Want to catch some quality high school hoops in Baltimore City?

Northwestern High School is the place to be on Tuesday and Wednesday as the second annual Northwestern/IAABO 290 Holiday Mixer is set with two defending state championship teams -- No. 4 Lake Clifton and No. 5 City -- highlighting the opening day's action.

Here's a look at today's slate:

Connexions vs. Forest Park, noon
Northwestern vs. Chesapeake-BC, 2 p.m.
No. 5 City vs. Dunbar (D.C), 4 p.m.
No. 4 Lake Clifton vs. John F. Kennedy (N.Y.), 6 p.m.

Wednesday's schedule:

Chesapeake-BC vs. Forest Park, 11 a.m.
Northwestern vs. Connexions, 1 p.m.
John F. Kennedy (N.Y.) vs. City, 3 p.m.
Dunbar (D.C) vs. Lake Clifton, 5 p.m.

Also on Tuesday, at Milford Mill Academy's Holiday Mixer, the host and No. 6 Millers will take on River Hill in the showcase game set for 7 p.m.

Posted by Glenn Graham at 10:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Former McDonogh soccer standout Jon Ports closed out a fine four-year career at York (Pa.) College in impressive fashion, earning NSCAA Division III Player of the Year honors.

The senior finished the season with seven goals and nine assists for a team-high 23 points, leading York to a 17-1-5 mark that included the Capital Athletic Conference tournament championship and a fifth straight appearance in the NCAA tournament.

For his career, Ports scored 33 goals -- including 12 game winners -- and dished out 35 assists for 101 points that ranks third on the program's all-time list.

He finished his career as a three-time first team All-American and was twice named CAC Player of the Year.

Posted by Glenn Graham at 10:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

The big weekend storm wiped out today's area athletic schedule with hopes that school will be back in session tomorrow.

The big boys basketball game slated for Tuesday has No. 12 Dunbar traveling to No. 10 Edmondson with a 5:15 p.m. start.

Check with schools for any postponements and rescheduled times.

Posted by Glenn Graham at 11:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Due to the snowfall expected to hit the region Saturday, the Maryland Crab Bowl has been postponed until 7 p.m. on Monday at Towson University.

The event organizers released the following schedule for Monday:

4:30 p.m. Youth Players should arrive
5 p.m. Gates will open/High school players should report
5:30 p.m. Youth Crab Bowl game
7 p.m. Maryland Crab Bowl game

Crab Bowl practice will be held Friday at the University Maryland football bubble. The youth teams will both practice from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. The high school practice schedule is not determined at this time. Event officials ask that players not report to Gossett Football Team House (there will be no changing facilities provided).

Posted by Baltimore Sun sports at 12:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Football
        

Six area soccer players were recently named to the National Soccer Coaches Association of America/adidas Scholar All-America teams for their performances in the classroom and on the field.

Two boys from Anne Arundel County -- Broadneck's Guy Skord and Chesapeake's Joseph Milligan -- were selected, while The Sun's All-Metro Player of the Year, Peyton Johnson of Catonsville, leads a group of four girls chosen.

Ellen Axenfeld (Glenelg), Lyndse Hokanson (South River) and Samantha Norman (Broadneck) also made the girls team.

To be selected, a player must have at least a 3.75 grade point average, be a standout player for their team, and also be active in the community.

After players are nominated by their respective high school coach, they are evaluated and ranked by a nationwide five-member committee.

Posted by Glenn Graham at 10:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Baltimore native Gino Culotta, who has spent the past two years playing linebacker and running back at the International School of Brussels, had a season to remember as a senior.

Culotta, who lives in Joppatowne in the summer and this year has been pursuing a Division I football scholarship, received every possible award during the season-ending banquet for the Department of Defense Dependents Schools League. The DoDDS League is composed of about 30 teams, most of them affiliated with schools on U.S. military bases around Europe.

The icing on the cake was that Culotta also received an offer from NCAA Football Championship Subdivision school Duquesne to join its football program.

