Make The Team

Afour-year starting guard and a team captain for Southern, Brittany Wiseman makes the offense go and has a penchant for taking care of the basketball. She has helped the team get off to a 9-2 start. Her clutch jumper with 20 seconds left gave the Bulldogs a 45-44 win over Annapolis last Friday. The victory was a county-career record 416th for coach Linda Kilpatrick. What does Coach Kilpatrick's milestone mean to you and the team? It means that we've been helping her set the all-time record.

He leads the Ravens in tackles this preseason, is blessed with some of the quickest feet among the team's linebackers, and is one of the top backups. Yet Dennis Haley can't rest easy. In the NFL, where the only thing that's guaranteed is that there is no guarantee, job security is never cemented until the final day of cuts. That's why Haley isn't taking anything for granted until after Saturday - the day teams are required to trim down to the 53-player limit. "I can take confidence that I have game experience and that I've played," said Haley, 25, who played in the Ravens' final nine games last season and had a career-high 10 tackles and two deflected passes against the Tennessee Titans on Nov. 12. "But it's just one of those things where that's how it goes in this job. I can't say I'm worried.

Liberty senior left fielder Kayla Coughlin has rebounded from a disappointing junior season, leading the team with a .474 batting average. The tri-captain played a key role in the Lions' first victory of the season last week, as she had two hits and scored a run in the 6-5 win over Westminster in nine innings. Coughlin is the team's leadoff hitter, has not made an error this season and has played three seasons of summer league softball for the Freedom Firebirds, who were coached by Dick Smith, her Liberty coach.

Running backs: Errict Rhett and Jay Graham are competing for the No. 2 position behind Priest Holmes. Coach Brian Billick will probably keep only one, but there is an outside chance he might keep both because Rhett plays well on special teams. Steve Broussard and Eric Metcalf are challenging for the role as the third-down back, and only one will likely make the team.Offensive line: Everett Lindsay is making his second straight start at left guard for the often-injured James Atkins. Keep an eye on center Jeff Mitchell, who was responsible for two sacks last week, according to the coaching staff.

It's routine for players to complain about not making the Pro Bowl.It's much more unusual for a player to make the team and admit he didn't think he would.That's what Miami defensive tackle Tim Bowens did last week after he was named to the team even though he has made just 37 tackles, tied for 11th on the team and nine fewer than the team's other tackle, Daryl Gardener."I don't think I'm having a good year," Bowens said. "I couldn't believe [the announcement]. I didn't think I had a shot.

Give the Ravens a breakThe writers at The Sun will not give the Ravens a kind word. And what they print is one-sided opinion that is always slanted to make the team and the franchise look as bad as possible. Why is this?Is there an editorial edict that The Sun sports department take on an air of devil advocacy at every turn with this team? Why is it that we get an analysis of Art Modell's debt service situation rather than how the team is doing in practice this week or how the team stacks up against its next opponent?

The Ravens went into Friday night's preseason finale against the New York Giants as the best defense in the NFL.Think about that. Suspend the cold reality that the preseason means nothing, that exhibition games are inhabited by countless players going nowhere in the big leagues, that offenses are notoriously conservative by design in August, generally tipping the scales in favor of defenses.Then, think about this. Two years ago, the Ravens came to Baltimore and unleashed one of the worst defenses in history upon the land.

Todd Haskins, a high school soccer standout during the late 1980s who most recently has been playing pro beach soccer, is the first signee of the new Maryland Mania, which begins A-League play in April.The signing of Haskins, 26, who grew up in Columbia, to a one-year deal for undisclosed terms was announced last night.He seems likely to be a midfielder for the Columbia-based entry in pro soccer's top minor league.The Mania, negotiating with others as well, is expected to sign as many as eight or nine players with Maryland ties.

QUONSET POINT, R.I. -- Like a billowing cloud of steam, the spinnaker undulates and hovers over the bow as the boat cuts through the waves of Rhode Island Sound.Suddenly, the ghost-like form plunges onto the deck. A crewman is standing in a hatch, furiously hauling the sail into a storage compartment below deck, his arms pumping violently and his head and shoulders engulfed by the white mass.In about five seconds, Ryan McCrillis has packed 4,500 square feet of silky cloth into a bag the size of a bale of cotton.

It was four years ago when Ashlee Douglas was a senior at North Carroll considering what college to attend and which sport to play."I only looked at Towson State and Western Maryland College, and I wasn't sure what I wanted to play," she said last fall. "Then I just thought, 'Why not go for it all?' At Towson, I could play Division I ball with a new program, and figured I had a chance to make an impact from the start."The "Division I ball" she was referring to was soccer and she indeed made an impact, leading the Tigers to a 10-7-2 mark this past fall and finishing her four-year career as the program's all-time scoring leader with 18 goals and another school record 26 assists.

