8/3/2019 High School Football Sports Cover

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Navy previewSenior defensive end Jabaree Tuani anchors aMids defense that has eight new startersheading into Saturday’s season opener PG 10

SportsTHE BALTIMORE SUN | THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2011 C

&CLASSIFIEDS

If you want to talk about street and road courses, Penske driverWill Power is the man to start with.

Over his seven-year career, Power has won 14 races — 13 of themon the twisting roads. But the 30-year-old Australian saysdominating the streets isn’t something that comes naturally. It’s a skill he’s been working on for more than three decades.

“It takes about a decade of just doing street races to perfect theskills,” he said. “I grew up doing that. The U.S. is the only place forovals. But it was in the Champ Car

JOSE CARLOS FAJARDO/MCT PHOTO

BALTIMORE GRAND PRIX

BALTIMORE GP

FESTIVAL OF SPEEDWhat: Auto racing

festival, featuring

IndyCar Series

open-wheel race

When: Friday to

Sunday

Where: Downtown

Baltimore

Tickets: Available at

baltimoregrandprix.

com or by calling

Ticketfly at

877-435-9849

Cars, courses and skills are differentfrom ovals, but focus still on winning 

Racing in the streets,little margin for error

By Sandra McKee | The Baltimore Sun

 See STREETS, page 11

Will Power, right, and teammate Ryan Briscoe celebrate Sunday

at the Grand Prix of Sonoma. Four of Power’s five wins this

season are on street or road courses, including at Sonoma.

  ATLANTA — Minutes after Tyrod Taylorthrew the game-winning touchdown pass in lastweek’s preseason win over the WashingtonRedskins, Ravens coach John Harbaugh de-clared that the rookie quarterback had made theteam.

But the question that no one will answer this

week is whether Taylor has won the No. 2quarterback job.

The Ravens’ preseason finale against the Atlanta Falcons tonight is Taylor’s last chance toprove he is ready to be the team’s primary backupto Joe Flacco. Although the starters are expectedto make a cameo at the Georgia Dome, Taylor willreceive most of the work at quarterback, and heunderstands the importance of what many fansconsider a meaningless game.

“I know I have to impress people and peopleare going to be watching me as far as the No. 2  job,” Taylor said. “I continue to learn as a quarterback, but at the same time, I want to be

the person that they need me to be.”Taylor’s battle is a different one because he

isn’t really competing against anyone on theteam. Hunter Cantwell, the only quarterback onthe team other than Flacco and Taylor, was a practice squad player last year.

Taylor’s job is to persuade the Ravens not toacquire a veteran cut by another team thisweekend (perhaps Sage Rosenfels or David Carrfrom the New York Giants or Derek Andersonfrom the Carolina Panthers) or sign an experi-enced free agent (such as Jake Delhomme, ToddBouman or J.P. Losman). Brodie Croyle, who had

Taylor out to clinch No. 2 QB spotRookie out of Virginia Tech

 will need strong effort tonight

By Jamison Hensley

The Baltimore Sun

PRESEASONFINALERAVENS@FALCONSTonight, 7:30

TV: Chs. 11, 7

Radio: 1090 AM,

97.9 FM

INSIDE: Game

rosters, five things to

watch PG 3

 See RAVENS, page 3

If the reports are trueand Andy MacPhailis leaving after this

season, it means the Ori-oles will be going in a 

new direction. Again.I’ve lost track of howmany new directionsthey’ve gone in over thepast 14 seasons. Is it overhalf a dozen yet? Helpme out here.

But the truth is, it’stime for MacPhail to go.

It’s the best move for thisfloundering team. And it’sprobably the best movefor him, too, if he doesn’twant to end up babbling to himself and swatting imaginary flies while try-ing to fix this mess.

For his part, MacPhailisn’t saying one way oranother if he’s leaving. Hedidn’t return my callsWednesday, and neitherdid team owner Peter  Angelos. And MacPhailsaid Tuesday that his situ-ation remains unchanged.But all the signs of animminent departure arethere.

Not once has MacPhailsaid he’d like to be back

next season. Not once has he said anything about a contract extension. And it’s BuckShowalter, the manager, not MacPhail,who’s been meeting regularly with Angelosto talk about the state of the Orioles.

Translation: I’m gone, boys. Good luckwith the rebuilding thing.

If you’re trying to figure out whether this

is good or bad, here’s the bottom line: TheOrioles took a big step backward thisseason, MacPhail’s fourth with the club.

It was MacPhail who said this was the year the team should be judged by wins andlosses, not by which of the young playerswere coming along.

So here it is: The Orioles are 54-80 afterWednesday night’s game against the To-ronto Blue Jays.

They’re headed for their 14th straightlosing season. The young pitchers havefailed to develop. The roster’s been dottedwith players (Mark Worrell, Mitch Atkins,Blake Davis) who have no business playing at the major league level. And in so many games this season, the Orioles have playedsome of the ugliest, most boneheaded baseball you’ll ever see.

 As for the fans, so many of them are bitter

and disenchanted, especially after a seasonthat began with such promise.

 Attendance continues to plummet: TheOrioles rank 26th in the majors. There werefewer than 11,000 fans at Camden Yards on a  beautiful night Tuesday to see the team beat

 Leaving would be step in right direction for MacPhail, O’s

BLUEJAYS@O’SToday,

12:35 p.m.

TV:

MASN HD

Radio:

1090 AM

INSIDE

■Orioles

routed by

Toronto,

13-0 PG 5

■ Reliever

Gonzalez

traded to

Rangers

PG 5

 See COWHERD, page 5

KevinCowherd

When Reggie White was growing up inthe 1980s, he spent his summer daysoutside. When it came time for the firstMilford Mill football practice in August, heand his teammates were in pretty goodshape and felt acclimated to the heat.

Practice was tough, but White wasready for two workouts a day.

“I clearly remember a lot of running and a lot of hitting and going right back atit,” said White, now the football coach athis alma mater, “but the kids I grew upwith, we were outside kids. That has a lot

to do with it. We were used to being 

outside and used to being in the heat, soplaying in it wasn’t anything to us. Nowkids spend more time inside than outsidewith video games and 135 channels of cable.”

Getting their players into shape andaccustomed to the heat are just two

reasons many high school football coachessay they need two practice sessions a day —commonly known as two-a-days — during the early part of preseason.

  And the fact that the NFL recently   banned two-a-days doesn’t mean they need to be eliminated from the high schoolplaybook.

“People forget, what they’re doing at

[the NFL] level is reviewing skills. We areteaching skills,” said Poly coach RogerWrenn, who’s in his 42nd season as a highschool coach. “We’re not reviewing how totackle, we’re teaching how to tackle. We’renot reviewing how to block safely, we’re

Elimination of two-a-day practices in the NFL shouldn’tlead to changes at the prep level, coaches say 

Milford Mill players go through two-a-day drills during practice. Most high schools say they plan to keep the dual workouts.

JOE SORIERO/BALTIMORE SUN PHOTO

DOUBLETROUBLE?

InsidePlayers to watch and polls for

football, soccer, field hockey,

volleyball and cross country PGS 6-9

By Katherine Dunn

The Baltimore Sun

 See TWO-A-DAYS, page 9

VARSITY FALL SPORTS PREVIEW

COMINGFRIDAY A guide to the

inaugural

downtown

event, featuring

race details,

driver bios and

entertainment

options.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL 2011