The first thing that came to mind a couple of weeks back when I attended the opening of the new Meadowbrook Athletic Complex was how lucky we are in Howard County to have such excellent sports facilities.

I thought back to my days as a teenager when right field in my baseball park was a cemetery and if you pulled the ball past third base, it disappeared down a manhole.

While we didn't have the great facilities that we play on in Howard County today, we did respect what we had. We made sure that the gyms and the diamonds and the football and soccer fields were maintained to the best of our ability.

We didn't have to be told to clean up any mess that we made. We did it instinctively. After all, it's all that we had.

We didn't groan about the lack of fields like we hear now. We didn't have all those reports that urge our leaders to build more fields just to keep up with population growth. We simply were told we had to make the best of what we had and we did.

When I was growing up, there weren't dog parks like the beautiful park that we have off New Cut Road. When it rains, we shouldn't add to the muddy conditions by insisting that the dog park remain open as some do just because they paid $40 for the right to use that park.

Wow! $40 for an entire year and you feel cheated because the dog park is closed because of weather? They carp that they want in regardless of the conditions. That makes no sense to me. I say when it rains, we should stay away and give the ground a chance to dry.

We need to use good common sense when it comes to using our facilities.

Ravens Roost 4 fabulous at 50

I want to pass on my congratulations to the members of the Ravens Roost 4 who have steadfastly rooted for all Baltimore professional football teams since 1959 making this year their 50th anniversary.

The Roost is now based at Jilly's in Ellicott City. Rather than disband when the Colts left for Indianapolis in 1984, the Roost continued to support the Stallions of the Canadian Football League and the Stars of the United States Football League before the Ravens came to town from Cleveland in 1996.

The support for professional football is definitely here if only the Ravens could start playing like we expected them to play during the pre season.

Massarelli excels at Salisbury

Nicole Massarelli, of Clarksville, recently completed her collegiate volleyball career at Salisbury University. A four-year starter and senior team captain, Nicole, a 2006 Atholton graduate, played middle blocker for the most prolific volleyball class in Salisbury history.

The team compiled an overall 118-31 record including a nation-leading 36 match win streak (2008), 24 consecutive Capital Athletic Conference victories, three consecutive CAC championships, and three trips to the NCAA Division III tournament, highlighted by reaching the Sweet 16 in 2009.

For her career, Nicole was second in overall offense (kills, blocks, service aces). She holds the career record for blocks (493), is sixth all-time in kills (1132), and eighth overall in service aces (168). With 147 blocks this season Nicole was ranked 16th in the nation.

Over four years, she was selected to six all-tournament teams, but the one team that she made that impresses me the most is the 2009 ESPN Magazine's Academic All-District first team. Nicole, a mathematics major, has a 3.97 grade-point average.

user comments (1)

user belovedcartoonmouse says...

Grass soccer fields in Howard County are terrible due to overuse from other sports, random usage and lack of priority. I refuse to feel thankful for the joke that is grass soccer fields at most County facilities, especially Centennial Lane.

Posted 8:10 PM, 12.29.09 | Permalink