Student Athletes

Harford Community College's Shelby Key, a point guard for the Fighting Owls women's basketball team, was named a MD JUCO Student-Athlete of the Month for her efforts on the hardwood December. Key was a star on the court for the Fighting Owls as soon as the calendar turned to the year's final month. The rookie point guard totaled 17 assists in a conference victory over Anne Arundel and followed that performance with a triple-double in a win over Delaware County. Key scored 10 points with 12 assists and a career-high 13 rebounds in that contest while adding a then-career-high eight steals.

The final year of high school provides an opportunity for seniors to enjoy a last go-round of good times with friends and a chance to reflect on accomplishments. For Meghan Macera, reflection will have to wait. She's too busy right now. But when she does take time to look back at her four years at Westminster High, Macera will have plenty of highlights to remember. If she wasn't busy designing the cover of the school's yearbook or performing myriad community service activities, the Westminster senior was scoring overtime goals to win consecutive state championships for the Owls' field hockey team.

The state school board voted Tuesday to recommend that students maintain a C average to be able to play sports in public high schools over concerns raised by some educators and coaches that marginal students might drop out without the incentive of sports. The decision, passed with two dissenting votes on the 12-member board, will take effect next school year. While advocates say the minimum grade standard will motivate student athletes to do better in school, critics, including board member Kate Walsh, who voted against the standard, say schools should not discourage struggling students from staying in school.

Jonathan Ogden parted ways with the NFL more than three years ago, but the retired Ravens offensive tackle remains an active presence in the Baltimore community. During the past 15 years, Ogden has helped more than 500 students from disadvantaged neighborhoods get their diplomas and prepare for college through participation in the Jonathan Ogden Club, an academic support program formed specifically for student-athletes at Patterson High School in 1997. "I saw a lot of kids … especially when I moved to this city, where the academics wasn't impressed upon them," Ogden said.

The recent accusations aimed at the University of Miami's athletic department are just the latest example of moral failure involving educational institutions, athletics and athletes. Every scandal seems to debunk the myth that sports builds character. Instead, these stories reinforce the need for student-athletes to be taught right from wrong with the same diligence that they learn their playbooks. Sports — at every age and on every level — seem to have become the victim of a "win-at-all-cost" culture.

Just set boundaries Stephen Gross The Morning Call South Carolina's Steve Spurrier, Boise State's Chris Petersen and Kansas' Turner Gill all have banned their athletes from using Twitter. But a better option for a coach — college or pro — would be to set parameters regarding Twitter. While many athletes are cognizant of the ramifications that their online opinions may have, a few forget they are representing their team or school. Those few should not ruin social networking for all athletes.

Fifty big-time college presidents recently met at a retreat in Indianapolis to discuss the sordid state of college football. They left for home, and a new scandal made the news. This time it's at the University of Miami (which plays Monday's home opener at the University of Maryland). The scandal before that was at Ohio State. And while that one was still foremost in their minds, the presidents continued in their staunch belief that their players were student-athletes, basically amateurs.

Super conference coming Chris Dufresne Los Angeles Times Texas A&M is not going to the Southeastern Conference anytime soon, if you think soon is the next week. But it's likely to happen, the SEC's weekend decision not to invite A&M only a stall tactic. The big holdup is the SEC taking a 13th team without identifying a 14th. There's politics down south too, so plucking Florida State or Clemson from the ACC isn't going to work with rivals Florida and South Carolina.

South River rising senior Chris Carr has an outgoing personality that works well for many high school team captains, but the lacrosse player hadn't thought too much about leadership style. On Tuesday at the second annual Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association Student-Athlete Leadership Conference, Carr picked up a few pointers about how to be a better leader for his teammates. "The biggest thing I learned had to be that I didn't know all the ways to communicate, and this taught me different ways to communicate," Carr said.

As captain of Westminster's girls basketball team, Beth Mahr knew all about the delicate matters facing a peer leader, so when she had the opportunity to attend a leadership conference for student athletes last summer, she jumped at the chance. "The kinds of things that go on in school - the partying and the drama between girlfriends and boyfriends or, especially on a girls sports team, the drama between other girls - I think that definitely has a huge impact on the team, and as a captain and just a teammate it's very difficult to try and lead the rest of the team out of that direction," Mahr said.