Play Hard

During the past year, the students pictured on these two pages distinguished themselves with exceptional athletic performances. Today, these students will be honored at The Baltimore Sun's 39th Annual High School Athletes of the Year Awards Banquet. "The spirit, the will to win, and the will to excel are the things that endure. These qualities are so much more important than the events that occur." Vince Lombardi, Pro Football Coach

The opportunity to share a bill with Bruce Springsteen, Soundgarden and Paul Simon is rare, especially for a band that only started a year ago in Howard County. Yet that is the position Dreamboat Armada finds itself in, fighting to earn a spot at Hard Rock Calling Festival 2012 at London's Hyde Park on July 13-15. Dreamboat Armada won the local round of the Hard Rock Rising 2012 Competition on March 29 at Hard Rock Cafe Baltimore. The quartet beat out Redwud and Jet City Vega, and moved on the global competition which features 86 different acts.

Enough already about Ravens coach John Harbaugh's providing the Miami Dolphins with bulletin-board material. He was right when talking about Cam Cameron's not having material to work with in Miami last year. NFL players shouldn't need motivation to play hard, nor should anyone else who gets paid a good salary. If it takes a statement from Harbaugh to get the Dolphins to play hard tomorrow, then they have problems, and it won't be Cameron's fault this season. (For more, go to baltimoresun.

They pushed the Baltimore Ravens downfield. They stuffed the ball down their throats. They scored two touchdowns on them. They finally put points on the board in the second half. Yes, there were some moral victories claimed by the Browns in loud M&T Bank Stadium on an overcast Sunday. But Ray Lewis, the linebacker and spiritual leader of the Ravens' defense, broke down the game succinctly when he stated, "There's one thing that matters in this business, and that's wins and losses.

Imagine a relaxed cat playing with a frantic mouse and you have a pretty good picture of how top-ranked Centennial (11-0-2) played with visiting Thomas Johnson's boys soccer team yesterday.Thomas Johnson (7-5-1), trying to use emotion to play above its ability, succeeded in at least keeping the final score a respectable 4-2.But one of the Patriots' goals was scored off Centennial's second team with seven minutes left in the game, and the other came off a routine direct kick that slipped through Eagles goalkeeper Dan Christine's hands in the 22nd minute when Centennial was ahead 3-0.So, after the Class 3A, Region III boys soccer semifinal game ended, and the Eagles had advanced to tomorrow's regional final while keeping alive their 29-game unbeaten streak, fourth seed Thomas Johnson held no illusions that it had come anywhere near a victory.

The newest Oriole, Jeff Conine, will play some left field and likely spell his buddy Jay Gibbons in right on occasion. He will see time both at first base and at designated hitter. But nearly as important as all those roles in the mind of Orioles executive vice president Mike Flanagan, Conine also is being asked to provide a strong influence over a clubhouse that several players felt was badly in need of a vocal leader last season. "I take that very seriously," Conine said. "I think management, that's one of the reasons that they brought me back.

In the end, it didn't matter that the Coppin State women's team won its third Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference title in four years, that it won 16 of its past 17 games or that it has one of the slickest backcourts in mid-major basketball. The NCAA sentenced the 22-10 Eagles to a No. 16 seed in the Division I tournament and sent them down Interstate 95 to College Park for a Sunday afternoon, first-round matchup against top-seeded Maryland in the Spokane Regional. Assembled in a large upstairs room in the school's cafeteria for the ESPN selection show, the Eagles let out a whoosh of disbelief, then clapped at the proceedings.

Although Liberty has made dramatic strides with its girls basketball program over the last year and a half, last night it found out what the next level looks like.Urbana (7-1), No. 17 in the state and the top-ranked Class 2A team, was in control for more than 20 minutes, and then on the verge of blowing an 11-point second-half lead. It regrouped and capitalized on a series of Liberty turnovers and missed shots to earn a 53-44 Central Maryland Conference victory.Later, second-year Liberty coach Dave Trumbo challenged his players when he said, holding his thumb and forefinger about an inch apart, "We are this close to being an excellent team."

WASHINGTON - If Terrapin Nation was contemplating a pity party yesterday, Gary Williams was on the microphone, setting the record straight. Q. "Coach, does it make it worse that the ACC tournament is finally in your back yard and you're out of it by 2 p.m. on Thursday?" Williams, after permitting himself a moderate pause in which to work up a classic gym rat/paranoiac/competitor's sneer, responded: "No, it makes it more special that we kicked everyone's butt in Greensboro last year." Roll that highlight tape all night, baby.

In college at Kentucky, Jamal Mashburn was used to opponents playing their best against his team. It's the same now that he's a rookie with the Dallas Mavericks, but for a much different reason."

