THE GAZETTE
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LARGO
combination of runners in Taylor McKinney, Chyna Sequeira and Zari Weaver. Elsewhere, Frederick Douglass’ Kayla Wright, Bishop McNamara’s Samantha Bowie, Elizabeth Seton’s Courtney Bishop, Roosevelt’s Elise Allen and Flowers’ Imani Matthews all should deliver strong seasons. In addition to Largo, Hamilton said Flowers, Bowie and Roosevelt all are right there — if not ahead of — the Lions in the chase for a county championship. On the boys’ side, Bowie’s team is hoping to three-peat this year by winning another county championship and 4A South Region title. Bulldogs coach Rich Andrulonis returns arguably the best
Continued from Page B-7 your kids coming back. Every year you should be improving.” Largo’s still young, too, as the Lions return six of seven runners from last season, including Cayla Coleman, Devonni Farrar, Majesty Nworkorie and Jaya Shelby. Dominique Devonish and Bria Jones round things out as the group’s lone seniors. “We’ve got a long way to go,” Hamilton said. “But we should be fine.” Overall, the county lost its top girls’ distance runner from last season as Bowie High’s Charde Barnes graduated. Stepping in to fill her shoes is a
GOLF
Bryan Morris, Oxon Hill’s Demarkis Cooper, Suitland’s Jahmar Seltzer — are back as the county’s individual front runners while a few others, mostly from Roosevelt and Oxon Hill, aren’t too far off the mark. “That’s the goal. My players have a lot of competition,” Bradbury said. “I love it. It’s great. Those five, six, seven top-tier players need that competition. ... I’m looking for those first two foursomes to go out there and not just play golf, but play golf against each other. There’s nothing worse than going out there and being the only one playing against the golf course.” Roosevelt’s Morris returns for his senior year as the prohibitive favorite after sweeping the final three regular season tournaments, the county and district titles, and then backing all that up with the county’s low round at the state tournament. Now, after working with a swing coach over the summer, “he’s at the point where
Continued from Page B-7 with football. Goree opened fall practice as No. 1 on Maryland depth chart at inside linebacker, and he doesn’t plan to lose his spot. “He knows that’s his position,” inside linebackers coach Keith Dudzinski said. “He’s playing with a lot more confidence. “I’m hoping I see a lot of big things out of him.”
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n Eleanor Roosevelt Raiders: Andrew Hung, Ishmail Jabbie, Lance Jewell, Bryan Morris n Oxon Hill Clippers: Demarkis Cooper n Suitland Rams: Jahmar Seltzer
he’s got to trust his swing a little more and just manage the golf course,” Bradbury said. Morris said he played just about every day over the summer, mostly at the University of Maryland, College Park, the site of the annual state tournament where he was just one of two from the county to make the cut for the second day (Cooper was the other). Though he confirmed he spent some time with a swing coach, he reported the changes to be minimal. “I just kind of stuck with what I have,” he said. “I didn’t want to make too many big changes.” The one big change that every individual has designs on making this season is their per-
Last season, Goree successfully hid his insecurities from Dudzinski after losing a tight preseason battle to eventual starter Demetrius Hartsfield. “L.A. always got himself ready to play each week,” Dudzinski said. “Whenever his name was called, he went in and did a good job.” But beneath the surface, meditating alone didn’t solve all Goree’s issues. He said he relied on support from friends and family in Springdale. Flowers coach Mike Mayo
BILL RYAN/THE GAZETTE
Eleanor Roosevelt High School junior Ishmail Jabbie hits a drive Tuesday at Glenn Dale Golf Course. formance at the state championship. The past two years have been marred by disappointment in some way or other at the season’s final event, whether it be missing the cut or making it and then crumbling in the second round. No county team has taken home the hardware since Bowie in 1986. “The best goal is competing at states,” Cooper said. “I’m
a senior so you always want to finish off your senior year well.” States, however, is not until late October. First things first will be topping one another. “We’re friends,” Cooper said. “But we all want to shoot lower scores, get the bragging rights for the week.”
