We may be seeing our last winner-take-all county championship games. This is the third year most of our sports have used that method to determine the county champion. With the exception of cross country, football, golf, track and wrestling, which use a different system, the idea has been to have the top two teams in the county standings play for the county title. For the most part, the games have been exciting, but upsets have occurred leaving a previously undefeated team, for example, unable to say it is the county champ.

Mike Williams, the county coordinator of athletics, and Greg LeGrand, his counterpart in Anne Arundel County, may have come up with a solution -- a district champion. Howard and Anne Arundel comprise District V, one of nine districts in the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association.

The district champion was first proposed in 2006. It was shot down for a number of reasons, possibly including resistance to change, but maybe the time is ripe to give it a second thought.

I talked to Mike last week and he felt that the district championship would be good for the kids by providing strong competition in preparation for post-season play. A district championship would be played between the end of the regular season and the beginning of the playoffs.

One of the drawbacks is the disparity between the size of the schools in the two counties. Every two years schools are classified by enrollment, with 4A being the largest. This year Anne Arundel has eight 4A, three 3A and just one 2A school. We currently have six 3A, five 2A and one 1A schools.

I know it's about the size of the fight in the dog, but would our schools be at a disadvantage?

Mike said the new proposal will be on the agenda at an ad hoc District V committee meeting early next year. If that group gives thumbs up, the proposal will wend its way through the normal procedural steps to insure that it is the best program for the athletes involved, that it meets all legal requirements and that it enhances the interscholastic sports program.

Long Reach grad works for Rays, too

Last week, I mentioned Mt. Hebron graduate Andy Freed is part of the Tampa Bay Rays broadcast team. I've since learned that Long Reach graduate Jeffrey Cederbaum has been the video coordinator for the Rays for the past three years. He produces team videos and plays a key role in the game-day production at Tropicana Field.

Jeffrey earned a degree in video communications at Ohio University. He joined the Rays after graduating in 2005.

He visits Long Reach when he is in town and he has had Rays manager Joe Maddon do a short video of encouragement for the Long Reach baseball team.

Local man chosen for national youth football committee

USA Football has selected Mike Milani to its Youth Football Administrators Advisory Committee. Eight were chosen. Mike, a sports division manager within the county's recreation and parks department, is also co-president of the Mid Maryland Youth Football and Cheer, a league that has 282 teams and more than 6,500 participants. USA Football is the national governing body for youth and amateur football.

---

user comments (1)

user hsparentfan says...

Before the County proposes the idea of a District Championship it should push for a change in the way the Regional Championships are conducted. e.g. in Girls Soccer the 2A South Region includes 5 Howard County Schools. Based on their records only four teams are seeded. The inequity occurs by selecting the four "top teams" based on County play and then "seeding" the rest by a draw. The result is Howard County teams are underrepresented in the State Championships because they knock each other out or like this year teams at the bottom of the county standings play "top" teams from other Counties that frankly don't have competitive teams. Looking at the blowouts in this year tournament reflect this reality. Somehow a better system of comparing Counties must be developed to allow Howard county teams the chances that other Counties have year after year.

Posted 9:52 PM, 10.30.08 | Permalink