National High School

The top 25 national high school basketball teams as selected by scholastic sports expert Doug Huff and a national panel of 35 prep sportswriters with hometown, school and records through Sunday:1. Baltimore, Dunbar (10-0)2. Jersey City, N.J., St. Anthony (4-0)3. Little Rock, Ark., Parkview (12-0)4. Jackson, Miss., Murrah (15-1)5. Chicago, King (9-0)6. M. of Wilson, Va., Oak Hill (17-1)7. Potomac, Md., Harker Prep (9-1)8. Philadelphia, Simon Gratz (10-2)9. Alameda, Calif., St. Joseph's (9-1)

Dec. 3, 1998: The No. 2-ranked Terps make their first 14 shots en route to a 92-69 victory over Wake Forest in their Atlantic Coast Conference opener at Cole Field House. Obinna Ekezie (19 points), Steve Francis (18) and Laron Profit (16) lead undefeated Maryland to its eighth win. Dec. 5, 1991: Joe Krivak resigns as Maryland football coach after going 20-34-2 in five seasons at College Park. He'll be replaced by Mark Duffner who will do no better (20-35) in his five-year stint.

Beth Gilmore, a senior at Mount de Sales Academy, served as a page for the General Assembly in February.*Diane Levine, an English teacher at Bryn Mawr School, is the 1993 recipient of the Mrs. Lucy Eastwood Broadus Memorial Award for travel abroad.*Brian Elieson, Joseph Fisher and Graham Watson, three Calvert Hall College students, have been named finalists in the National Merit Scholarship program.*Dolph Habeck, a junior at Severn School, was selected as the first-place winner in the Southern Maryland district level competition of the American Legion National High School Oratorical Contest held in February in Laurel.

In the 1980s, many were captivated by the Baltimore Orioles and their future Hall of Fame shortstop Cal Ripken. Growing up in Essex and playing shortstop for Calvert Hall, Rich Bielski was one of them. Now the coach at Archbishop McCarthy High School in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. - and this year's USA Today National Baseball Coach of the Year - Bielski remembers a meeting with Ripken that helped shape his aproach to the game. "I made the state all-star team, and our game was played in old Memorial Stadium after an Oriole game," said Bielski, now 44. "It was 1984 and the Orioles had won the World Series in 1983, and Cal was MVP. It was a great time to be an Orioles fan, and he came into our dugout and asked who the shortstop was. "He sat down with me and we talked.

Arundel High's Bernie Walter, in 1998 The Sun's 1998 Metro Baseball Coach of the Year for a record fourth time, has been selected as the American Baseball Coaches Association Diamond Sports Division II National Coach of the Year.With more than 5,000 members, ABCA is the world's largest baseball coaches association. Members include college, high school and sandlot coaches.Walter, who led his top-ranked Wildcats (22-4) to a Maryland-record eighth state championship last spring and state-record 12th appearance in the final four, received the award at the coaching organization's annual banquet on Jan. 2 in Atlanta.

Oakland Mills High School varsity baseball coach Tim O'Brien is one of eight national high school coaches invited to speak to the National High School Baseball Coaches Association Convention on Dec. 2 in Anaheim, Calif.He also teaches United States history. Mr. O'Brien's clinic topic will be "Teaching & Drilling Catching Skills." He will be sharing the podium with college coaches from Notre Dame and Arizona.Halloween happeningsHalloween is less than two weeks away and there are a variety of activities for youngsters to enjoy in East Columbia.

Early yesterday afternoon, City College chess team star Donte Everett was confident that City would roll past public and private schools to win the first citywide high school chess tournament. And City did, 12-0."I like being the best at everything," said Donte, a 17-year-old junior. "And this team is the best."Some 28 students from six public city high schools and Friends, the only private school, competed in the three-hour, double-elimination tournament in the City College library.Friends School captured second place and Patterson High School was third.

Patterson's Deshawn Barrett, The Sun's All-Metro Wrestler of The Year, scored a reversal with two seconds left for a 9-8 victory over Virginia state champion Brent Jones yesterday, earning a berth in tonight's 215-pound final of the National High School Coaches Association Tournament at Public Hall in Cleveland. It was Barrett's second win of the year over Jones, who was 51-1 with 41 pins (183-15 career) coming into the match. Bound for the University of Virginia on a full scholarship, Jones was ranked No. 2 nationally on March 13, when Barrett defeated him by a 23-8 technical fall.

He's been No. 1 in Anne Arundel County, the metro area, the state and district, and now deservedly so, he's numero uno in the nation.Arundel's Bernie Walter received the National High School Baseball Coaches Association's highest award in Chicago over the weekend.Walter, who led the Wildcats to a 21-1 record, an unprecedented sixth state title and the Easton/Collegiate Baseball National High School championship, was named National High School Coach of the Year.Walter, who is 323-89 in 20 years at Arundel, was one of eight district winners nominated for the overall award.

