Weight Room

Long Reach-football coach Pete Hughes thinks the first-year Lightning will be battling for a county championship in a season or two.He should know. Hughes has been successful as a player and a coach wherever he's been.As a player, the football team at Division II Valley City (N.D.) State University went 36-4 during his four years and made the national playoffs twice. Hughes, a four-time all-league pick at strong safety, was named an All-American his senior year.He was then head coach for four years at Finley-Sharon High School, about 60 miles from Valley City, where his teams compiled a 30-6 record in a turn-around for a program that had been 24-39.

Patrick McGlinchey heard “great things” about Derrick Hayward before the young linebacker/defensive end ever set foot in the Wicomico weight room as a freshman.  Just minutes into the first meeting between player and coach, McGlinchey could sense that reports of Hayward's potential were not exaggerated. “I could tell he was going to be a great athlete with his work ethic in the weight room,” said McGlinchey, who has served as a varsity assistant and JV head coach at Wicomico.

Even though he is still the starting quarterback, John Luster is in a new position for South Carroll.The senior -- surrounded by a solid group of classmates, most of whom have been together since they were freshmen -- is much more comfortable than he was last fall.Luster was the Cavaliers' starting quarterback for the last seven-plus games, but he had opened the season as a defensive back, and fitting into a senior dominated-lineup took him awhile.The change came at halftime at Rockville, with the Montgomery County team ahead 14-12.

The Ravens continued their busy Tuesday, announcing a three-year contract extension with hard-hitting safety Bernard Pollard. Pollard had one year remaining on his contract, but he's now signed through 2015. After signing with the Ravens as a free agent last offseason, Pollard, 27, made an immediate impact and finished the season with 75 total tackles (55 solo), two sacks, one interception, a career-high 13 passes defended and three forced fumbles. He started 15 of the Ravens' 18 games.

Just like two decades ago, a fleet of moving vans rolled out of the Owings Mills football facility. But in a stark contrast to the Colts' escape on that snowy night in 1984, the Ravens' relocation trumpeted a brighter future. The Ravens moved four miles down the road during this week's bye into their plush, new, $31-million training complex, a short drive that allowed the franchise to leap from an antiquated era to a cutting-edge one. Nestled in the woods of Owings Mills, the Ravens' 200,000-square-foot headquarters - whose new address is 1 Winning Drive - sits on 32 acres and features three outdoor football fields, the NFL's largest weight room, 32-inch high-definition televisions in nearly every room and a full-length indoor practice field.

Opposing offensive linemen aren't the only ones who can't slow Ravens defensive tackle Kelly Gregg. Gregg, who will turn 31 on Nov. 1 and is one of 13 Ravens 30 or older, has tried to defy some of the physical limitations that come with age by adding about 10 pounds of muscle to his 6-foot, 310-pound frame in preparation for the start of training camp Sunday. "I'm stronger than I've been in about four or five years," Gregg said during the team's mandatory minicamp last month. "I really wasn't sore this offseason, so I got into the weight room.

For most of Navy's preseason, all the talk in Annapolis has been about first-year coach Paul Johnson's spread offense, which broke all kinds of school records when he was the offensive coordinator in 1995 and 1996. But there is an equally important question: Will Navy's defense be any better than last season, when it gave up 34.4 points and 461 yards a game? Josh Brindel thinks so, and if he's right, he'll be a big part of the improvement. The senior lineman was perhaps the Midshipmen's best defensive player a year ago, and he has gotten bigger and stronger in the offseason.

COLLEGE PARK - Chris McCray had just lived through a forgettable night shooting the basketball against George Mason, and the Maryland Terrapins' sophomore guard quickly settled on a course of action. He returned a few hours after the crowd had vacated Comcast Center, and began to shoot, shoot and shoot some more. McCray said that he has split about 1,000 such after-hours shots with teammates John Gilchrist and Nik Caner-Medley several times this season. Maryland coach Gary Williams sees it as more proof of McCray's commitment to the game.

Patrick McGlinchey heard “great things” about Derrick Hayward before the young linebacker/defensive end ever set foot in the Wicomico weight room as a freshman.  Just minutes into the first meeting between player and coach, McGlinchey could sense that reports of Hayward's potential were not exaggerated. “I could tell he was going to be a great athlete with his work ethic in the weight room,” said McGlinchey, who has served as a varsity assistant and JV head coach at Wicomico.

Soon after last season ended, Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti challenged third-year player Joe Flacco to become a franchise-caliber quarterback in 2010. Ravens running back Ray Rice took the message personally, as well. "It wasn't just to Joe," said Rice, entering his third season. "It was to all the young players, including myself. Basically, he was saying the learning curve was over and the time is now." Rice got the message. Oh, did he ever. Last season was a breakout year for the former Rutgers star as he rushed for 1,339 yards and gained an additional 780 yards on 78 catches.