"Toy Story 3" is a prison break movie — and prison break movies have always juggled laughs and jolts. A Newsweek writer has raised the question of whether "Toy Story 3" is too frightful for small children. But children have always loved to be scared, whether by reading fairy tales or watching "The Wizard of Oz." As screenwriter Michael Arndt says, "There's nothing wrong with strong emotions — you go to a film to feel strong emotions. And the only time that doesn't work is if the emotions are cheaply earned or are made gratuitously.

A three-season goalie, Aimee Chotikul helped the Saints' boys soccer team win the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association C Conference title last fall. She is also the goalie for the girls indoor soccer and lacrosse teams. Chotikul, 17, has a 3.4 grade-point average and will play lacrosse at Rutgers next year. Involved in many clubs, including the culinary club, the choir and the National Honor Society, she also plays bass guitar and is in the chorus of the spring musical, Crazy for You. What was the first sport you played?

As Seton Keough's point guard, senior Katelyn Fischer contributes to her team's success in many ways - from finding her open teammates in the post to hitting three-point shots. She averages 12 points, six assists and three steals for the No. 3 Gators, who are aiming for a spot in Sunday's Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland A Conference title game. Also a soccer player for the Gators, Fischer plays for the Amateur Athletic Union Sure Shots. She wants to play basketball in college and has drawn attention from some Division III schools.

HOUSTON - Haloti Ngata made his presence felt when he intercepted a pass in the end zone, the first big defensive stop for the Ravens in yesterday's 41-13 rout of the Houston Texans. "That's the play everybody will talk about, but that wasn't his best play," coach John Harbaugh said. It would be hard to choose which one was. Ngata had the best overall game of any Raven yesterday, contributing on defense, offense and special teams. On defense, he had two hits on quarterback Sage Rosenfels (one of which led to an interception by Ray Lewis)

Enough already about Ravens coach John Harbaugh's providing the Miami Dolphins with bulletin-board material. He was right when talking about Cam Cameron's not having material to work with in Miami last year. NFL players shouldn't need motivation to play hard, nor should anyone else who gets paid a good salary. If it takes a statement from Harbaugh to get the Dolphins to play hard tomorrow, then they have problems, and it won't be Cameron's fault this season. (For more, go to baltimoresun.

In the end, it didn't matter that the Coppin State women's team won its third Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference title in four years, that it won 16 of its past 17 games or that it has one of the slickest backcourts in mid-major basketball. The NCAA sentenced the 22-10 Eagles to a No. 16 seed in the Division I tournament and sent them down Interstate 95 to College Park for a Sunday afternoon, first-round matchup against top-seeded Maryland in the Spokane Regional. Assembled in a large upstairs room in the school's cafeteria for the ESPN selection show, the Eagles let out a whoosh of disbelief, then clapped at the proceedings.

At the end of yesterday's Association of Independent Schools A Division semifinal, it was hard to tell that No. 13 Severn had outshot No. 14 Bryn Mawr, 9-6, and taken 15 more penalty corners.One look at the Mawrtians' lively celebration was enough to reveal the bigger picture.Emily Hickman scored late in the first half, and host Bryn Mawr held off the Admirals' determined offense in the final 25 minutes to preserve a 1-0 win.The Mawrtians (10-2-1) advance to Saturday's noon AIS title game at St. Paul's School for Girls, where they'll face Garrison Forest, 2-1 winners over five-time defending champion Roland Park in the day's other semifinal.

Terry Tiffee was drafted in the 26th round of the 1999 first-year player draft by Minnesota and played parts of three seasons with the Twins before the Orioles signed him as a minor league free agent in November. Tiffee, who hit .244 last season with two home runs and six RBIs, plays first and third base. He is competing for a bench spot with the Orioles this spring. What do you think your chances are of making the Orioles' Opening Day roster? -- I don't know. It seems like there is one spot and a lot of guys competing for that spot.

Terry Tiffee was drafted in the 26th round of the 1999 first-year player draft by Minnesota and played parts of three seasons with the Twins before the Orioles signed him as a minor league free agent in November. Tiffee, who hit .244 last season with two home runs and six RBIs, plays first and third base. He is competing for a bench spot with the Orioles this spring. What do you think your chances are of making the Orioles' Opening Day roster? -- I don't know. It seems like there is one spot and a lot of guys competing for that spot.

An 0-2 start is not what Joppatowne boys soccer coach Mike Zipay had in mind when he opted to have his youthful Mariners play in an offensive-minded style this season. So he decided to change direction and make defense a focal point of his team. "I moved the better players back to defense," Zipay said. "And we were a better team." Becoming a better team translated into a 4-4-2 record after the 0-2 start. The leading scorer for the Mariners was senior forward Matt Crawford, who had nine goals and five assists after making first-team All-Harford County last season.