Red Team

COLLEGE PARK -- As it was, the half hook attempted by Maryland 6-foot-10 center Obinna Ekezie in the closing seconds of yesterday's Red-White scrimmage was insignificant -- his team trailed by three at the time. What was significant was the message sent by 6-8 freshman forward Terence Morris, who was defending the play.Morris partially blocked the shot, one of his eight blocks in the game. He also scored 24 points, demonstrating three-point range and aggressiveness in the paint, in helping the Red team to a 71-68 win."

After New Jersey Nets guard Sam Cassell was introduced before last night's David Brown Memorial Scholarship Classic, he was a bit reluctant to walk to center court to acknowledge the crowd as the public address announcer had requested. Not that he didn't want to -- Cassell was just hesitant to give up his spot on the floor.No, Cassell was not on one of the team benches or in floor-level seating -- the two-time NBA champion was seated literally on the floor. The Community College of Baltimore gym was overflowing, and those lucky enough to get in witnessed a Who's Who of Baltimore's basketball talent that featured the likes of Keith Booth, Michael Lloyd, Donta Bright, Mark Karcher, Devin Gray and Ernest Hall.

It's not just reading, writing, and 'rithmetic anymore at Riviera Beach Elementary School. Now, there is the study of garbage.Yesterday, students at the Pasadena school were visited by three members of the county Department of Public Works' Waste Management Services who taught them about the environment, water, and recycling -- all in the name of "garbology."Unfortunately, most of the children had little idea what "garbology" is."I don't know," 11-year-old Patricia Chan, a fifth-grader, said when she was asked to define the word.

COLLEGE PARK -- The return of college basketball called out to Maryland's most avid fans like a siren early this morning.Or was that Dick Vitale?Seven months after the Terrapins were eliminated by Connecticut from the NCAA tournament, they reacquainted themselves with 12,000 basketball zealots at Cole Field House for Midnight Madness.It was a fitting touch for the Terps to launch the 1995-96 season with Vitale, ESPN's ebullient voice of the college game, who was on hand for the season-opening festivities.

Many of the players who walked onto the court for the inaugural David Brown Memorial All-Star Game last night at Baltimore City Community College were rivals during their high school days.But last night wasn't about rivalries or competition. It was about peace. An attempt to confront the random violence that has claimed many victims.One of those victims was Brown, a former standout at BCCC and Pfeiffer College in Misenheimer, N.C., who was killed in January. Brown was shot as he sat in a car at a traffic light on Russell Street en route to a basketball game at the USAir Arena.

Basketball* High school league -- Matt Mathias scored 22 points to lead the Rockets to a 61-49 victory over the Spurs. Mark Bixler and Ryan Webster each totaled 11 points for the Spurs at Sandymount.Jim Stull's 19 points paced the Celtics to a 59-54 win over the Lakers. Mike Fenlon had 24 points for the Lakers.The Bulls topped the Bullets, 58-55, behind 13 points apiece from David Sinclair and Brooks Wagner.* Junior league -- Tyler Quinell scored 15 points as the Green team edged the Red team, 21-20.

COLLEGE PARK -- Exree Hipp hit eight three-point shots and scored 36 points as his Red team outscored the White in both halves of Maryland's intrasquad scrimmage yesterday before 500 fans at Cole Field House.Hipp, who missed 10 days of practice with a sprained ankle, out-dueled LaRon Profit, who led the White team with 23 points and hit three threes.Hipp scored on a variety of shots, but perhaps his best was a delicious spin move in the lane in the second half after taking an outlet pass from Keith Booth (19 points)

COLLEGE PARK -- There were a few games last season when Maryland could shoot with nearly any team in the country from the outside. But only a few.That's why Terps coach Gary Williams brought in freshman Sarunas Jasikevicius. And that's why junior guard Johnny Rhodes spent a great deal of time this summer working on the weakest part of his game -- his outside shot."I have to be as consistent as I can, opening things up for Joe [Smith] inside," said Rhodes.The time Rhodes has invested in his shooting was evident during yesterday's intrasquad scrimmage at Cole Field House.

At 5-foot-2, Fanny Harmon has yet to whack a ball into the outfield during any of the softball games she has played. But the 65-year-old Ellicott City resident, who is the only woman on the Howard County Red senior citizen's slow-pitch team, is working on that."

Basketball* 9-10 boys -- Chris Strachan scored a game-high 16 points and Brandon Orem added 12 to lead the Yellow team to a 38-34 win over the Red team last week in the Howard County Youth Basketball Association.Greg White also contributed on offense for the victors. Tyler Enstice led the Red team with 14 points and Brad Loveless added 12. Howard Carolan also played well in defeat.The Spurs broke into the win column with a 49-44 victory over the previously undefeated Predators. Brian Hedges led the winners with 14 points, Andrew Corrao added 11 and Joel Gruber chipped in with eight.