“Gino’s plan is to keep his options open because he is hopeful his participation in the [Offense-Defense Bowl next month] will open some doors when college coaches can see him in person or at least competing against the highest level of competition,” said Culotta’s dad, Dominic, whose job with UPS took his family to Brussels in the first place. “The most common feedback he continues to get from colleges is they like his results, but they can’t gauge the level of competition he is playing against, therefore they consider him an unknown risk.”

Culotta is certainly not unknown in the DoDDS league. Here are the awards he received at the league’s recent banquet:

*Team Most Valuable Player, for leading it to an undefeated regular season

*Division II All-North Conference Running Back, for leading the league with 1,342yards and 20 TDs

*Division II All-North Conference Linebacker, with a team-high 41 solo tackles

*All-Europe League first-team Running Back

*All-Europe League first-team Linebacker

Cullotta is the 12th International School of Brussels player this decade to earn an All-Europe award in football, and the only one to earn the honor for both offense and defense.

— Sandra McKee

Posted by Steve Gould at 6:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Football
        

Former McDonogh soccer standout Chris Agorsor, The Sun's Male Athlete of the Year for the 2007-08 school year, was a member of the Virginia men's soccer team that captured The NCAA Division I championship on Sunday with a 3-2 shootout win over Akron in the College Cup.

Agorsor, who suffered a season-ending knee injury last year as a freshman, returned to start 10 games for the Cavaliers, who finished the season with a 19-3-3 mark to capture their sixth national title.

The sophomore forward scored two goals and added two assists in 13 games this season.

As a McDonogh senior in 2007, Agorsor was the NSCAA/Adidas National High School Player of the Year and the Gatorade National player of the Year.

Posted by Glenn Graham at 1:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Boys soccer
        

The Hammond baseball team has placed four players on the Maryland State Association of Baseball Coaches preseason team, a rare number thought to be a possible state record.

“I can remember Calvert Hall having three,” said Mount St. Joseph coach Dave Norton, who has been coaching the game for 35 years. “But I can’t recall four. It’s very, very unusual for schools to have multiple players.”

Hammond’s team members are all seniors: pitcher-third baseman Travis Clark, first baseman Tyler Clark, pitcher Danny Wissmann and shortstop Jared Christensen.

“This is crazy,” Tyler Clark said. “Me and my brother made it last year, and it’s rare to make it as juniors. Now, to make it a second year is pretty rare, and then to have four of us on the same team — crazy.”

The team consists of the 30 players Maryland high school coaches think will the best performers in the coming season. The team members will be honored Feb. 20 at a banquet at Camden Yards.

“There are probably 2,200 starters in the state, and about 1 percent of them make the team,” Eastern Tech coach Ty Whittaker said. “Just having one kid from a team make it is a major, major honor. To have two is saying something. To have four is unbelievable. It’s a testament that that coach is grooming his players the right way.”

Doing the grooming at Hammond is Mike Lerner, who has been coaching the Golden Bears for nine years. He has had the Clark twins and Christensen on his team four years, while Wissmann transferred in last season.

“It’s nice to have so many,” Lerner said. “But it’s a testament to their hard work and dedication to get to this level. It’s all about them and their accomplishments.”

The Clarks and Christensen will be four-year starters. A year ago, the Bears finished 15-3, getting upset in regionals. But Tyler Clark says Hammond is expecting much more this time around.

“We only lost two starters from last season,” he said. “And the seven of us who are back all have three years of starting experience, we’re expecting do a whole lot more, absolutely.”

-- Sandra McKee

Posted by Steve Gould at 6:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Baseball
        

The 11th Annual Ed Peery Invitational wrestling tournament begins today and will feature 14 teams from Maryland and Virginia.

On site at Annapolis Area Christian School in Severn this weekend will be: Annapolis Christian, Annapolis, Archbishop Spalding, Belair, Bishop McNamara, Bladensburg, Chancellor (Va.), McLean School, Mount Carmel, Oxon Hill, St. Vincent Pallotti, Robinson (Va.), St. Mary’s Ryken and The Heights School.

