Racquetball

While most 10-year-old girls were getting bicycles or dolls as birthday presents, Michelle Gould received a membership to a fitness club. That's where she took up racquetball."

Check into Baltimore's Harbor Court Hotel, and you might be a little more fit when you check out.Nothing would make managing director Werner R. Kunz happier. Twice a week, Kunz leads guests on a four-mile fitness walk around the Inner Harbor, from the hotel to Henderson's Wharf. He's often available for a game of racquetball, and he gives the hotel's fitness center a pretty good workout."I've spent a lot of time up there," he says. The results can be seen in his office, in the form of skiing trophies.

For a program renowned for its offensive prowess, Salisbury's NCAA title defense could come down to the play of the goalkeeper. Alex Taylor has been tapped to succeed Johnny Rodriguez, who was named the National Goalkeeper of the Year last spring. The sophomore fared well in the team's season-opening 19-6 thrashing of Greensboro Sunday, making eight saves on 11 shots before getting pulled early in the fourth quarter. Prior to that contest, coach Jim Berkman expressed confidence in Taylor, a Woodbine native and Glenelg graduate.

Let the games begin -- the North American Maccabi Youth Games that will bring 2,600 young athletes from around the world to Baltimore for a week-long sports festival starting Sunday.Jewish boys and girls ages 13 through 16 will form 56 delegations, mostly from the United States and Canada. Others will come from Mexico, Venezuela, Great Britain, Israel, Australia and several states of the former Soviet Union.The biennial Maccabi Games, introduced 10 years ago in Memphis, Tenn., are being held in the Baltimore area for the first time.

Like concert-goers eager to rush through gates for the best seats, a crowd gathers to await the 6 a.m. opening of Columbia's Supreme Sports Club -- said to be the busiest fitness facility in the nation.Minutes after the club's doors open, banker Bill Bishop goes 4-on-4 on the hardwood with his regular basketball crew. Insurance broker Bud Renninger and buddies are swinging on the club's racquetball courts. And dental hygienist Patty Lowry, broken wrist notwithstanding, is running around the indoor track where she met her boyfriend.

I watch them hurry in the door flashing their gold membershi cards and swinging their $70 Nike gear bags, a grim look on their faces as they stride purposefully to the carpeted locker rooms.I am at The Health Club.It's time for The Workout.God help us all.Stairmaster, free weights, Lifecycle . . . is this what it's all about?Racquetball, Nautilus . . . whatever happened to a couple of beers after work?In the weight room, sculpted bodies grunt and strain under the harsh fluorescent light. Huge men with wide leather belts lift enormous amounts of metal.

The issue of childhood obesity might be all the rage, but about 25 passionate racquetball and handball players came to the Columbia Association board meeting Thursday night to fight a plan to remove two of their courts to make room for more children's programs. Bob Bellamy, director of sports and fitness, said the CA has been studying ways to make more room for children's activities for two years, and finally had a $380,000 plan to remove two courts at the Supreme Court Sports Club off Snowden River Parkway to do it. Bellamy said he had collected statistics showing that usage of the courts was declining along with the popularity of the sport.

Leisure Racquetball Club in Westminster has added a 1,600-square-foot fitness center, with aerobics, weight machines and treadmills."It's not like the old spa [Leisure Health Spa next door] that closed up a few years ago," said Kathy Cornell, who has managed the racquetball facility, on Route 27 at Hahn Road, for 12 years. "A lot of people have been confused about that."Ms. Cornell and her husband, Joseph, bought the racquetball club from Charles H. Winterstein in February 1992.Ms. Cornell said she decided to open the fitness center -- which is the size of two racquetball courts -- in August to serve the growing needs of her 800 members.

Daphne P. V. diBrandi, whose explosive racquetball shots echoed through the halls of the Downtown Athletic Club for a decade, died Thursday of cancer at the Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. Known to friends as "Penny," the champion player was 43. Born in Porto Alegre, Brazil, to missionary parents from Frederick, Ms. diBrandi returned with her family to Maryland when she was an infant. Her father, the Rev. Herman A. diBrandi, was the rector of the Church of the Nativity in Cedarcroft.

Jill Baer of Westminster recently won a regional 14-under girls racquetball championship in Towson.Last year, Baer, a ninth-grader at Westminster High School, was junior girls state racquetball champion.WallyballCarroll teams took three titles at the American Wallyball Association-sponsored 1993 National Wallyball Championships in Westerville, Ohio, last month.Mark Fine and Dave Zile won the men's open doubles title.Fine, Zile, Hak Koudelka and Wayne Barnes combined to win the men's fours intermediate championship.