Team Captain

There were signs early that foretold one of the most disappointing seasons in Gary Williams' 16 years as Maryland basketball coach. The Terrapins' offense and outside shooting disappeared in front of a hostile crowd at Wisconsin. Against George Washington later that week, the Terps didn't defend. And in its Atlantic Coast Conference road opener against North Carolina, Maryland didn't do much of anything and was blasted by 34 points. Those three games revealed a flawed Maryland team, which fought inconsistency, seeming indifference at times, and chemistry problems, according to at least one Terp, all the way up to Tuesday night's season finale - a 75-67 loss to South Carolina in the National Invitation Tournament semifinals at New York's Madison Square Garden.

Adam Berry likes to compete with his twin brother, Andrew. The two-time All-Metro wide receiver at Bel Air won some bragging rights last night, being awarded the grand prize, $4,000 scholarship winner at the 42nd Scholar Athlete Awards Dinner sponsored by the Greater Baltimore chapter of the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame. The second-team All-State player is the school's all-time leading receiver in career receptions, receiving yards and receiving touchdowns and will attend Princeton.

GIRLS PLAYER OF THE YEAR Kristen Slahor Mount Hebron Last season, she was a secondary option behind alumnae Maria Bosica and Karen Long. This spring, Slahor asserted herself as the Vikings' most dangerous player and emerged as the bona fide leader of a youthful team. Playing with a sophomore and two freshmen on the attack, the senior set up and dictated the offense. Slahor, who usually played from behind the net, was fearless in attacking the cage and loved to take a defender around the left post, pirouette left and right to avoid the second sliding defender, and rip a shot past the opposing goalie.

The Maryland Fireballs overcame high altitudes and their Rocky Mountain hosts to claim the under-17 title at the Vail Lacrosse Shootout held last week in Vail, Colo. After falling to a physical Texas team in the tournament opener, the Fireballs ran off nine straight wins, culminating in a 12-7 win over defending champion Colorado in the final. That win gave the Baltimore-area team its first championship in four trips to the annual Vail event that attracts teams nationwide. "When you take a first knock in an elimination tournament, it would have been really easy for that group to fold.

The Wizards were here, small shooters in clean, baby-blue uniforms. There was a ragtag bunch in their 20s called Special Delivery -- so named, their team captain said, because "we're trying to deliver losses to people." And there was "The Future," a team of 13-year-olds who play at the Cecil-Kirk Recreation Center in East Baltimore, coached by a hyped-up dad named Kevin Morton. They flocked to Mondawmin Mall yesterday for the NBA Hoop-It-Up Tournament's 12th visit to Baltimore. Billed as the world's largest 3-on-3 basketball tournament, the traveling event attracted 2,000 players on 400 teams, from "top guns" with college experience to children as young as 8. Today, the best teams in 50 divisions will meet in final games for trophies and prizes.

With the rehearsal complete, all that remained was the much-anticipated arrival. For the 100-or-so campers at McDonogh School yesterday, there wasn't a better way to end a full week of soccer. Yes, the buses for the trip home would have to wait. After all, this was Claudio Reyna we're talking about. A car drives by above the soccer fields and the buzz begins: "That's Claudio," one camper yells in excitement. False alarm. Then another. And then finally, the team captain of the U.S. men's national team, fresh off its quarterfinal performance in this summer's World Cup, had arrived.

Player of the Year Meg Dentler, Arundel: One of the smallest players in the county stood out as the most important cog in a Wildcats team that advanced to the Class 4A-3A East Regional semifinals. The 5-foot senior goalie allowed 4.8 goals a game and turned away 182 shots, saving 70.5 percent of the shots she faced. Dentler, who began her career as a goalie during her sophomore season, honed her clears and mixed that with an acute sense of anticipation for a shooter's tendencies. Arundel coach Leann Shuck said one-goal losses to Class 4A-3A state champion Severna Park, No. 10-ranked Broadneck and Class 3A-2A state finalist South River wouldn't have been possible without Dentler, a team captain who will play at George Mason next spring.

Long Reach's Chuck Struhar didn't expect to be coaching softball this season. "I hadn't planned on it," said Struhar, who stepped down as varsity coach after the 2000 season but continued as athletic director, a position he has held since the school opened in 1996. Struhar filled the varsity coaching position with Dale Harriman, who had directed the Lightning JV softball team for four years. However, there still was a vacancy for the JV position. "Pete Hughes was going to do it, but had a scheduling conflict," Struhar said.

Jason Abbott of Walkersville won the grand prize of a $4,000 college scholarship at last night's 38th annual Scholar Athlete Awards dinner that honored 89 football players at Martin's West. A total of $10,000 in scholarships was awarded by the Baltimore chapter of the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame that sponsors the event, the largest of more than 100 similar dinners throughout the country. Abbott was one of six regional scholarship award winners that included Michael Miller of Aberdeen, Dominique Williams of Patterson, Clifton Lennon of Loyola, Greg Lotz of Gilman and Ryan Fisher of Mount St. Joseph.