The Ravens' receiving corps took another hit Tuesday when veteran Derrick Mason dislocated the middle finger on his right hand trying to scoop up a low throw from quarterback Joe Flacco. Mason suffered the injury during the team's morning practice, went to the locker room for treatment and returned later in street clothes with a wrap on the finger. Coach John Harbaugh said Mason jammed the finger but that "we don't anticipate any problems." Whether Mason, 35 and in his 13th season, will play in Thursday's preseason opener against the Washington Redskins is uncertain, but the shortage of wide-outs could be problematic.

Tired of spoiled athletes dominating the headlines? Then you want to hear about Cedric Peerman. Peerman is the University of Virginia running back who was taken by the Ravens in the sixth round of the NFL draft. He has been at the team's minicamp in Owings Mills this week, busting his butt in every drill, accelerating up and down the field like he's turbo-charged. When the 2 1/2 -hour practices are over, he puts in an extra 25 minutes of agility work on a back field. Then, tired and hungry, he comes off the field and patiently does an interview, looking the reporter in the eye and answering each question thoughtfully.

A funny thing happened to the Blast en route to the playoffs last season - it didn't make them. Now, the team has refueled and is aiming to return to its customary position atop the Major Indoor Soccer League, beginning tonight when the defending champion Philadelphia KiXX visit 1st Mariner Arena for the kickoff of the league's season. "As an organization, we take it personally that we didn't make it," general manager Kevin Healey said. "We've reloaded a bit, and we're ready to make our mark."

He leads the Ravens in tackles this preseason, is blessed with some of the quickest feet among the team's linebackers, and is one of the top backups. Yet Dennis Haley can't rest easy. In the NFL, where the only thing that's guaranteed is that there is no guarantee, job security is never cemented until the final day of cuts. That's why Haley isn't taking anything for granted until after Saturday - the day teams are required to trim down to the 53-player limit. "I can take confidence that I have game experience and that I've played," said Haley, 25, who played in the Ravens' final nine games last season and had a career-high 10 tackles and two deflected passes against the Tennessee Titans on Nov. 12. "But it's just one of those things where that's how it goes in this job. I can't say I'm worried.

Liberty senior left fielder Kayla Coughlin has rebounded from a disappointing junior season, leading the team with a .474 batting average. The tri-captain played a key role in the Lions' first victory of the season last week, as she had two hits and scored a run in the 6-5 win over Westminster in nine innings. Coughlin is the team's leadoff hitter, has not made an error this season and has played three seasons of summer league softball for the Freedom Firebirds, who were coached by Dick Smith, her Liberty coach.

Call me crazy, but I'm rooting for Sammy Sosa to make the Texas Rangers' 25-man roster as a spring training invitee. I'll take any interesting story line, and that one will be worth following. Too bad the Rangers train in Arizona after all those years in Port Charlotte, Fla. Not exactly a short drive from Fort Lauderdale. Sosa only needs 12 home runs to reach 600 for his career and be shunned by Hall of Fame voters. It's amazing how expectations have changed since Sosa joined the Orioles.

Afour-year starting guard and a team captain for Southern, Brittany Wiseman makes the offense go and has a penchant for taking care of the basketball. She has helped the team get off to a 9-2 start. Her clutch jumper with 20 seconds left gave the Bulldogs a 45-44 win over Annapolis last Friday. The victory was a county-career record 416th for coach Linda Kilpatrick. What does Coach Kilpatrick's milestone mean to you and the team? It means that we've been helping her set the all-time record.

ASHBURN, Va. -- When Joe Salave'a limped out of Texas Stadium with a deep bruise in his right calf after the Washington Redskins lost to the Dallas Cowboys on Sept. 17, there was concern that the team's defensive line would have a problem filling the void left by the veteran tackle. His replacements were rookies, Kedric Golston and Anthony Montgomery, neither of whom were high draft choices. Both had shown enough during training camp and in the preseason to make the team, but playing in a regular-season game, even against the lowly Houston Texans, was different.

ATLANTA -- Every time he returns home, Orioles shortstop Miguel Tejada sees a yellow Corvette and is reminded of one of the most memorable nights of his major league career. Tejada was rewarded with the car after hitting a home run and being named the Most Valuable Player of last year's All-Star Game. He'll return to the midsummer classic this season, though this time, with far less company. A year after four Orioles were named All-Stars, Tejada was selected as the club's lone representative yesterday for the game, which will be played a week from tomorrow at Pittsburgh's PNC Park.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Chris Ray's 1-0 fastball buzzed under the chin of Gary Sheffield, sending the New York Yankees slugger to the dirt. Sheffield, who already had two home runs and six RBIs on that night last September at Camden Yards, brushed himself off, glared at the Orioles' rookie reliever and dug back in, waggling his bat with his typical ferocity. "Gary Sheffield, if you knock him on his butt, is going to come up and get you," said Orioles manager Sam Perlozzo, remembering the at-bat with clarity yesterday.