Several of the most anticipated possible matchups include:

At 103 pounds, Spalding's Cole Gallagher, who finished in fourth place in the Maryland Independent Schools' state tournament last year, could square off against Jake Smith of Robinson (Va.), who finished in second place in Virginia last year.

At 130 pounds, Spalding's Will Switzer, third in Maryland, might face Robinson's Jacob Crawford, who is first in Virginia.

Finally, in the 135-pound weight class, Spalding's Charlie Lynch, fourth in Maryland, and Charlie Vannoy, seventh in Virginia could meet.

Wrestling begins today at 2 p.m., and it continues tomorrow at 10 a.m. Finals are scheduled for 5 p.m. tomorrow.

Posted by Sandra McKee at 12:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

If Wednesday night -- when No. 5 St.Frances knocked off No. 1 Seton Keough, 70-62, in overtime -- is any indication, then fans of girls basketball can expect a lot of excitement in the IAAM A Conference this season.

The game had late-season intensity with hassling defense and players stepping up with big shot after big shot.

For Seton Keough, junior forward Achiri Ade was unstoppable down low with a variety of post moves. St. Frances countered from the outside with senior guard Shatyra Hawkes, whose 3-pointer with three seconds left forced overtime.

Both players carried their teams offensively in key stretches and finished with 29 points.

In last year's IAAM title game, Seton Keough ended the Panthers' run of six straight titles, so the desire to establish ground this season was apparent.

"It's a great rivalry, so competitive and all the kids left everythng on the court," said Seton Keough coach Jackie Boswell, who was also quick to mention how the opposing players displayed their mutual respect and friendships for each other after the game.

While defending champ Seton Keough and runner-up St. Frances appear to be the clear front-runners, the IAAM should prove plenty deep with the likes of Archbishop Spalding and McDonogh also in the picture.

-- Glenn Graham

Posted by Baltimore Sun sports at 10:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

McDonogh sophomore forward Ashley Spivey was named to the 2009 National Soccer Coaches Association of America/Adidas Girls High School All-America Team. Spivey, a member of the U.S. under-15 girls national team, she scored 20 goals and added 14 assists for the Eagles this season. She now has 45 goals and 26 assists in her two seasons at McDonogh.

Posted by Glenn Graham at 1:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

From a news release:

In its 25th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company, in collaboration with ESPN RISE, today announced Zach Zwinak of Linganore High School as its 2009-10 Gatorade Maryland Football Player of the Year. Zwinak is the second Gatorade Maryland Football Player of the Year to be chosen from Linganore High School.

The Gatorade Player of the Year program annually recognizes one winner in the District of Columbia and each of the 50 states that sanction high school football, girls volleyball, boys and girls cross country, boys and girls basketball, boys and girls soccer, baseball, softball, and boys and girls track & field, and awards one National Player of the Year in each sport. The selection process is administered by ESPN RISE and the Gatorade high school sports leadership team, which work with top sport-specific experts and a media advisory board of accomplished, veteran prep sports journalists to determine the state winners in each sport.

Posted by Katherine Dunn at 12:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Football
        

Archbishop Curley’s Oumar Ballo was just one of eight players to earn a return spot on the 2009 National Soccer Coaches Association of America/adidas Boys High School All-America Team. Ballo is a two-time Baltimore Sun First-Team All-Metro pick, and is regarded as one of the top defenders in the nation. He will play for Loyola in the fall.

Two players from McDonogh, Marquez Fernandez and Mamadou Kansaye, were the other two players from Maryland named to the team. Fernandez, last year’s Baltimore Sun Player of the Year, and Kansaye will continue to be teammates at the University of Maryland next season.

Also, Mount St. Joseph, the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A conference champion, is ranked 15th in the latest NSCAA poll -- the highest of any team in the state.

-- Todd Karpovich

Posted by Baltimore Sun sports at 8:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Boys soccer
        

If you're a fan of Maryland high school football you'll want to watch some of these highlights, which include video from the Loyola-Calvert Hall Turkey Bowl and a Prince George's and Frederick County duel for a trip to the state finals.

Posted by Baltimore Sun sports at 1:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)