Homecoming

When most Americans were sitting down to their Thanksgiving tables last year, Lt. Michael C. Sofinowski was stuck at a Louisiana base, waiting for his battalion to fly out to Iraq. As he picked over the remains of a holiday spread, the Jarrettsville soldier vowed he would be home for Thanksgiving this year. That idea, of sitting down with family for turkey, sauerkraut and the fixings, stayed with him over the next 11 months. As he traveled northern Iraq and the dangerous Sunni Triangle, setting up communication networks for front-line battalions, he repeated the Thanksgiving pledge to himself - as though saying it often would make it so. And, with a few weeks to spare, the 25-year-old did make it home, with his girlfriend's ruby ring still around his neck, a tiny Maryland flag tucked in his gear, a stack of letters stashed in an old shoebox.

Nicole Stall boarded the first plane to Maryland she could catch when she heard of Benjamin Boniface's death last June. She was there to grieve the death of a boy she had known since his birth. But also to work. In the days after the 20-year-old's death in an early-morning car accident on the farm, she went to the barns where she had fallen in love with horses as a teenager. “I was completely out of it,” said William K. Boniface, known to most as Billy. “She just went out to the stallion barn, kept it running.

Here are the Homecoming football games for county public high schools: Tomorrow Howard at Reservoir, 1 p.m. Oakland Mills at Marriotts Ridge, 1:30 p.m. Mount Hebron at Long Reach, 2 p.m. Oct. 13 Howard at Hammond, noon Long Reach at River Hill, 1:30 p.m. Marriotts Ridge at Atholton, 1:30 p.m. Reservoir at Wilde Lake, 2 p.m. Oakland Mills at Mount Hebron, 2:15 p.m. Oct. 20 Glenelg at Oakland Mills, 2 p.m. Oct. 27 Reservoir at Centennial, 1:30...

Dan Burns has always been a local boy. He grew up Severna Park, won three Anne Arundel County titles and two state championships at Severna Park, and played college lacrosse at Maryland. Now, after beginning his Major League Lacrosse career with the Rochester Rattlers and Hamilton Nationals, Burns is returning home. The Chesapeake Bayhawks acquired the 25-year old in a trade with the Nationals this offseason, reuniting him with former Terps coach Dave Cottle in his home state.

It's safe to say Delonte "Smoke" Williams has settled into his new role with the Bears. Morgan's new quarterback ran three touchdowns and scored on a two-point conversion, leading his team to a conference win over the Aggies in front of a homecoming crowd of 21,500 at Aggies Stadium. The three-touchdown mark by Williams was the most for Morgan State (3-3, 2-1 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference) since former standout Chad Simpson ran for three touchdowns against Savannah State in 2007.

W hen the Detroit Lions were looking for a head coach, they wanted someone who was highly analytical. They wanted someone who could develop a philosophy, devise strategies and bridge a gap between the players, coaches and administration. On Jan. 16, the Lions hired Jim Schwartz, 43. Back over at Schwartz's old high school in Baltimore, Mount St. Joseph, Schwartz's former algebra teacher, Dave Norton, thought Detroit had hired the right guy. "No, I didn't know if he would become a head football coach back then," said Norton, an assistant principal and baseball coach at the school for 35 years.

Earlier this year, the Anne Arundel County Council offended the county's Jewish community by scheduling a hearing about a controversial anti-smoking bill on the first day of Passover.The U.S. Naval Academy obviously has made a similar mistake, scheduling homecoming -- its biggest alumni weekend -- on Yom Kippur.Yom Kippur is the holiest Jewish holiday of the year, marked by fasting and prayers of repentance. Clearly, the occasion precludes most Jewish alumni from attending cocktail parties, parades, dances and a football game.

The crowd cheered, the band played a patriotic tune, and passengers waved to those waiting below as the S.S. John W. Brown pulled into port in Baltimore yesterday, bringing home nearly 400 men who fought in World War II.Of course, it was 50 years after the war ended.But to many of those taking part, this re-enactment of a wartime homecoming was an emotional experience as real as the day they returned in 1945."It gives me goose bumps," said Doris Cornes, of Kingsville, as her husband Edward waved from the restored Liberty ship as a couple tugboats nudged it into dock near the Harborview condominiums off Key Highway.

More than 5,000 alumni and their families are expected at the U.S. Naval Academy's Homecoming weekend, tomorrow through Sunday. Activities scheduled include a parade, class reunions and a football game between Navy and the University of Delaware.The public is invited to attend the dress parade at 3:45 p.m. tomorrow on Worden Field. Retired Admiral L. J. Long, president of the Naval Academy Alumni Association, will review the parade.Presidents or representatives from the classes of 1926, 1931, 1936, 1941, 1947, 1951, 1956, 1961, 1971, 1976, 1981 and 1991 will join Long in reviewing the parade.

During a skit in "The Second City Does Baltimore," the hit show at Center Stage , cast member Megan Wilkins pops out sporting a thick New York accent and a thicker wig to announce the pending premiere of "The Wire: The Musical. " Hometown audiences quickly recognize the target of the impersonation — Irene Lewis, whose colorful, if not universally admired, tenure as Center Stage artistic director is drawing to a close after 20 years. Not surprisingly, Lewis has an opinion about the portrayal.

