The Starting Five

Here is a note on Clayton Anders … I know he would not make anything of it himself.
With Boonsboro’s victory over Smithsburg last Friday, Anders reached a personal victory plateau. It was his 150th victory as Boonsboro’s head football coach, where he took over in 1985.
To date, his career record is now 150-112.
I believe he may be the second winningest coach all-time in Washington County. At the top of the list would be Coach Carroll Reid.
Congratulations Coach Anders !

Greg Kellick has resigned his position as head coach of the South Hagerstown football team.
In the time that I have been in Hagerstown, I have always enjoyed talking with Kellick about football and anything else that came into discussion. It was no surprise, after a dismal 2009 season in which the Rebels were expected to be much improved, Kellick tendered his resignation following Friday’s brutal 44-0 loss to North Hagerstown.
Kellick has been a Rebel for life. He has lived and died South High football for the majority of his coaching career.
As we usually do on a Tuesday, we taped our upcoming segment of Inside Sports (Week 11) and I would suggest that you tune in Thursday night at 7 p.m. At the conclusion in our “Overtime” segment, sports editor Mark Keller hits in right on the head with his comments about the situation at South. I won’t say anymore, you will just need to watch and listen. And for those of you that are South followers, I would especially suggest you tune in and remember, if the shoe fits, wear it.
Whether Kellick coaches again or elects not to, I don’t know. I think he’s still got something to offer. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens at South with the selection process. It must be thorough, but yet it can’t take forever.

It was a one-sided performance on Friday night at Mike Callas Stadium.
North Hagerstown continued its recent mastery over South Hagerstown with its seventh straight win in the series, 44-0.
After two years in which the Hagerstown Gridiron Classic game was truly a classic to the end, North went back to what it had done in the four previous wins in the streak — dominate.
It was the fourth shutout in the streak and matched the 2006 victory of 44-0, the largest margin ever in the series and the Hubs now hold a 28-24-1 lead.
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High School — Well, it’s Rivalry Week as Week 10 of the prep football season is here. Can’t believe it. We’ll have our preview sories during the week in print and online. Was at North Hagerstown for some quotes and on the way back saw some lights on at St. Maria Goretti’s Gael Center. Stopped in and there were the Gaels in their season-opening practice session. Yep, it won’t be long for hoops action.
It starts Nov. 23-24 with the Lions Classic at Broadfording Christian Academy for both the boys and girls. The first-night matchups are the same for the boys and girls — St. Maria Goretti plays Faith Christian and Saint James plays Broadfording. It all starts at 3:30 with the first girls game. And then there is the MAIT at Goretti on Nov. 27-28. The first night, a loaded Good Counsel faces Benedictine (Richmond, Va.) and will be followed by the Goretti-John Carroll game.

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Don’t know if anyone saw this one from this past weekend. In West Virginia, Parkersburg South and Wheeling Park had a long battle that went 2 overtimes with plenty of scoring. What a night for the players, coaches, fans and scorekeepers.
The Game 77-71

I am in a state of shock right now over the developments up north in Cleveland around by beloved Indians.
The Tribe has hired Manny Acta as their new field manager with a three-year contract and option for a fourth. Here is a guy that went 16-62 before he was finally canned after 2 1/2 years managing the Washington Natinals (intended). Something like 94 games below .500 on his record and suddenly he is the Indians new manager.
And even more, it came down to a bidding war with the Houston Astros.
Acta must have interview well with the Indians brass and said all the right things to general manager Mark Shapiro — YES, YES, YES. Everything Shapiro likes to hear, just like Eric Wedge.
The newspaper and online stories already today are reporting Acta says he is a “common sense” manager. The fans already are in an uproar. The ownership just can’t get it right — Shapiro should have been gone at the same time Wedge was fired and then everything could start over from square one — not just with Acta.
He couldn’t become a successful manager in Washington. What makes anyone think he will be one in Cleveland? If he is eventually the second coming of Mike Hargrove, or Lou Boudreau, then I’ll admit my sarcasm and disgust on this hiring was out of line.

And by the way, Wednesday night is the World Series opener and who are the starting pitchers? Cliff Lee for the Phillies and CC Sabathia for the Yankees…. MMM … former Cleveland pitchers.