told Goree to let his character carry him. Goree’s father, Lorne Goree, told his son to remain patient because life is full of ups and downs. Goree often spoke with his dad during games his redshirt year, when didn’t travel and felt particularly down. “Sometimes, you’ve got to wait for your turn,” Goree said. “It was hard for me, realizing that. It was real hard for me realizing that.” Now? “I’m really excited,” Goree
said. “I can’t stop talking, can’t stop dreaming.” No matter what Goree does his final two seasons of eligibility, his first three years at Maryland still shape him. “I got over — I didn’t completely get over it, that I wanted to play so much,” Goree said. “I understand why it happened, and I understand that it made me better in the process. I understand that it was a blessing in disguise.”
BOWIE
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LAWRENCE JOHNSON/BOWIE STATE UNIVERSITY ATHLETICS
Suitland High School graduate (class of 2010) Keith Brown is expected to start at running back for Bowie State University this fall.
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junior Brandon Morris. “These boys are coming along extremely well. I think the boys will be real good,” Andrulonis said. Douglass junior Terrell Green figures to be in the mix once again as one of the county’s top distance runners while Northwestern (Abel Estifanos), Roosevelt (Ryan LaTourneau) and Flowers (Justin Bentham) also should be strong contenders for a championship. The last time a cross country team from Prince George’s County won a state title on the girls’ side was Eleanor Roosevelt in 2006, while a boys’ team from the county hasn’t captured a state title since Bowie in 1984.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
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distance runner in the county in senior Joshua Wilkins. Wilkins only ran indoor and outdoor last season, but plans to participate in the cross country campaign this year, much to the delight of Andrulonis, entering his 31st season. “He’s back, he’s going to be a force in the county and he’s been running distance all summer,” Andrulonis said. “He’s going to be challenging for the top spot in the county every single race and at the invitationals, too.” The Bulldogs lost three of seven starters from last year, but still return a formidable lineup that includes seniors Donnell Davis, Lamario Favron, Justin Hosten, Martell Royal and Dwaine Thomas and
Thursday, August 22, 2013 bo
returns 16 of 22 starters, hopes to improve on last year’s 5-5 mark and secure its first winning season since 2010. To do so, the Bulldogs, who were picked to finished sixth in the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association’s preseason poll, will have to improve on offense. They are expected to have one of the top defenses in the conference. Last fall, the Bulldogs averaged 153.2 rushing yards per game, but completed just 46.9
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percent of their pass attempts. Johnston, who started seven games and appeared in eight last year, completed only 45.9 percent of his attempts. The second-year starting quarterback’s primary receiving target will be 6-foot-4, 235-pound junior tight end Khari Lee, the team’s leading returning receiver (27 catches, 351 yard, 2 TDs). How quickly a plethora of young and inexperienced receivers develop will be key to the unit reaching its potential. Wilson says sophomore receiver Ricardo Smith (Forestville Military Academy), Avery
National Christian starts football program Athletic director helps aggressive coach build slowly; team to play mixed schedule n
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DAN FELDMAN STAFF WRITER
National Christian Academy football coach Chuck Thompson has an unique philosophy for building the program in its first year of existence. Playing a mixed varsity and junior varsity schedule, he scheduled games against the JV teams of DeMatha Catholic High School and Friendship Collegiate Academy, two of the area’s most powerful football programs. “We just want to bring it, a no-fear mentality,” Thompson said. “Every time we step on the field, it’s a battle. We’re going to war — four quarters of war. “With the talent that I have, we’re going to be good year one off the break.” National Christian Athletic Director Trevor Brown had a different approach for putting DeMatha and Friendship Collegiate on the schedule. “I made him take them off,” Brown said. “I don’t want to show up DeMatha and have 17 to 20 kids, and they have 60, and at the end of the game, we have 12 that’s able to play the next game because we’re playing five or six kids both ways the whole the game.” Brown said he doesn’t mind taking a long-term approach while reigning in Thompson for now. The athletic director said he loves having a coach with so much passion. For at least the 13 years he’s been at the school, including four as an athletic director, Brown said National Christian has been discussing adding a football program. He’d spoken with potential coaches and asked for a written proposal of how to get a program off the ground. Typically, that’s where the process ended. Thompson returned the next day with a plan, including contact information for several players he’d coached in youth leagues. That last part was especially important for a school trying to launch a football team despite a high school enrollment