Though he never had the chance to wear the cartoon bird on his cap day-in and day out, former Orioles outfielder and current Tampa Bay Ray Luke Scott is doing his best to, well, remain a cartoon character with his new ballclub -- and he's still endearing himself to Orioles fans while doing it. “As a baseball player, going [to Fenway Park] to work, it's a dump,” Scott told Scott Chastain of MLB.com earlier this week . “I mean, it's old. It does have a great feel and nostalgia, but at the end of the day, I'd rather be at a good facility where I can get my work in. A place where I can go hit in the cage.

Ray Rice not only established a career best with 1,364 rushing yards, but the Ravens running back also leads the NFL in runs of at least 40 yards with five. Two of those runs ended in touchdowns in Sunday evening's 24-16 win victory over the Cincinnati Bengals, and coach John Harbaugh said those scores were the latest indicator of Rice's ability to finish plays. “His vision and his courses and his aiming points and all those things continue to get better all the time,” Harbaugh said Monday.

Jarret Johnson still grimaces when he thinks about it. For as long as he could remember, he'd been a strong guy. Some of it was country strength, the kind of muscles you build when you grow up in in a small Florida town on the Gulf of Mexico, raised by a family of commercial crabbers and fisherman. But he could always hold his own in the weight room, too, moving metal plates with relative ease as he out-worked much bigger guys on his way to an NFL career. But at the start of the 2010 season, for the first time in Johnson's life, he would ask his body to do power through workouts, and it would simply refuse.

FIRST TEAM Kevin Mooney North Harford, jr., pitcher •Went 7-1 with a 0.77ERA and struck out 88 in 551/3 innings •Showed his physical strength, Beat strong C. Milton Wright team, 5-1, in state 3A North Regional final and then came coming back two days later to pitch seven scoreless innings in a 2-1, 15-inning loss in Sstate semifinal •Three-year starter is member of Team Maryland and Mid-Atlantic Red...

Boys' Latin's Greg Pyke is a quiet giant. The 6-foot-5, 295-pound two-sport star looks down when answering questions — he's not embarrassed, just shy. Maybe he doesn't like talking about himself. Maybe it's because he's young. "What people fail to realize this is still a 17-year-old kid, but he is in a man's body," Lakers lacrosse coach Bob Shriver says. As reserved as he is — Pyke won't even reveal his favorite kind of music — Pyke has made some noise with his athletic prowess.

When Yankee first baseman Mark Teixeira takes the field Wednesday night against the Baltimore Orioles, he's returning home and entering enemy territory.  A Mt. St. Joseph graduate, Teixeira, 31, is a native of Severna Park. But his hometown roots only served to anger fans when he signed with New York, a team O's fans dub the "evil empire. " In an interview with b , Teixeira talked about his acrimonious relationship with local fans, the best place to get a crab cake and his charity work.  You've been involved with charities in Atlanta, Baltimore and now East Harlem, where you pledged $1 million to help Harlem RBI, a baseball and academics program, build a facility for DREAM Charter School.

Jimmy Dailey, a fifth-year senior attackman, has always had the speed, the stick and the skills. Evan Douglass, his teammate on the Stevenson men's lacrosse team, can attest to that. But when Dailey began to add muscle to his lithe frame and get more physical in practice, Douglass realized that Dailey was evolving as a player. "He'll lower his shoulder and get into me a little more, and that kind of catches me off guard because I'm not used to that from him," said Douglass, who is not exactly a wallflower at 6 feet and 185 pounds.

The Ravens continued their busy Tuesday, announcing a three-year contract extension with hard-hitting safety Bernard Pollard. Pollard had one year remaining on his contract, but he's now signed through 2015. After signing with the Ravens as a free agent last offseason, Pollard, 27, made an immediate impact and finished the season with 75 total tackles (55 solo), two sacks, one interception, a career-high 13 passes defended and three forced fumbles. He started 15 of the Ravens' 18 games.

Jimmy Dailey, a fifth-year senior attackman, has always had the speed, the stick and the skills. Evan Douglass, his teammate on the Stevenson men's lacrosse team, can attest to that. But when Dailey began to add muscle to his lithe frame and get more physical in practice, Douglass realized that Dailey was evolving as a player. "He'll lower his shoulder and get into me a little more, and that kind of catches me off guard because I'm not used to that from him," said Douglass, who is not exactly a wallflower at 6 feet and 185 pounds.

C. Milton Wright senior Jenna Bowen would have never guessed that she would be wearing yellow, not the Mustangs' traditional Carolina blue, during her final high school soccer season. But last year, the Mustangs were loaded with talented forwards — the position Bowen has played since she was 4 — and coach Paul Austin felt her athleticism and work ethic could better serve the team as the back-up goalkeeper. A bit reluctant at first, Bowen went on to accept the challenge and dug in. By the end of last season, Austin said he would have been just as confident using Bowen in goal as the team's senior starter.