Teammate

Annapolis resident Mike Greenhill is one of those rare guys who, even after he turned 50, could effortlessly sprint up and down a soccer field like he did as a much younger man. Until one evening last year, the 53-year-old took this ability for granted. Now, as Greenhill prepares to return to the game after an 11-month hiatus, he's happy to be alive. For this, he thanks a young woman whom he calls "his angel. " Last April Stephanie Andrews, a 22-year-old Howard County firefighter and emergency medical technician from Sykesville, agreed to play a soccer game on her friends' co-ed team because it was short a few players.

While junior Joe Fletcher has emerged as Loyola's shutdown defenseman and seniors Scott Ratliff and Josh Hawkins have headlined one of the more prolific Rope units in Division I, Reid Acton has stood in the background. But that's not how coach Charley Toomey feels about the senior defenseman. Acton, a three-year starter, is a security blanket for the No. 5 Greyhounds (11-3), who will meet No. 8 Ohio State (10-3) in a semifinal of the Eastern College Athletic Conference tournament at Hobart on Thursday night.

Ed Dickson said he's looking forward to seeing former University of Oregon teammate Patrick Chung in Sunday's AFC championship game, but that doesn't mean that the Ravens tight end wants the New England Patriots safety to be the catalyst to push his team to victory. "I like seeing guys from my university do well, but not against us," said Dickson, who spent three seasons (2006-08) with Chung playing for the Ducks. "So it's going to be nothing personal, but I'm going to go at him as if he never played on my team and after the game, hopefully, we're still friends.

You can't complete a Tough Mudder alone - the grueling 10- to 12-mile course with more than 20 obstacles designed by British Special Forces is set up to make sure of that. And of the expected 14,000 people participating in the Mid-Atlantic challenges this weekend in Gerrardstown, W.Va., perhaps no one understands this fact more than Baltimore resident Kate Robertson, 29, and her team. Helping one another navigate obstacles that border on cruel and unusual punishment - such as army-crawling on a layer of ice to avoid electric wires overhead - proves even more challenging when one of your teammates is a paraplegic.

The public tributes for Steve McNair began yesterday at LP Field in Nashville, a memorial service is set for today and the sad and sordid details of his life and murder keep slowly leaking out. And all of this pains McNair's former teammates on the Ravens, who say they'll remember a completely different Steve McNair from the one who's been portrayed in the news the last few days. Look at what was reported about the guy in the past 24 hours alone: First, a friend of McNair's came forth and said, no, McNair and his wife weren't planning to divorce.

Niko Amato considers Tucker Durkin to be one of his closest friends. And perhaps because of their relationship dating back to their playing days at LaSalle College High School in Wyndmoor, Pa., Amato, Maryland's redshirt sophomore goalkeeper, doesn't seem the least bit concerned that Durkin, Johns Hopkins' junior defenseman, might be dispersing Amato's tendencies to his teammates in preparation for Saturday evening's annual showdown between the No....

WINCHESTER, Va. -- Not everyone can afford a $1.7 million servant, but that's what Atle Kvalsvoll has in the Tour Du Pont, as his illustrious teammate Greg LeMond plays the role of "domestique" to Kvalsvoll, the team leader."

Noah Mumaw's extra-point kicks carry special meaning for him and his 25 Boys' Latin football teammates.The letters P-A-T on the right side of the Lakers' helmets are not just the acronym for point-after-touchdown. They also represent the first name of a former teammate -- Pat Radebaugh -- who died in a car accident in July. The 89 on their helmets' left side commemorates Radebaugh's jersey number."After we make a PAT, we touch one finger to the name on our helmets, and the other finger shoots to the sky," said Mumaw, who is 15-for-21 on extra points.

On Wednesday, the University of Miami football team will gather at a memorial service to mourn the death of teammate Bryan Pata. But on Saturday, the Hurricanes decided, they have a game to play at No. 23 Maryland. Miami@Maryland Saturday, 3:30 p.m., chs. 2, 7, 1300 AM, 105.7 FM Line: Maryland by 3

Maryland football wide receiver Moises Cruz has been charged with assault by Prince George's County police in connection with a fight outside a popular College Park bar and restaurant Sunday night in which a man's face was cut with a bottle.Cruz, a 21-year-old junior, was charged with misdemeanor first- and second-degree assault and released on his own recognizance. No trial date has been set.A Maryland teammate of Cruz's, fullback Matt Kalapinski, was hit in the back of the head during the fight and went to a hospital, said Kalapinski's father, Paul, who spoke to his son last night.

Dodgers manager Don Mattingly first met Orioles manager Buck Showalter 22 years ago as 20-year-old minor leaguer. They were teammates for the Yankees' Double-A team in Nashville. Tonight, they will manage against each other for the first time in the opener of this weekend's interleague series at Camden Yards. Mattingly said he noticed Showalter's ability to gauge talent once Showalter became a coach and eventually managed Mattingly with the Yankees from 1993-95. “You really see it as a manager,” Mattingly said.