Griffin, and Jamal Chappell will be relied on to produce. “Khari is such a big part for us,” said Johnston, who added he is much more confident in himself and his knowledge of the offense this fall. “Nine times out of 10 he’s going to win, get open and catch the ball. ... I’m going to rely on Khari a lot while we get our young receivers get going.” Brown, who missed two games last year due to a strained lateral collateral ligament and was never at full strength due to a nagging ankle sprain suffered during preseason practice,
which Brown estimated to be about 100 students. Thompson said his team had 22 players, just three of whom were at National Christian last year. He attended Eleanor Roosevelt High School and Barber–Scotia College (N.C.), where he played basketball. He also played professional indoor football and served as St. Vincent Pallotti High School’s recruiting coordinator and JV coach. Brown hopes the team will draw even more students, citing not only future players, but their siblings and the exposure football brings. “Every private school is always trying to increase enrollment,” Brown said. “Private schools are in business. That’s what keeps them in business is their enrollment, so I think every small private school would try to find some kind of way to increase their enrollment.” National Christian has a nine-game schedule comprised of five varsity opponents and four junior-varsity opponents, including a Sept. 7 contest against Northwestern High School. National Christian is a Maryland Public Secondary Schools approved non-member school. “Eventually, down the road, I’m not trying to compete with the DeMathas and the Gonzagas, the Good Counsels,” Brown said. “Those are well-established football programs that will be going on forever. But I would like to play maybe a level below that, the same level Riverdale is playing at, where we can play public schools and compete with them and maybe beat them eventually and private schools of our size.” National Christian has become renowned for its boys basketball team, which Brown coaches. “The model that they have for basketball, I’m going to use that same philosophy for football,” Thompson said. “Get the kids a great education and get them to college, that’s all I’m concerned with. I could care less about the wins and losses. My thing is get these kids into college and get them looks and get them prepared in life. “We’re going to make some noise. That’s our goal, put National Christian Academy on the map as a football powerhouse also.” dfeldman@gazette.net
is the team’s leading returning rusher (591 yards, 6 TDs). He will be joined in the backfield — the strongest position group on BSU’s offense — with redshirt junior Kendall Jefferson and junior Delaware State transfer Kayvone Spriggs. “There’s no I in team and I haven’t proved anything, but with myself and Kendall being injured, I felt like I let my team down last year by being hurt,” Brown said. “I just pray that I will be at 85 or 90 percent the whole year — you are never 100 percent — not 65 percent like I was last year.” A veteran offensive line — four of the five expected starters are seniors — also has Wilson excited about the offense’s potential under first-year coordinator Moses Ware. “We will be as good as the line is going to be,” Johnston said. “It’s all about the line. “The goal is to win a championship and being the quarterback and doing that, that means I’m doing something good.” Senior safety Delante White (2012 All-CIAA second team), Young (2012 All-CIAA second team), Pumphrey and defensive end Oladimeji Layeni (DuVal, 2012 All-CIAA second team) are expected to lead the defense. “We have the potential to go undefeated,” Brown said. “But we have to stay healthy, execute and click. The defense is going to do their part by holding opponents to seven, 14, no more than 21 points. Offensively, we practice against one of the best defenses every day, we just got to get it done in games.” Bowie State opens the season Sept. 7 at St. Anselm College in New Hampshire. General admission season tickets and parking passes are available for $70 and $50 for senior citizens/ students. For more information go to www.bsubulldogs.com. kzakour@gazette.net