Dec. 3, 1998: The No. 2-ranked Terps make their first 14 shots en route to a 92-69 victory over Wake Forest in their Atlantic Coast Conference opener at Cole Field House. Obinna Ekezie (19 points), Steve Francis (18) and Laron Profit (16) lead undefeated Maryland to its eighth win. Dec. 5, 1991: Joe Krivak resigns as Maryland football coach after going 20-34-2 in five seasons at College Park. He'll be replaced by Mark Duffner who will do no better (20-35) in his five-year stint.

ROCKVILLE -Seton Keough and St. Frances were the top two girls basketball teams in the Baltimore metro area this season, and in Saturday's inaugural ESPN RISE National High School Invitational, the Gators and Panthers showed they can also compete with some of the best programs in the nation. In the first game, No. 4 seed St. Frances led No. 1 seed Riverdale Baptist for more than three quarters before the Crusaders made a late run and escaped with a 57-51 victory at Georgetown Prep's Hanley Center.

Patterson's Deshawn Barrett, The Sun's All-Metro Wrestler of The Year, scored a reversal with two seconds left for a 9-8 victory over Virginia state champion Brent Jones yesterday, earning a berth in tonight's 215-pound final of the National High School Coaches Association Tournament at Public Hall in Cleveland. It was Barrett's second win of the year over Jones, who was 51-1 with 41 pins (183-15 career) coming into the match. Bound for the University of Virginia on a full scholarship, Jones was ranked No. 2 nationally on March 13, when Barrett defeated him by a 23-8 technical fall.

WILLIAMSPORT - They follow his every movement, even the ones that take him to an isolated area beyond a row of bleachers at his high school. Major league scouts trail Nick Adenhart as though he's a suspect instead of a prospect. They stare at him, judge him, whisper to each other, scribble in their notepads. But how many are willing to take him? Beyond winning games and striking out batters, Adenhart also is trying to buck a trend. Since the book Moneyball came out last year, touting the Oakland Athletics' draft philosophy of choosing college-aged players, some teams have become more cautious about investing a large signing bonus on a prep pitcher.

AKRON, Ohio - Dru Joyce II has heard the word more often in recent months, as the audience aware of LeBron James widened and the scrutiny of those surrounding the 17-year-old basketball prodigy intensified. Joyce, head coach at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School, is part of a coterie of adults who some believe are exploiting the player expected to be the No. 1 pick in next year's NBA draft. "What we've tried to do is put him on a platform that will allow him to excel," Joyce said recently, sitting in an office next to the school's gymnasium.

COLLEGE PARK - He thinks back to when he started coaching his son in elementary school, when the 5-foot-4 kid displayed a nasty competitive streak, court vision and a feel for the game of basketball, and Richard Blake concludes he is merely watching an advanced version of essentially the same player. At 22, with a slender, 6-3 frame that boasts upper-body muscle born of attentive work in the weight room, Maryland Terrapins senior point guard Steve Blake is all grown up. And it only seems like the Florida native has been running Maryland's offense forever.

Arundel High's Bernie Walter, in 1998 The Sun's 1998 Metro Baseball Coach of the Year for a record fourth time, has been selected as the American Baseball Coaches Association Diamond Sports Division II National Coach of the Year.With more than 5,000 members, ABCA is the world's largest baseball coaches association. Members include college, high school and sandlot coaches.Walter, who led his top-ranked Wildcats (22-4) to a Maryland-record eighth state championship last spring and state-record 12th appearance in the final four, received the award at the coaching organization's annual banquet on Jan. 2 in Atlanta.

Northeast's Class 2A state champion baseball team will be ranked No.1 in Collegiate Baseball magazine when the publication's Easton National High School poll is released next week.Ranked No. 2 in last Friday's rankings, the Eagles -- who completed an unbeaten year with a state public-school record 24 victories -- captured the top spot when Edwardsville, Ill., lost its state championship game, 10-3, to then No. 21-ranked Thornwood of South Holland, Ill.It was the first loss for Edwardsville (39-1)

McDonogh heavyweight wrestler J. R. Plienis, 17, edged South Carolina state champ Nick DiBenedetto, 3-2, to become Maryland's fourth-ever National High School champion at Duquesne University Sunday night.The 230-pound Plienis, The Baltimore Sun's 1995-96 All-Metro Wrestler of the Year, also became the nation's No. 1-ranked heavyweight with the victory since DiBenedetto had entered the title bout having pinned North Dakota's previously No. 1-ranked Scott Owens in the semifinal."I was ranked No. 2," said Plienis, who has accepted a full wrestling scholarship to the University of Nebraska.