Maryland coach Mark Turgeon took the two little turtle figurines out of his coat pocket and placed them on the table in front of him. Alex Len, whose mother Juliya had given Turgeon the figurines when her then 18-year-old son first committed to the Terps, sat at the coach's side. One of the figurines represented a baby turtle, the other one fully grown. “She said I am giving Alex to you as a baby, when he leaves here I want him to be a man,” Turgeon recalled Tuesday after Len announced he was leaving Maryland to make himself eligible for the NBA draft.

Annapolis resident Mike Greenhill is one of those rare guys who, even after he turned 50, could effortlessly sprint up and down a soccer field like he did as a much younger man. Until one evening last year, the 53-year-old took this ability for granted. Now, as Greenhill prepares to return to the game after an 11-month hiatus, he's happy to be alive. For this, he thanks a young woman whom he calls "his angel. " Last April Stephanie Andrews, a 22-year-old Howard County firefighter and emergency medical technician from Sykesville, agreed to play a soccer game on her friends' co-ed team because it was short a few players.

The reunion between former Dallas Cowboys defensive linemen Marcus Spears and Chris Canty was prompted by the Ravens' need for an influx of size and toughness at the line of scrimmage. The veteran defensive linemen entered the league together as rookies in Dallas in 2005, with Canty signing with the New York Giants five years ago. Now, they're going to work in tandem again after Spears signed a two-year, $3.55 million maximum value deal with the Ravens and Canty signed a three-year, $8 million deal.

Coach Don Zimmerman estimates that between 20 and 30 pairs of brothers have played lacrosse for UMBC. But remarkably, the latest set hadn't played on the same team until they suited up for the Retrievers. Not at St. Mary's in Annapolis, where Arnold natives Neill and Nate Lewnes spent their high school years. Not in a variety of youth and rec leagues. Not even in games with their neighborhood friends. "I had never played with him," said Nate Lewnes, who has earned a starting role on attack as a freshman.

NEW ORLEANS - Walking around the Mercedes-Benz Superdome with just a trace of a limp, Lardarius Webb paused for a moment, took a long look around and smiled. His thinking: What's the point of being bitter? Out for the season since tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee back in October, the cornerback is contributing to the Ravens' Super Bowl run the only way he can. Planning to root for his teammates and offer scouting tips Sunday night, Webb has his fingers crossed that the team's veterans get to hoist the Vince Lombardi Trophy.

Mark Eberhardinger, shot once in the head, had been left for dead on the front seat of a car last December. His 20-year-old girlfriend lay dying behind the wheel with two bullets in her head.In a Baltimore courtroom last week, Eberhardinger pointed out a former teammate on the Baltimore Bears semipro football team and identified him as the gunman.Corey Lomax, 22, of the 1400 block of Bellona Ave., Lutherville, was convicted in Baltimore Circuit Court last Wednesday of the first-degree murder of Pakema Cokley, and the attempted first-degree murder of Eberhardinger, 28, on Dec. 15.Lomax, who also was convicted of handgun charges, faces a maximum of two consecutive life prison terms plus 40 years when he is sentenced by Judge David B. Mitchell next month.

Fearing another terrorist attack on the one-year anniversary of Sept. 11, former Baltimore Colt Gino Marchetti said he "was praying all day I wouldn't hear any bad news." But the news the former defensive lineman got when he arrived at his home in West Chester, Pa., proved his concerns were warranted for an entirely different reason. "When I got home, my wife was saying, `Oh no,' on the phone. I thought those bastards had blown up another building," said Marchetti, a former defensive lineman.

A defiant Ray Lewis again denied using any banned substances and went on the offensive against the man who says that he provided the Ravens linebacker with products to accelerate his return from a torn triceps injury. Lewis called Mitch Ross - a co-owner of Sports With Alternatives to Steroids who claims that his relationship with the long-time Raven dates back to 2008 - a coward and attacked his credibility. He also described the attention being paid to the situation four days before the Ravens meet the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XLVII “sad” and “embarrassing.” “The reason why I'm smiling is because it's so funny of a story because I've never, ever took what he says I am supposed to do,” Lewis said at a news conference at the team's downtown hotel.

Of the 53 players on the Ravens' active roster, only four have been to a Super Bowl. And only one was there last year. James Ihedigbo was a starting safety for New England, and as the Ravens spent last week gearing up for meeting the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XLVII on Feb. 3, the memory of that 21-17 Patriots loss to the New York Giants almost a year ago was still fresh in his mind. "You don't ever want to be on the other end of it, the loser's end," he said. "Coming into this whole week, it's preparation, it's understanding the type of offense the 49ers run, the things they do on special teams, how they want to attack us, and how do we want to attack them.