And I can’t believe Tony LaRussa has hired Mark McGwire as a hitting coach. Without steroids, can he really teach someone how to hit, or just give them some pointers on how to not strike out as much?

Chris Bushey’s goal as he completed his front nine today at the Maryland state golf tournament was to end higher than his 8th place finish from a year ago.
Bushey was 3-over par through his first nine holes today at Potomac Ridge.
Co-leaders Alex Hoffman, of Middletown and Bart George, of Broadneck, were in a battle thru the first 9 with Hoffman holding a 1-stroke advantange, going 1-under on his front 9.

Only four Washington County golfers qualified for the second round of the Maryland state tournament which concludes with the second round on Wednesday.
Smithsburg’s Chris Bushey and A.J. Minnich, North Hagerstown’s Aaron Staley and Williamsport’s Zach Weber all made the cut.
Bushey had the third-best score on Tuesday with his 6-over par-79, but that leaves him 5 strokes behind the co-leaders. Bart George, of Broadneck, shot his 74 on Monday in the 4A/3A portion and Middletown’s Alex Hoffman shot a 74 on Tuesday.
Others ahead of Bushey are Linganore freshman Ryan Cole (76), Andrew Yakubik of Damascus and Ryan Triller of North Harford (77) and Randy Callahan of C.M. Wright (78).
It’s not unheard of to come from 5 strokes behind… We’ll have to wait and see what happens.
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The weather was fabulous on Tuesday and the forecast for Wednesday is for more of the same — a sunny sky, gentle breeze and temps that will top out at 70 as the players move thru the middle part of their round.
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As Smithsburg coach Dan Neff said in our golf preview, the Leopards needed to get scoring from the No. 3 and 4 players in order to contend for a team title, but it didn’t happen. Matt Snowden shot 113 and Kyle Huntzberry a 102. It was the first state competition for Huntzberry as a freshman and he figures to do in the future what A.J. Minnich did.
Last year, Minnich shot a 100 in his first state showing and shaved 17 strokes off that number on Tuesday to qualify. My guess is Huntzberry will plug along at the game and do the same.
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There is no official word yet on the state tournament returning to The University of Maryland next year. It has been held at Potomac Ridge here in Waldorf the past two seasons while the Terps’ course has undergone rennovations.
There is also a discussion on several adjustments being made to the qualifying procedures and possibly a change of the district date and addition of a regional. In this case, it would likely get my endorsement. Changes need to be made.

Andrea Grier is having some success at Marshall University on the golf course.

Here is her latest ……Andrea Grier
Grier, a redshirt senior, had her second top 10 finish on the year. In the same tournament were two freshmen from the area.
Smithsburg’s Haeun Lee and Mercersburg Academy’s Caroline Lovette were in the tournament.
Lee shot 159 for two rounds to help her Longwood University team to a second-place finish. Maybe she has changed her first name. According to the university website, she now goes by ‘Ha’.
Lovette is at the University of Richmond and was the medalist with a 2-over par 146.

Grrr and Brrr!!! It was a beautiful morning for golf on Tuesday at Beaver Creek Country Club (yeah right).

Today was the first round of our 36-hole MISGA Senior championship and it didn’t take long for me to shoot myself right out of contention, and on a morning when I actually hit the ball darned well off the tee (as opposed to some other rounds). Problem was, it was the rest of the game that was in shambles.

Couldn’t chip, couldn’t putt … I’ll have nightmares over No. 7 after being in the greenside bunker in two and finishing with a (you fill in the blank). Yep, it was that bad!

But I have a legitimate excuse and it is one I am actually going to stick with (haha). It’s not too much fun with a sore right elbow that has been treated for a bursa sac and you are taking antibiotics. That’s my reasoning for a lackluster short game that left me scurrying all around the greens on Tuesday.

When you hit drives that leave your second shot anywhere from 50 to 80 yards for an approach and you can’t figure out how to get birdies, then it’s time to re-tool. Can I have a new golf body????

There are 18 more holes of golf left in this tournament. I swear, I am better off sticking to the notepad these days when it comes to golf.