Young Boys

After graduating its top six players from a record-breaking jTC 22-1 team and winning back-to-back Howard County titles, the burning question this season was whether Centennial could field another contender.The Eagles (3-1 overall, 2-0 league) provided the answer last night. They romped, 80-62, over an Oakland Mills team that expects to be in the thick of the county race.Oakland Mills entered last night's game with a 1-2 overall and 1-0 league record. Both losses, however, were to quality teams, Loyola and Thomas Johnson, and neither defeat was by more than 10 points.

Baltimore is the cradle of lacrosse, and the cradle was rocking yesterday at Maryvale Preparatory School in Brooklandville, where teams of 6- to 8-year-old boys raced up and down, checking, scrambling, passing and shooting, just like the big guys.Passes didn't always connect, sticks flailed and shots flew way wide of the goal, but with their coaches running up and down the field with them, correcting mistakes as they happened, the boys learned as they played and nobody kept track of who won and who lost.

A former Swansfield Elementary School music teacher -- sentenced to 15 months in jail for fondling two young boys -- is no longer teaching in Howard schools.School officials said Craig A. Smith, 38, left the school district payroll May 8, but -- citing personnel rules -- refused to say whether he had resigned or been fired.Smith who had been employed by the school system for about seven years, was sentenced to nine months in jail Friday after pleading guilty to charges he molested a boy for two years, beginning in 1988 when the boy was 8.The boy reported the abuse seven years after it ended after he read in newspaper accounts that Smith had been convicted in July of last year of fondling another boy.Smith -- a former Boy Scout leader -- pleaded guilty in March to one count of child abuse in an agreement with prosecutors on the new charges.

William Boulay is only 4, but he knows he will never eat solid food, must always wear a colostomy bag, be accompanied by a nurse and keep a tube in his chest that connects him to a computer-assisted feeding pump.The boy and his parents will ask an Anne Arundel Circuit Court jury this week for millions of dollars in damages for the near-fatal injuries he suffered at the Glen Burnie Holiday Inn pool in 1995.Gary and Lisa Boulay of the 800 block of Jack St. in Baltimore filed a $222 million negligence suit against the motel operators and pool maintenance firm last year, two weeks after their son had much of his intestines sucked out when he become trapped against the drain in the motel wading pool.

150 years ago in The SunSept. 9: Almost every-one that uses anthracite coal in this city, is grumbling at the high price of that article at the present time. At this time last year, it could be had at $5 per ton, delivered to the door. Now the price is $6, with an extra charge for delivery.Sept. 13: "The man who starves a horse degrades humanity." The same may be said of the man who abuses in any way the horse or any other dumb-beast.100 years ago in The SunSept. 9: The bicycle is becoming more and more conspicuous as efforts are made to adapt it to other uses besides a pleasure vehicle.

MANYIEL, Sudan -- This is the day we will buy a slave. We are up at dawn. It will take us three hours on foot to meet an Arab trader and, if all goes as planned, make the purchase.Our interpreter, Joseph Akok, arrives with another English-speaking Dinka, Simon Kuot, to escort us. Both carry Kalashnikov assault rifles. We also pick up another couple of armed guards.The Dinkas move with grace across the open terrain, two ahead, two behind. We struggle to keep up. The sun is low and the going flat along the firm, baked trail between waist-high dried grass and scattered trees.

Los Angeles -- A former maid for Michael Jackson has told authorities that she quit her job with the entertainer after seeing him naked with young boys on a number of occasions, sources close to the Jackson investigation said yesterday."

2 young boys charged in separate knife attacksTwo young boys have been charged as juveniles with assault, battery and assault with a deadly weapon after separate incidents on South Center Street, Westminster police reported yesterday.On Monday, an 11-year-old boy and a 10-year-old boy were wrestling when the younger boy left, ran to his house on South Court Street and returned minutes later with a kitchen knife that he allegedly began swinging at the 11-year-old, police said.The 10-year-old's sister disarmed the boy and took the knife home, police said.

It looked like a playoff match in the National Basketball Association, with players diving after loose balls and fighting their way under the basket in hopes of getting that key rebound.But these players are built a lot closer to the ground than Patrick Ewing, of the New York Knicks, or Scottie Pippen, of the Chicago Bulls. And the oldest are only 14.Eight teams of about 12 boys each spent a sun-filled weekend on an outdoor court playing basketball to rival the NBA, at least to their family and friends.

I've been watching this Spur Posse story with more than a little interest. You've probably heard about it. High school boys in suburban, middle-class L.A. kept score of their sexual conquests -- one point for each girl, whether or not the issue was bTC forced.The reaction is the scary part. The boys, belonging to a popular crowd who call themselves the Spur Posse, are basically heroes back at old Lakewood High and, as if local fame were insufficient, get interviewed on national TV. Many of the parents defend their sons as red-blooded American boys (as in boys who will be boys)