Striker

About three dozen picketers, including actors from The Wire, took to a Baltimore street corner yesterday morning to voice their support for the Writers Guild of America's seven-week-old strike against movie and television producers. "Their fight is our fight," said actor Delaney Williams, a member of the Screen Actors Guild who plays Sgt. Jay Landsman on HBO's The Wire. The picketers, massed at the corner of Pratt and Light streets, handed out leaflets to the occasional pedestrian and waved signs at passing motorists.

When Aaron Kraus was on a hunger strike outside Government House to protest university funding cuts two years ago, Gov. Robert Ehrlich offered the University of Maryland student government president a steak (which Kraus refused) and shelter in the mansion (which he accepted because it was raining). Now that Kraus is a graduate, he has taken something else from the Ehrlich administration: a job as a public information officer with the Department of Natural Resources. How'd he get that gig, since his resume could sum up his college work experience as: Thorn in Gubernatorial Side?

Something different happens when a soccer ball finds its way to the feet of St. Vincent Pallotti senior striker Annesia Faulkner. Opposing defenders go on high alert. The Panthers' sideline supporters stop chatting and completely turn their attention to the field. And teammates and coaches alike expect to see something away from the norm. When Faulkner turns on a ball - precise, explosive and mesmerizing - a show begins down the left side. The ending is often a goal. "When Annesia decides she wants to score, she scores," said Pallotti coach Mike Vawter, who has coached Faulkner for seven years, including club ball.

FORT WORTH, Texas -- There are three compelling reasons why Jim Furyk has not written a golf instruction book for amateurs - his grip, his swing and his putting approach. All are unconventional. But they work for Furyk, who heads into the Bank of America Colonial as the top-ranked player in the field in season earnings ($2,962,649), scoring average (69.46) and world ranking (fifth). "I wouldn't tell people to try to copy what I do," said Furyk, who overlaps two fingers on his grip, has a loop at the top of his swing and putts cross-handed.

PARIS -- French students and labor unions staged another day of nationwide strikes and marches against a labor reform law yesterday amid signs they would win major concessions from an increasingly divided government. There was a mood of impending triumph among marchers because of efforts by President Jacques Chirac to end a two-month crisis that has shut down schools and universities and raised fears of a return of last year's urban unrest. "We are perhaps on the verge of a great victory," said Olivier Besancenot, a leader of the Communist Revolutionary Party.

Hey, Arsenal Strikers 3v3 soccer team, you just finished tied for fifth in the world championship tournament this month -- where are you going to go now? It doesn't have to be Disney World. That's where you earned a big trophy in The Kick It 3v3 Soccer Shootout World Championships at the Wide World of Disney Sports Complex. The Howard County team traveled to Orlando on Jan. 14-16. Seeded 23rd, the team surprised many by finishing tied for fifth with a team from Castleberry, Fla. The Strikers, in the under-12 boys recreational division, went with five players, four of whom play in the Soccer Association of Columbia.

As the clock wound down in the second half of last night's state Class 2A girls soccer final, Eastern Tech striker Courtney Kobal thought one opening could give the No. 12 Mavericks chance enough to win the title. When freshman Rachel Tragesar sent a high bouncing cross in front of the goal, Kobal saw that opening. The sophomore leaped to head the ball over Middletown goalie Rachelle Burhman for the game-winner. The Mavericks celebrated their first state title with the 1-0 victory that dethroned the defending champion Knights at UMBC Stadium.

"While most athletes set lofty goals for their junior years, Kenwood's Ashley Singer has a more modest ambition - to stay on her feet. If she can manage that, the rest likely will fall into place for the junior, who ranked among the area's elite prep soccer players through half of the past two high school seasons. The sure-finishing, left-footed striker scored 12 goals as a freshman and 10 more as a sophomore. Those 22 goals came in just 16 games. In the eighth game of each season, both times against Perry Hall, Singer tore an anterior cruciate ligament - in her right knee as a freshman and in her left as a sophomore.

Atholton's talented soccer player, Kate Nicholson, must have a problem keeping all her uniforms straight. It's a good problem for the sophomore who recently was named to a national team. The striker, who led Atholton to its first regional title last fall, is now a member of the U-15 United Soccer League national team. She's one of 19 girls selected nationwide. Nicholson played for the Baltimore Bays team last summer. From there she was selected for the Mid-Atlantic Region team, and later she was tabbed for the national team.

In the tiny collegiate town of Grantham, Pa., 15 miles south of Harrisburg, where Messiah College is, Kelly Thomas is big news in more ways than one. First of all, the former Wilde Lake standout is a 6-foot striker. That's an impressive credential for any women's soccer player, but even more unusual at a Division III school. "I don't really have any problem when the ball is in the air," said Thomas, a junior. "It gives me a pretty good advantage considering that most soccer players on the average are 5-foot-5."