Varsity Coach

The athletic department at Bel Air High has resembled of late a version of the old shell game. The difference is there is a problem under every shell.Countless rumors and stories pertaining to personnel and programs have run rampant.Since early December, however, football has drawn most of the attention.Now, principal William M. Ekey has confirmed what has been speculated on for weeks."Bruce Riley has replaced Gene Blizzard as head football coach at Bel Air High School," he said.Ekey said he had not made the change public at the time it was done to give Riley and assistant Doug Dempsey a chance to put some of their ideas in place without a lot of attention.

Sponsors help lift up John Carroll soccer Following a match against the alumni, more than 350 people attended a bull roast/shrimp feast auction event Aug. 22 at Jarrettsville Gardens hosted by The John Carroll School Patriot Soccer Program. All proceeds are being used to move one step closer to the vision of a better field and improvements; a vision of commitment to playing on a natural playing surface with a dedicated irrigation system and in time, European-style goals, sound systems, scoreboard for the varsity field, international style benches and bleachers.

Nancy Shea, a former Baltimore Sun All-Metro coach of the Year, will be Atholton's varsity girls soccer coach next fall. Shea, 48, coached the Raiders junior varsity team last season and replaces Chuck Teal as the varsity coach. She was the Oakland Mills girls varsity coach for two years, and her Scorpions team won a state title in 1992. Atholton posted a 7-5-3 record last season, and is considered an up-and-coming program. The Raiders lost in the region semifinals to Hammond on penalty kicks, after upsetting Glenelg in the playoffs.

Outplayed for a good portion of a scoreless first half against No. 7 Perry Hall yesterday afternoon, the No. 3 Archbishop Curley boys soccer team didn't see a need for any drastic adjustments going into the second 40 minutes of play. Just some smarter play with more urgency and, first and foremost, making sure to get to the ball first. The Friars made sure to do all that in the second 40 minutes and with it came goals from Aaron Beale and Chris Weaver to enjoy a 2-0 win over the Gators at the McDonogh Tournament in Owings Mills.

Dunbar assistant basketball coach Paul Holmes has been named to replace Northern head basketball coach Manny Werner, the school's coach since it opened in 1965.Holmes spent four seasons as the varsity coach at Baltimore's Eastern High School before it closed in 1986, then took a year off before assuming his position at Dunbar."I've been teaching at Northern since I left Eastern, so this is just like coming all the way home," said Holmes.Werner, 62, retired July 1.

Bryan Hamper, second-winningest wrestler in South Carroll history, will attend Messiah College, said coach Pete Olson. Messiah, a Division III school located in Grantham, Pa., close to Gettysburg, is coached by Neil Turner, who is in the process of upgrading the program there after coaching at Loch Haven. Hamper recorded 124 career wins for the Cavaliers, second only to Dan Patterson's 130. Hamper set the school record for career pins at 82. Turner is a coach familiar to Hamper because he has give clinics to South Carroll's wrestling team for the past several seasons.

Wilde Lake will have its third boys varsity basketball coach in three seasons, as the Wildecats have promoted Phil Chenier, the junior varsity coach for the past two seasons. He replaces Damon Sterling as head coach, although Sterling, who teaches in Prince George's County, will remain as a varsity assistant coach. The new junior varsity coach is DaLawn Parrish, a football and basketball standout at Howard who graduated in 1995 and played four years of football at Wake Forest. Chenier, who teaches algebra at Wilde Lake, coached the junior varsity to a 15-5 record last season.

The girls varsity and junior varsity basketball teams at Atholton will have new coaches when practice begins Nov. 15.Varsity coach Paul Eckert has resigned after three seasons and will be replaced by athletic director Don Van Deusen. Assisting Van Deusen will be Paul Seadler.Todd Kriner has been named junior varsity coach, replacing Karen Saunderson and Roland Heurich will be the assistant.Van Deusen said Eckert's decision to quit was "quite a shock." xTC Eckert said he had been thinking about resigning since last spring and made it official earlier this month.

A 47-year-old Columbia resident is the Johns Hopkins University's first women's varsity soccer coach.Leo Weil, a Soccer Association of Columbia traveling team coach for the past 13 years, was notified of his new job about two weeks ago.Hopkins is trying to upgrade its women's athletic program, and will raise women's soccer from club team status to the varsity level in September.Weil has coached elite-level girls teams for 12 of his 13 years with SAC. His current Chargers club team had won three straight state cups until losing its title, 3-1, a few weeks ago.Some key members of that under-16 Chargers team include Nat Froman (Wilde Lake)

On the outside, he remains modest and full of composure.Somehow, though, you get the idea that deep down Charlie Fazenbaker just wants to jump up and down and let out a big scream about his South Carroll boys soccer team.And why not? The Cavaliers go into tonight's game against Francis Scott Key with a 5-0 mark and are solidly perched at the No. 6 position in this week's metro poll.The first signs of potential came four years ago when Scott Ensor, Martin Oswiecimka, Adam Aulestia and Emmanuel Smyrnioudis led a strong freshman group that has gotten better every year.

