Francis Scott Key

Boys Graham Bazell Atholton The junior may be the area's best runner. Bazell emerged from the shadow of teammate Andrew Revelle last season and was named to the All-Metro team. John Brungot South River Brungot, a senior, will help anchor an improving Seahawks team. He took sixth in Anne Arundel County last year. Mason Campbell Towson Campbell was one of the area's biggest surprises last year. In his first year in cross country, he took third in Baltimore County and won his region.

FREDERICK -- When the wind is right, the national anthem drifts from Harry Grove Stadium to a crypt in Mount Olivet Cemetery, where Francis Scott Key is buried. Key, who died in 1843, certainly never envisioned that his poem, "The Star-Spangled Banner," would be set to music and played at the beginning of baseball games everywhere.

Daniel Schlanger, a retired Social Security Administration analyst and film buff, died of Parkinson's disease June 27 at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. He was 78 and had lived in Columbia. Mr. Schlanger was born in the Bronx, N.Y., and raised in Queens, N.Y. He was a graduate of Forest Hills High School and earned a bachelor's degree in English in 1951 from City College of New York. Mr. Schlanger worked in New York City as a junior account executive for Laine Thompson, an advertising agency, and later for an oil company before joining the SSA in 1962.

For more than 30 years, none of the park rangers at the Baltimore military landmark knew there was a musical piece called the "Fort McHenry March." Not Ranger Vince Vaise, who organizes summer events each year. Not Ranger Paul Plamann, who had been working at Fort McHenry for 40 years. Not a single one of the 75 employees who have passed through the 18th-century fort during the past three decades had heard of the composition. Then Vaise heard about a lady named Betty G. Hocker, a retired opera singer who lived in a Timonium retirement community.

Francis Scott Key lacrosse co-captain Ryan High was the scoring leader (42 goals, 12 assists) this season for the Eagles, despite battling a thyroid condition that forces him to have blood work done every six weeks. High was quarantined for four days of his Christmas break after undergoing a medical procedure in which he swallowed a pill with some radiation to "adjust his thyroid out." However, the 5-foot-11, 205-pound senior attackman did not miss any lacrosse games this season for the Eagles.

Twenty-four of Carroll County's top seniors have been chosen to play in the second annual Mid-Maryland All-Star Baseball Classic, scheduled for May 30 at Hagerstown Municipal Stadium. County players on the Big School, East team, coached by Liberty's Erik Barnes, include Francis Scott Key's Shane Eyler and Jimmy Gilford; North Carroll's Evan Picciotto, Nick Riley, Mike Yingling and Levi Lafferty; Liberty's Jared Heffler, Jack Lambert and John Byram; and Westminster's Dustin Tarlow, Brett Harman and Doug Politz.

Francis Scott Key sophomore shortstop Kelley Farley has played in only eight varsity softball games, but her teammates are impressed. Like the day at Catoctin High in Thurmont when Farley blasted her first varsity home run on the "most amazing hit" senior teammate Kristi Stuller had "ever seen." "She just crushed it," Stuller said of the team's cleanup hitter. "The ball went all the way to the fence, and it was a line drive that went over everybody's head. She ran fast but not as fast as she usually does."

Spring fundraiser concert -- The Chesapeake Youth Symphony Orchestra will present its annual spring gala concert and fundraiser at 6 p.m. Sunday in the Francis Scott Key Auditorium at St. John's College, 60 College Ave., Annapolis. It will feature a reception, silent auction, raffle and music by the orchestra and Thomas Reeves. Tickets are $40 for adults and $15 for students. 443-758-3157.

As one speaker after another stood before the parents gathered at Francis Scott Key High School, a theme quickly emerged. "Parents, you are the ones that kids need to be talking to constantly," said Angela Chmar, a licensed social worker from the Carroll County Youth Service Bureau, as she discussed signs of teen depression. "If you don't ask questions, they may not tell you." Or, as Cpl. Worthington Washington of the county sheriff's office said in an Internet safety talk that showed how 20 minutes and an online profile can yield a wealth of information for predators: "You have to watch your children.

Francis Scott Key senior Shane Eyler had just two years of wrestling experience before high school, but he still was well prepared to compete in the physically demanding sport. By the time he entered the school as a freshman, Eyler had attained a third-degree black belt in Hapkido, which is loosely translated to mean "the way of coordinated power." Through his study of the Korean martial art of self-defense, he was well versed in countering an opponent's technique with throws, pressure points and joint locks.