SPORTS
Roosevelt pitcher, Crossland coach lead All-Gazette softball team. B-3
PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNT Y
www.gazette.net | Thursday, June 18, 2015 | Page B-1
Touch of worry for coaches
Sadness, but not for ourselves I wrote my first newspaper article in the spring of 1974 as a 12-year-old who was finishing up the seventh grade. It’s impossible to know now, but this very well could be my last newspaper article. One of our junior high teachers proposed doing a “newspaper” to KEN SAIN mark the end SPORTS EDITOR of the school year. I volunteered because I enjoyed writing and it was a great time for journalism with the aftermath of the Washington Post’s Watergate investigations. It was only a few months away from the finest moment in American journalism history, two newspaper reporters forcing a corrupt president to resign. My first story wasn’t so grand as I was tasked with asking all the seventh- and eighth-grade teachers if they believed in UFOs. As I recall, the science teachers said maybe, the others said no. On Friday we were told that this newspaper is the final Gazette and our offices are closing, costing about 70 people their jobs. Yes, that is sad news but as I have considered it over the past few days, I realized I’m not sad for us at The Gazette. This is my fourth time being unexpectedly unemployed — a condition many print journalists have faced during the digital age. I’ll be fine. I do not worry for the other great people in our office. They are talented and dedicated and while I’m sure it’s scary for those who are facing this for the first time, I believe they’ll find new jobs — albeit after some leave the profession they love. Who I do worry for is you, dear reader. One of my favorite emails during my Gazette tenure came from a coach telling me how a feature we did on a girls basketball player helped her get some attention from colleges after months of no one noticing. A baseball coach contacted me this weekend, upset that we won’t be able to run our All-Gazette team. He said it’s a shame those players won’t get the recognition they earned. Yes, it is. It’s unlikely reporters will be sitting in future council meetings as the people you elected decide what to do with your tax dollars. The long, sad history of government corruption tells us that is a very bad idea. There will be no more stories listing the kids who made honor roll at the local school. Your bumper sticker will have to suffice. I’m trying to see how this ends, and I don’t see it ending well. When I was an assistant sports editor at the Cincinnati Enquirer, our NFL beat reporter resigned to go to work for Bengals. com. He was basically doing the same job, covering the team, only the name on his paycheck had changed. Instead of working for an independent media company, he worked for the organization he covered. No one should have to tell you how terrible an idea that is. Is that the future for journalism, where the sources provide the coverage directly with no third party to check facts and make sure all sides are fairly represented? That’s a pretty bleak outlook for someone who entered this noble profession. Since the announcement on Friday I have received scores of well wishes and expressions of sympathy. I truly appreciate the support and it makes me happy that so many people say they appreciated our work. This is a sad day, but my sadness is not for myself nor my co-workers. We’ll be fine. I’m sad for you, because you’re losing something that will probably not be replaced. ksain@gazette.net
Players suffering major injuries have some wondering if it’s worth it n
BY
ERIC GOLDWEIN STAFF WRITER
PHOTOS BY BILL RYAN/THE GAZETTE
Largo High School receiver Cody Wilburn runs for a touchdown during Saturday’s 7-on-7 football game at Surrattsville High School.
Lions ready to leap Receiver helping Largo win during a strong summer passing league
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BY
ERIC GOLDWEIN STAFF WRITER
Cody Wilburn didn’t know much about the Largo High School football team when he transferred midseason from Riverdale Baptist last fall, he said. What he did know, though, wasn’t promising. “I heard that their record wasn’t good,” Wilburn said. Now entering his first full season with the Lions, the rising junior receiver said he’s hoping he can help them shed their losing reputation. Last season, the team played competitively against a tough schedule en route to a second consecutive 3-7 campaign. This fall, the goal is to have a winning season. “I think that’s a challenge,” Wilburn said, “but I think if the team works together we can make the playoffs and become a better team.” Wilburn made an immediate impact on offense last season. The 6-foot playmaker was a threat both short and long, and was named an All-Gazette honorable mention despite missing half of Largo’s games.