I find it interesting, amusing and a little sad that what Greg Dunn today describes as "magic" we once would have described as routine, common, everyday - a way of life, really. I'm talking baseball and what happens on the rare occasions when kids get together, pretty much on their own, and start a game. This happened last week in Baltimore, and these days that's something worth writing home about. And it gave me an idea. But first, let's hear from Mr. Dunn, whose company, The Crew Works, stages, manages and staffs concerts, film productions and other such events.

COLLEGE PARK -The Red-White spring game offered Maryland football fans a chance to dream Saturday about what might unfold this fall and to begin - very tentatively - to answer questions about who might emerge to replace wide receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey and other departed front-line players from last season. The White team beat the Red team, 34-24, on a balmy afternoon at Byrd Stadium as receiver Quintin McCree, who will be a sophomore this coming season, starred despite enduring turf toe. McCree, listed second on the depth chart at the "Z" receiver when spring practices began March 24, is among a number of receivers scrambling for playing time.

COLLEGE PARK -- After yesterday's rather lackluster Red-White scrimmage in which Maryland's struggling passing game was exposed, receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey was one of the few players able to put a quantitative number on how far away the Terps are from turning around back-to-back 5-6 seasons. "Come fall," he said, "we should be 20 times better than we were today." The first offensive touchdown didn't come until 10:31 left in the game, the first-team offense accrued only 67 total yards in the first half and threw four interceptions.

It might not have looked like it, but there was a war going on yesterday between midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy and the "Red Team" at the nearby National Security Agency at Fort Meade. The Red Team -- a group of NSA hackers tasked with breaking into U.S. government and military information systems to expose vulnerabilities -- was "attacking" servers set up by computer science and information technology majors at the Annapolis military college. The midshipmen, in turn, were trying to defend their network.

College Park -- It didn't matter if the jerseys they wore were red or black, turned inside or out. In all three 40-minute preseason scrimmages, the only team Maryland was facing was itself. And the Terps are tired of it. Maryland will finally face its first opponent in today's 2 p.m. exhibition game against St. Francis Xavier, a team from Canada with a 6-2 record in three exhibition tournaments. The host Terps are less concerned about the Division II opponent than they are about finding their own identity.

For 70 seconds, Samantha Pollino held court in front of 16,000 fans at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia. The diminutive Hampstead Elementary School fifth-grader made her big game debut, bouncing and spinning along with about 30 other members of this year's Philadelphia Sixers Junior Dance Team during the first-quarter break against the New Jersey Nets on Wednesday night. The crowd roared its approval as the squad finished in sync with hip-hop moves perfected during eight weeks of practice.

For 70 seconds, Samantha Pollino held court in front of 16,000 fans at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia. The diminutive Hampstead Elementary School fifth-grader made her big game debut, bouncing and spinning along with 30 other members of this year's Philadelphia Sixers Junior Dance Team during the first-quarter break against the New Jersey Nets on Wednesday night. The crowd roared its approval as the squad finished in sync with hip-hop moves perfected over eight weeks of practice.

When Mary England climbed the flight of dimly lit stairs to the gymnasium inside Dunbar High School, she witnessed many things. She strode through the halls that she once navigated as a teen-ager at the East Baltimore school. She absorbed the numerous championship banners that hung from the rafters. She greeted the many friends her son, Nathaniel, had made before he graduated from Dunbar in 1965. But more importantly, England saw the spirit of her son, who died almost three years ago after a bout with cancer.

Mike Obringer won three state titles at Baltimore County's Dulaney High School. Still, he was eager to prove he belonged in the Maryland Lacrosse Coaches Senior All-Star Game at Goucher College yesterday. "I was a little nervous playing with and against this caliber of players," Obringer said. "They're a great bunch of guys, and they'll show me how tough it will be at the next level." Obringer erased any doubts with a three-goal performance that helped the Gold team to an 18-14 victory over the Red team.

PHILADELPHIA -- The present and future of area track came together before a final-day record crowd of 50,827 at yesterday's Penn Relays at the University of Penn's Franklin Field. Olympians Bernard Williams and James Carter were on display in the "USA vs. The World" exhibition, which included Jamaica, Canada, Poland, Russia, Germany and Guyana. The Americans won five of six relays in that event. Williams, a Carver High graduate and member of the gold medal-winning 400-meter relay team at the 2000 Summer Olympic Games, helped the U.S. Blue to a surprise victory over the U.S. Red team in the 400. "I just wanted to eat up as much ground as I could and give a good handoff," said Williams, who ran the second leg. "It felt good because I haven't run in a while."