Girls Basketball Coach

There has been a change in Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland C Conference softball - primarily on the mound. "Last year, you had four teams - Friends, Park, Chapelgate and St. John's - and those four teams had pitching," St. Paul's coach John Meil said. "We've played seven games [this season] and with one exception, all of the teams have pitching or developing pitching." Friday's showdown between two of the league's top teams featured a pair of the best pitchers, Park senior Madison Elliott (2.06 ERA, 54 strikeouts in 37 1/3 innings)

Coaches, especially those in the first year at a place, are fond of thinking of their teams as programs that have to be built from the ground up. So, it made complete sense the other day when Randallstown girls basketball coach Ellen Fitzkee used a little construction language to implore the Rams to try just a little harder on defense. "Come on," Fitzkee said. "You've got to give me some tools for my tool box." It wasn't so long ago that Fitzkee thought she had put her coaching tools away, maybe for good.

0 Points scored by the Chesapeake boys basketball team in the fourth quarter of a 34-31 loss to North County, which outscored the Cougars 4-0 in the period. 26 Seconds Arundel's 103-pound sophomore Nicole Woody needed to pin her Frederick opponent last week. 30 Points for Severn's Lindsay Hall, a career-high, in the Admirals' 43-41 victory at Maryvale Prep. 950 Combined career wins by Southern girls basketball coach Linda Kilpatrick (400) and former boys coach Tom Albright (550), who retired two years ago, over the past 40 years.

Southern girls basketball coach Linda Kilpatrick gets the opportunity to notch her 400th career win at home in Harwood on Friday against Severna Park. She was denied the milestone win Friday, when the Bulldogs lost at No. 6 Arundel, 65-53. Because of exam week, the winter teams have not played since then. Southern fell to 9-6 and left Kilpatrick at 399-280 (.588) in her 29th season. When Kilpatrick does get her 400th, she will be only the second Anne Arundel County girls basketball coach to accomplish the feat.

Chuck Miller, Severn's sixth-year girls basketball coach, will be happy to notch his 100th career win, and it could happen Friday at home vs. Catholic High (0-8). But the coach is equally happy with his Admirals' 11-3 start, including 5-1 in the Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland B Conference. Severn is a half-game behind Pallotti (11-3, 5-0), which was a 59-41 winner at Severn last month. Severn visits Pallotti on Feb. 1. Miller (99-37, .728) moved within a game of 100 with a 54-39 romp on the road at John Carroll (4-9, 1-5)

A girls basketball coach who complained that his players got shabbier treatment than the boys team - then found himself benched - can sue for retaliation, the Supreme Court said yesterday in a case that expands the protections of a landmark gender equity law. In a 5-4 decision, the court sided with Roderick Jackson, a high school girls basketball coach in Birmingham, Ala., who said his coaching duties were stripped after he repeatedly complained that...

The Mount Hebron girls lacrosse team has gotten off to its usual powerful start. The No. 3 Vikings scored 14 goals in the first half en route to a 21-1 pasting of visiting Atholton in the season opener for both teams in Ellicott City yesterday. Sophomore midfielder Megan Bosica led Mount Hebron with a game-high six goals and added an assist. Senior attack Kristen Slahor chipped in four goals and an assist. Despite the lopsided score, Slahor said the team took to heart coach Brooke Kuhl-McClelland's pre-game warning about not taking the Raiders, who have never defeated the Vikings, lightly.

Brenndan Mohler, 24, a Catonsville High graduate who played lacrosse for four years at the University of Virginia, including on the Cavaliers' 1999 national-championship team, is the new Reservoir High boys varsity lacrosse coach. Mohler, a midfielder, played on two Atlantic Coast Conference championship teams at Virginia and was selected to play in the senior North-South All-Star game. He was drafted by Major League Lacrosse's Bayhawks after his senior season but decided to finish his education.

Lin James, Lin James tried to keep the secret. Sure, a lot of people knew the North Harford girls basketball coach was close to her 500th career victory. They just didn't know how close. James didn't want them to know. She didn't want extra pressure on her players to deliver anything more than their best effort. Then two weeks ago on her way to work, James noticed the marquee sign in front of the Pylesville school: "When will Mrs. James get 500?" Right then, James knew she would not mark the next milestone in her illustrious coaching career in private.

Seth Willingham, a prolific two-sport athlete at Wilde Lake in the early 1990s, was named the new girls basketball coach at Oakland Mills yesterday. Willingham succeeds Marcus Lewis, who had coached the team for four years before being hired to replace Dave Appleby as the boys coach earlier this month. Scorpions athletic director Ken Hovet said Willingham, a physical education teacher at Oakland Mills who coached the girls JV squad last winter, was one of four applicants. "He's got a good knowledge of basketball," Hovet said.