Before the start of the 1998 softball season at Glen Burnie, coach Bob Broccolino made a pledge to his players that if they brought home a state championship, he would shave off his mustache. Later that spring, the group delivered the program's third state crown, leaving Randazzo Park with a championship plaque. And, sure enough, Broccolino went home minus his mustache. "The kids brought a shaving kit and everything they needed to the park. I had that mustache since I was in the Army back in 1971, and nobody in my family had ever seen me without one," said Broccolino, laughing at the recollection.

Erin Soulen has been a part of some of the greatest moments in South Carroll field hockey history. She started and played on the school's 1991 state championship team and later coached the 2002 state title team. Soulen then guided the Cavaliers to appearances in the state finals the following year and the state semifinals in 2004. Several months ago, however, Soulen made the agonizing decision to give up coaching due to the health problems of her son, Jake, who turns 2 next month. Jake was born with malrotation, a type of obstruction caused by abnormal development of the intestines while the fetus is in the mother's womb.

Phil Chenier faces the same concerns any other high school basketball coach has at this time of the season. His Wilde Lake High varsity squad was 9-7 as of late last week and trying to get everything together for a late-season roll heading into post-season play. Chenier, 31, is a former standout player at Wilde Lake and Howard University who knows the game and loves teaching it. He also is fortunate in that when a basketball question occurs, one trusted source he can turn to is a three-time National Basketball Association all-star who, as a television announcer, is still involved in the pro league.

The announcement last week that Howard's Vince Parnell is stepping down as varsity football coach pushed the number of county head football coaching vacancies to four - the most in one year since River Hill and Long Reach opened as new schools eight years ago. Parnell joins Ross Hannon, who stepped down late last month at Centennial; Sam Singleton, whose firing in December at Reservoir touched off a student demonstration at the school; and Ken Hovet, who...

Nancy Shea, a former Baltimore Sun All-Metro coach of the Year, will be Atholton's varsity girls soccer coach next fall. Shea, 48, coached the Raiders junior varsity team last season and replaces Chuck Teal as the varsity coach. She was the Oakland Mills girls varsity coach for two years, and her Scorpions team won a state title in 1992. Atholton posted a 7-5-3 record last season, and is considered an up-and-coming program. The Raiders lost in the region semifinals to Hammond on penalty kicks, after upsetting Glenelg in the playoffs.

More than a decade ago, Brooke Kuhl-McClelland looked like she might be well on her way to becoming, in her own words, the best tap-dancing attorney in town. In her heart, she was always going to be a dancer. She couldn't deny that. When she was growing up in Lutherville, coaches begged her to come out for their teams, but nothing quite grabbed her like dancing, and even the hours on top of hours of classes only served to whet her appetite. But eventually, as the girl became a woman, it came time to earn a living.

Mrs. Smith finds herself in a dilemma.A fun one, but a dilemma nonetheless.For the 30 years her husband, Glenn, has been coaching basketball at Williamsport High, it's been simple, especially in the mid-1980s when their daughter, Alice, was the starting point guard. It's always been "Go Wildcats!"Tonight, it's different.When Williamsport visits Francis Scott Key at 7 o'clock tonight, it will be more than the Wildcats taking on the Eagles. It will be father taking on daughter for the first time.

Raised two miles from Arundel High School, Chuck Markiewicz is going home to coach his alma mater's football team. Arundel athletic director Bernie Walter made the official announcement yesterday after a meeting with principal William Myers and assistant principal Tom Clowes. "Mr. Myers needed to talk to a couple of the 11 applicants today [Wednesday] after our meeting at which time we made the final decision to go with Chuck," said Walter. "We feel we have hired a successful, established coach who knows our community well."

Mike Lerner is coming home. The former Hammond pitcher will coach the Golden Bears baseball team next spring. Hammond athletic director and former baseball coach Bob Maxey could not be happier about turning the program over to one of his former players. "He's the perfect fit for us," said Maxey, who coached the Bears to a county championship and 20-2 record last spring, earning The Sun's Howard County Coach of the Year honor before stepping down after 17 seasons. "He'll take the program to bigger and better things.

Brooke Kuhl-McClelland has been named Mount Hebron's girls lacrosse head coach, becoming the first woman in the program's history to hold that position. Kuhl-McClelland, a former junior varsity coach at Hammond who was a varsity assistant at Mount Hebron the past two seasons, takes over for Chris Robinson, who stepped down in August after being promoted to assistant principal at Mount Hebron. Robinson guided the Vikings to five state championships and a 107-8-1 record in his six seasons.