School Bells Ring, Titles Up For Grabs

The 2007 Archbishop Quigley squad will miss graduated former captain B.J. Quigley.

By: Keith Mills

Another high school sports season has begun and with it another set of intriguing questions surrounding the fall campaign. Unfortunately, it begins with the Dunbar football team. The defending Class 1A state champs return a ton of talent but lost their coach recently when Ben Eaton Sr. died of an apparent pulmonary embolism.
How Will The Poets Rebound?

Lawrence Smith takes over as the Poets' coach. He is a Baltimore City police officer and certainly no stranger to Dunbar or area youth and amateur football. He is heavily involved in the NFL's Junior Development Football Program and was the team's offensive line coach when Dunbar won both the 2004 and '06 state titles.

Travis Blackstone, William Crawford and Anderson Powell return as assistant coaches and the Poets also return two of the area's premier players in running back/cornerback Tavon Austin and 6-foot-4, 310-pound guard James Coppage.

Austin has already committed to Maryland. He scored 10 touchdowns in three games as Dunbar ripped through the state playoffs last season on its way to a fourth state championship, scoring three touchdowns and rushing for 111 yards in the final against Fort Hill at M&T Bank Stadium. He also plays wicked defensive back and is capable of returning any punt or kick for a touchdown.

Coppage is being heavily recruited by a variety of Big East, ACC and Big 10 schools and is the anchor to Dunbar's always well-schooled offensive line. Eaton, of course, was a big reason for that.

How the Poets handle their coach's shocking death will go a long way in determining how far they advance in this year's competition.
Nairn Or Bouchelle?

Who's better, Christine Nairn or Julie Bouchelle? Does it really matter? They are both extraordinarily gifted soccer players who represent the United States on the Under-17 U.S. National soccer team.

Nairn plays center-midfield for Archbishop Spalding, last year's unbeaten IAAM A Conference champions, and is the school's all-time leading scorer with 65 points in a brilliant career for coach Bob Dieterle.

Bouchelle is also a marvelous midfielder who played side by side this summer with Nairn on the national team's trip to Europe. Bouchelle will finish up her four-year career this fall at Notre Dame Prep.

A potential Spalding-Notre Dame Prep A Conference title game is unlikely as Spalding, John Carroll and McDonogh are all talented and deep.

Nairn's Cavaliers are oozing with talent, led by returning goalie Karen Blocker, who anchors an airtight defense. Notre Dame finished 4-7-2 last year and simply doesn't have the number of quality players to compete with Spalding, McDonogh, John Carroll and St. Vincent Pallotti and Institute of Notre Dame, five of the best teams in the area.

Nairn next year is headed to Penn State, where she'll be a teammate with Julia's older sister, Zoe. Zoe Bouchelle graduated in 2003 from Notre Dame Prep, where she was the area player of the year and a two-time high school All-American. She's a red-shirt junior now at Penn State and, like her younger sister, is a midfielder with tremendous skills and great vision
Curley, Calvert Hall, McDonogh. Who's No. 1?

On paper, the McDonogh boys' soccer team is not only the best team in the MIAA A Conference but one of the best teams on the East Coast. But if recent history prevails, Calvert Hall, Archbishop Curley and dangerous Mt. St. Joseph's will have something to say in who wins the most competitive boys' soccer leagues in the state.

And no, every top player doesn't play for the Baltimore Bays, it only seems that way.

Curley, coached by Barry Stitz, is defending league champion and although the Friars bring back ace defender Oumar Ballo, they lost a tremendous amount of talent and leadership in Sean Rothe, B.J. Quigley, Vince Savarese and Brett Hooper. McDonogh, meanwhile, returns an abundance of talent, led by Chris Agorsor, Andrew Bulls and Jake Levin. Coach Steve Nichols is beginning his 11th year at McDonogh, which is looking for its first title since 2004. He's also the coach of many of the Baltimore Bays club teams, the program that just completed one of the most dominating summers in local soccer history.

The Under-14 Bays team, coached by Nichols and Blast general manager Kevin Healey, won the national youth soccer championship back in July in Texas, while the Bays U-19 team made the national semifinals and the U-17 and U-18 teams made the regional finals.

Twelve members of the U-17 and U-14 teams will play for Nichols this fall at McDonogh, including Agorsor, who will graduate early to pursue either a soccer career professionally in England or collegiately at Virginia. He is joined in the Eagles' starting lineup by Bulls, Levin, Thomas Caso and Joe Vidmar, all members of the Bays U-17 team while Marquez Fernandez, Mamadou Kansaye and Julian Griggs are three of seven members of the Bays U-14 national champs in the McDonogh program.

But the Eagles don't have a monopoly on talent. Christian Barreiro, Mike Gill, Eddie Tejada and Chris Williams return for coach Andy Moore at Calvert Hall, which won back-to-back conference titles in 2002 and 2003, while Steve LeVine of Loyola Blakefield returns for new coach Lee Tschantret. Mount St. Joe, which shared the crown with Loyola two years ago, features an experienced squad led by coach Mike St. Martin.

Who Will Be the Next Matt Centrowitz?

Comparing any current area distance runner to the just-graduated Broadneck running machine is certainly not fair. Centrowitz is now a freshman at the University of Oregon, a three-time state champ in cross country and the state record holder in the 1,600 meters in track and field. This year's cross country season is wide open, both at public and private school levels.

Spalding's Rob Wetzel, now running at the University of Texas, Loyola's Gregg Jubb and Ryan Stasiowski, Curley's Erik Anderson and Park's Anders Hulleberg formed one of the most competitive groups in MIAA A Conference in history. Replacing them will be difficult though Tony Rowe and Chris Sisko return for Calvert Hall, Joe Orsulak Jr. (son of former Oriole Joe Orsulak) is back for Loyola while Grisha Iventichev of Friends is back and the B Conference is a serious contender to win a championship.

Liya Kasimova returns to Severna Park. She finished fourth in the Class 3A state meet and gives the Falcons a legitimate chance to win this year's team championship, as does Arthur Leathers at Francis Scott Key in Union Bridge. Leathers finished second in last year's Class 2A state final and led the Eagles to a second-place finish in the team race.
Will the Eagles and Falcons Fly Again?

Severna Park field hockey. Centennial volleyball. Together, the two schools have combined for 29 state championships and are once again the teams to beat in their respective sports.

Centennial lost coach Jerry Hulla and almost its entire starting lineup, including Michelle Grasso and Tehya Mockapetris, but bring back Liana Farb, Jackie Hawkins and Molly Speicher and are gunning for a fourth straight Class 3A state title. Jerry Schofield is the new coach at Centennial while Lil Shelton returns for her 28th year at Severna Park (which moves from Class 3A to 4A this year) and will be gunning for her 17th state field hockey championship. Alison Behringer and Hayley Rausch will lead this year's squad.

Fallston finished 16-2 last year and will be gunning for its 10th state field hockey title while Peyton Hawkins returns for Bryn Mawr, which won the IAAM A Conference championship.

St. Paul's and Spalding could battle for this year's crown. Kelly Galligan leads a Spalding team which won the conference last year while Jillian Unitas and Bailey Webster return for St. Paul's, which finished 20-4 a year ago.

Issue 2.36: September 6, 2007