Army (17-13) en route to an 8-5 record and the school's ninth bowl game in the past 10 years. Navy has won 19 of its past 21 service academy games.

It was a good week for The Baltimore Sun's Top 15 football teams. Only No. 5 Calvert Hall (which played No. 1 McDonogh) and No. 13 Archbishop Spalding lost. Check Tuesday's paper and baltimoresun.com for the new Top 15. In the meantime, here's how the current Top 15 fared over the weekend: The Baltimore Sun's Top 15 High School Football Teams 1. McDonogh (3-2) This week: Def. Calvert Hall, 35-7. Next: At Loyola, Saturday 2. Arundel (5-0) This week: Def. Annapolis, 54-14.

It was the end of the 2010 season, and Maryland was trying to make a point. The Terps were coming off a 2-10 record in 2009. Then-Terps coach Ralph Friedgen felt his team had something to prove. So it meant something when Maryland beat a ranked North Carolina State team (behind four touchdown catches by wide receiver Torrey Smith) in the regular-season finale. The Terps cracked the Associated Press rankings at No. 23 at the end of that season after they beat East Carolina in the Military Bowl.

Stevenson's first loss of the season - a 31-10 thumping by Middle Atlantic Conference foe Lycoming on Saturday - dropped the Mustangs out of any mention from the latest American Football Coaches Association Division III poll. But as the program enjoys its upcoming bye week, coach Ed Hottle said there is still much to be optimistic about - including retaining a shot at what would be the school's first league championship in football. “All of our goals and things we want to accomplish are still very much out there for us,” he said Wednesday.

Maryland's football team released its spring practice depth chart on Friday - - a list notable for an absence (wide receiver Tyrek Cheeseboro) and a position switch (offensive lineman Evan Mulrooney). Cheeseboro's Maryland football career is finished "due to personal issues," coach Randy Edsall told reporters. Cheeseboro, a redshirt sophomore last season, had played sparingly as a reserve. He was limited by a concussion sustained in October when his bicycle collided with a bus at a campus intersection.

It was ironic for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to use the term "Native Americans" recently when referring to descendants of the indigenous peoples who inhabited this continent before Europeans arrived ( "Redskins name controversy heats up with federal cancellation of trademark," June 18). Those native peoples would never call themselves "Americans. " The name "Americus" (Latin for America) was heavily inked onto early maps of the "New World" in large part as a promotional advertisement for a European adventurer and explorer named Amerigo Vespucci.

Mark Turgeon needs bodies — the new Maryland men's basketball coach has just eight scholarship players remaining — and he said Thursday that he isn't ruling out turning to the football team for frontcourt help. One Terps football player he might eventually be interested in is 6-foot-7, 275-pound offensive lineman Jake Wheeler, who was recruited not only for football but for basketball. Asked about Wheeler, Turgeon said in an e-mail: "I know nothing about it. But I might explore that with [football coach]

I have a suggestion concerning the Redskins debate ( "Facts and logic say rename Redskins," June 27), and I invite that football team to consider my little game. Think back to your family's country of origin, no matter how recent or far back in the mists of time. Call to mind some derogatory name someone from your country has been called, whether it might be "Mick" or "Gook," "Wetback" or "Polack" or anything else. Consider whether you'd like a ball team called by that name, posted over the web and print media, shouted out in cheers or derision at the stadium.

Titus Till and Jeremiah Wilson both left Maryland for James Madison after Randy Edsall's first year as the Terps' coach in 2011. Both will return to College Park on Saturday when Maryland hosts James Madison. Till was a four-star recruit when he signed with the Terps in 2010 and has been a starter for the Dukes the past three years. Till was a strong safety his first two seasons, but new James Madison coach Everett Withers said Till will play linebacker as a senior this year.

Penalties hurt a football team, and the University of Maryland squad will start the season burdened with two infractions picked up recently from the National Collegiate Athletic Association. One, announced this month, was for violating practice rules. The other, more serious infraction, announced in April, was assessed for poor academic performance by the Terp players. Both occurred under the tenure of former head football coach Ralph Friedgen, who was replaced in January byRandy Edsall.