Largo High School quarterback Anthony Nelson throws during Saturday’s 7-on-7 football game at Surrattsville High School. “I could say with confidence, that I feel like he’s the best wide receiver in Prince George’s County,” third-year coach Derron Thomas said. “It’s his size, speed, he catches the ball well. A natural route runner. I’m expecting him to do great things the next two years.”
Heading into this season, Wilburn will have had a full spring and summer to work with his Largo teammates. His familiarity with the offense has been on display in 7-on-7 competitions, as he helped the Lions earn a top-four
See LIONS, Page B-4
Seven-on-seven summer passing league games and tournaments give high school football teams a chance to fine tune their offenses and perfect their timing in a two-hand touch setting. The competitions are a watered down version of the collision sport that’ll be played in the fall. But as games become more competitive — and as some allege, more physical — coaches have started to question whether they’re worth playing. “It’s organized backyard football. It’s a lot of fun. It really is,” Whitman coach Jim Kuhn said. “Until you have a kid that gets injured. Then it’s not so much fun anymore.” The perceived injury risks associated with 7-on-7 have some local teams cutting down on tournaments and one team, Whitman, that stopped participating altogether. Kuhn said he pulled the Vikings out of the Upper Montgomery County League after one of their players, Sam Anderson, suffered a compound fracture. While it was a fluke play resulting from incidental contact, Kuhn said it was the third time in the past four years that the Bethesda school had a player suffer a significant injury in 7-on-7. “Watching him roll around the field for 20 minutes while the ambulance got there was pretty difficult,” Kuhn said. “... We just decided that the benefits did not outweigh the possible consequence of having kids injured.” The exact injury risk associated with 7-on-7 is unclear. Some coaches, such as Wise’s DaLawn Parrish, said that the rise in tournament participation, along with the added focus on players safety, have resulted in a perceived injury increase, rather than an actual injury increase. While Parrish said there are injuries in 7-on-7 — prior to the 2012, one of Wise’s key players, Chaudlier Shepherd, broke his kneecap — it’s no more dangerous than other sports such as basketball and soccer. “It only gets physical when you have a tournament with teams that are used to playing each other like rivalry,” Parrish said. “... To me, it’s not more physical.” But other coaches, such as
See WORRY, Page B-4
Roosevelt senior among seven county Big 33 players County represented in football all-star game vs. Pennsylvania
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ERIC GOLDWEIN STAFF WRITER
Eleanor Roosevelt High School graduate Quinlen Dean played his first varsity football games at William J. Brennan in San Antonio. There, in Texas, it was so competitive that the then-sophomore went up against a 6-9 offensive lineman in the state semifinals, he said. “Man, you have no idea. Down in Texas, it’s God first, then it’s football,” Dean said. “It was so crazy that our games were never at our high school. We played at the Alamodome.” Dean, whose father is in the military, transferred to Portage Northern (Mich.) as a junior and then to Roosevelt as a senior, helping the Greenbelt school go undefeated in the regular season and finish with a 11-1 record. Dean said the competition in Maryland wasn’t as strong as it was in Texas, but he’ll get to show that the area is still home to some of the nation’s best football players when he
BIG 33 FOOTBALL CLASSIC Here are the Prince George’s County players scheduled to play in Saturday’s Big 33 Football Classic in Hershey, Pa.: n Obadiah Bennett, OL, Wise n Quinlen Dean, DE, Roosevelt n Amir Fenwick, DL, Douglass n Quinton Jordan, DB, Douglass n DeAndre Kelly, DE, DeMatha n Rashad Manning, DL, Riverdale Baptist n Tommar Phillips, LB, DuVal
competes in the 58th Big 33 Football Classic, between Maryland and Pennsylvania, scheduled for 7 p.m. Saturday in Hershey Park, Pa. “This game is going to give me the opportunity to play against someone just as good or even better than me, and really challenge me
See BIG 33, Page B-4
2014 FILE PHOTO
Eleanor Roosevelt High School’s Quinlen Dean (left) chases down Gwynn Park running back Gregory Young during a football game last season.