The Homecoming Project Inc. will hosts its 4th Annual Stiletto Dinner & Fashion Show on Thursday, March 14 beginning at 6 p.m. at the Maryland Golf and County Clubs. The Homecoming Project Inc. is an eight-bed, female-only recovery facility in Bel Air. With a well-established and active recovery community, Bel Air offers many opportunities for the women of the Homecoming Project to build a solid foundation of recovery and reintegration as productive members of society. This year's Stiletto Dinner & Fashion Show will feature father/son, mother/daughter fashions in addition to elegant evening wear.

A week ago, Ravens coach John Harbaugh said there were no easy or homecoming games in the National Football League. But the Ravens' game against the Oakland Raiders at M&T Bank Stadium had the same festive, homecoming atmosphere, the only things missing were a parade, people parachuting out of airplanes and a king and queen. Like most host teams on this special day, the Ravens scored every way possible and they did exactly what good teams do to poor ones. After Sunday's horrible, embarrassing and disgraceful performance, the Raiders have to be the worst team in the NFL, maybe in league history including some of those ugly teams in Cleveland, Cincinnati and Detroit.

For the last couple months, Dunbar athletes have been keeping an eye on the renovation of their football field, hoping they would get to play a few games there this fall. "They think it's Christmas," Poets football coach Lawrence Smith said of the anticipation when the players found out the lighted field would be ready for their homecoming game Friday night against Carver. "I just think it's magical. It's going to be electric here Friday night," Smith said. Poets junior running back Coleman Blackston eagerly monitored the final weeks of construction.

The blowout defeats the Navy football team suffered early this season are a distant memory, in the record books but no longer embedded in its collective psyche. The struggling offense and a quarterback plagued by turnovers are also no longer part of the game plan. They have been washed away by a three-game winning streak and an emerging star named Keenan Reynolds. Reynolds, the first freshman to start at quarterback at Navy in more than two decades, helped the Midshipmen erase an early 10-point deficit and, more significantly, a nine-point deficit in the final 12:18 to beat Indiana on Saturday, 31-30, at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium before an announced homecoming crowd of 33,441 that included NBA Hall of Famer David Robinson.

North Carolina Central tight end Detwan Robinson broke tackle after tackle in the waning moments of Saturday's Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference game at Morgan State. Simultaneously, he managed to break the spirits of the announced 11,465 on homecoming day at Hughes Stadium. On a fourth-and-2 from the Bears' 26, the 256-pound senior hauled in a short pass and refused to go down, muscling out of a pair of tackles before running over defensive back Jerry Jones at the 5 and walking into the end zone with 25 seconds left, as Morgan fell, 24-20.

Saturday night is Towson's homecoming football game. For Tigers junior safety Jordan Love, the entire season is a homecoming. He's playing near the city he grew up in, the city he feels closest to, the city he calls home. For the transfer from the University of Georgia, the return has been a long time in the making. Love, whose Tigers (1-1) will play Saint Francis (Pa.) (2-1) at 7 p.m., spent much of his childhood, from 2002 to 2009, in Baltimore. He attended Gilman, but during his senior year his family moved to Virginia.

The words came straight from Todd Heap's heart. In a half-page ad in Friday's Baltimore Sun, the Ravens' former two-time Pro Bowl tight end thanked the city of Baltimore, its fans and the club for their "incredible support over the years. " Heap, who over a 10-year career became the Ravens' No. 2 receiver all-time, acknowledged in the ad that it was not his decision to leave. The club cut him abruptly in July, in a cost-saving measure, a move that surprised both Heap and Ravens' followers.

— When he was about 7, Orioles right-hander Jake Arrieta attended a Texas Rangers game at old Arlington Stadium to watch his idol, the ageless Nolan Ryan , pitch. Seventeen years later, Ryan is a baseball Hall-of-Famer and current president of the Rangers. And Arrieta is a promising rookie, who will attempt to beat his favorite childhood team Sunday in his first start in Texas as a major leaguer. "It is crazy. To come to a lot of games, sit in the stands and watch and be a spectator," said Arrieta, who is 2-2 with a 4.96 ERA in six starts in the majors.

When the Connecticut football team makes its way down the highway to face Maryland on Saturday, the drive for most of the players will simply mark another trip to another school for another game. But for Tim Willman, it means coming home. Willman, a junior defensive end for the Huskies from Fulton in Howard County, has continued to harness the natural abilities and strong work ethic that made him a standout player at Reservoir to put himself in position for a big season at UConn.

Reservoir High School will host a Homecoming Tailgate Community Carnival Friday, Sept. 29 from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the school, 11550 Scaggsville Road, in Fulton. The carnival will feature game booths, inflatable obstacle course, a dunk tank, basketball free throw, baseball speed pitch, corn hole, an arts and crafts table and face painting. Treats like snow cones, cotton candy, popcorn and dessert waffles will be available. The Reservoir Homecoming football game follows at 7 p.m. Admission to the game is $5. Call 410-880-8850.