Maryland football players and coaches spent Sunday breaking down and critiquing their 52-24 loss Saturday to Ohio State at Byrd Stadium. Now the Terps hope to take advantage of their bye week before preparing for their Oct. 18 home game against Iowa. In particular, Maryland (4-2, 1-1 Big Ten Conference) will look to get as healthy as possible. Several players, including starting outside linebacker Matt Robinson (Atholton) and reserve defensive backs Zach Dancel and Daniel Ezeagwu, missed Saturday's game against the Buckeyes, now ranked No. 15. Starters such as inside linebackers Cole Farrand and L.A. Goree also have been playing through injuries.

Maryland released an updated depth chart Monday in advance of Saturday's game at Indiana. Here are the changes: * Sophomore P.J. Gallo and redshirt freshman Derrick Hayward are listed as co-starters at tight end after starter Andrew Isaacs suffered a season-ending knee injury against Syracuse on Saturday. Gallo was the first to enter after Isaacs got hurt and had one catch for 11 yards. * Sophomore running back Wes Brown is listed on Maryland's two-deep for the first time this season.

LAKEWOOD, Ohio - The pressure was on the Gilman football team before it even stepped onto the field for the season opener Sunday afternoon. Facing St. Edward (Ohio), one of the top-ranked teams in the country, in front of a nationally televised audience, the Greyhounds knew they'd be in for a test. And the Eagles lived up to the billing - starting strong, finishing stronger and breezing to a 38-7 victory. "I don't think we prepared for anything. We got walloped … absolutely hammered," Gilman coach Biff Poggi said.

Navy's football team will be wearing its summer whites in Saturday's season opener against Ohio State. The team's first Under Armour uniform will also feature each midshipman's class rank on the sleeve and leg. The school unveiled the uniforms Thursday, with white helmets inspired by the Midshipmen's white covers, plus white gloves and white cleats to match the summer dress staples. Check out some more photos of the uniforms here . The varying design on the shoulders marks the first time in school history such a feature has been displayed on Navy jerseys, the school said.

When football kicks off for Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference teams this weekend, the highest profile games will be on the road. McDonogh, last season's No. 1 team after going 11-0, tries for a second-straight win at Benedictine College Prep in Richmond, Va., Saturday while St. Frances attempts to avenge last season's loss to Friendship Collegiate at Spingarn High School in Washington, D.C. Gilman, last year's A Conference runner-up to McDonogh, starts the season on national television and will play St. Edward, a nationally-ranked program from Ohio, on Sunday as part of the ESPN High School Showcase.

While the Johns Hopkins football team ushers in a new season, Ryan Rice is also grasping something new: his position. For the previous three years, Rice lined up at cornerback, where he made 87 tackles, intercepted four balls, and broke up 12 passes in his career. Last fall, he had a career-high three interceptions and added 27 tackles and four pass break-ups. Those numbers contributed to him being named a second-team preseason All-American by D3football.com. But this year, Rice is moving to safety - a switch he has embraced.

Since Larry Mitchell's days as a lineman at Patterson, he has dreamed of only one job - coaching the Clippers' football team. Over the past 17 years, as Mitchell coached Pop Warner youth football teams and assisted with a couple other Baltimore City high school football programs, he held onto that goal - even after a gunman nearly shattered it with one paralyzing bullet 11 years ago. That shooting left Mitchell, who had inadvertently walked into...

Want to see a small-college football program that gets it? Gets its core mission and still is wildly successful? Coached by a guy who doesn't think he's God just because he walks the sideline with a set of headphones and a play chart on Saturdays in the fall? Then come out to Homewood Field on Saturday and watch undefeated Johns Hopkins play St. John Fisher of Rochester, N.Y., in the first NCAA home playoff game in Blue Jays history. Go watch the Jays' terrific quarterback, senior Hewitt Tomlin, the Centennial Conference's Offensive Player of the Year.

In more than two decades on the sidelines, Towson offensive line coach John Donatelli had never seen anything like it. After a recent practice, the Tigers' offensive linemen didn't join their teammates in walking to the locker room, getting showered, and going home. Instead, the linemen removed their pads and voluntarily ran sprints from one end zone to the other and back. They ran three laps before junior right tackle Jake Schunke and sophomore right guard Sam Evans signaled the end. The reason for the extra work?