Published: February 29, 2008 11:17 am         

What a long strange trip it's been

The best part of this job is meeting and working with so many great people, whether it comes through covering sporting events live, taking information for stories over the telephone, or just running into people who are willing to share their two cents with you when it comes to sports.

That's the beauty of covering sports here. Everybody has a favorite sport, everybody has a team, everybody has a school, everybody has a passion, and everybody has an opinion. If I had a nickel for all of the great stories I've heard through the years - and, egad, you've now been stuck with me for 24 years - I'd stop playing the lottery.

Last Monday night, for instance, I took a call here in the office from Jeremy Strother, the boys basketball coach at Calvary Christian Academy. Jeremy is another one of the great people in our area. You're not going to find a nicer guy or a calmer, more low-stated guy, and it's been my pleasure to know him since the days I was covering his exploits when he was a star athlete at Allegany High School.

Calvary Christian Academy is another place where you're going to find a lot of wonderful people. Working with a guy like Rusty Kitzmiller and the great staff at Calvary is a pleasure, and they all make our jobs here so much easier.

Monday night, Coach Strother called the office with a report from his team's final basketball game of the season, as the Eagles fell to Lanham Christian School in the Maryland Christian Schools Tournament. The Eagles had a tough season this year, finishing with a 6-16 record, but when you look at their roster, it's not so hard to understand. Calvary ended the season with a nine-player roster with a combined 10 years of varsity experience, with senior Jordan Peters accounting for three. The only other seniors on the team were Matt Cosner and Marlon Hawkins.

Coach Strother provided me with the details of his team's game as he always does, win or lose.

"The kids played hard," he said. "They've played hard all year, but we committed too many turnovers in the fourth quarter and Lanham took advantage of them."

Before I thought I was about to hang up and let Coach Strother and his team embark on their journey home, I asked, "Was the game played in Lanham?"

"Yes," Jeremy said.

"On Good Luck Road?" I said.

"Yes," he said. "How did you know?"

"I used to live there," I said. "9889 Good Luck Road."

"Really?" he said.

"Sure," I said. "Forest Lake Apartments. Did you play at Washington Bible College?"

"No," Jeremy said. "We played at the school. The college is right there, though."

"They must have built Lanham Christian after I left," I said, continuing to relive the day in telling this kid, who I used to cover when he was a high school player, but who is now a young man and a high school coach, of the various landmarks of my younger days, before remembering my place and sparing him some of the old hotspots ... say, like, the Princes Garden Inn, the place we used to call the Shaw's Cafe of P.G. County?

"The apartment complex I lived in was right across the street from Duval High School," I said. "But they tore the place down, so I don't know what's there now."

"We saw Duval High School," Jeremy said. "Whatever is standing in place of your apartment building, we probably saw it, too. We saw a lot of things ...

"We saw Camden Yards."

"I beg your pardon?" I said. "Camden Yards is in Baltimore. Lanham is south of College Park."

"I know," Jeremy said. "Seems we got some bad directions, and before we knew it, we were circling Ravens Stadium."

"You ended up in Baltimore?"

"Oh, yeah," Jeremy said. "Don't ask me how, but we did. So we stopped when we were able to, got directions and then circled Oriole Park and came right down the road to get here."

"You went south on the B-W Parkway, and came out on Greenbelt Road?" I asked.

"Yeah," Jeremy said. "Took a left there, then took a right on Good Luck, and there we were."

"I've never heard of anything like that," I said.

"I've never experienced anything like that," Jeremy said. "But the kids were good, and we got here, so that's what matters."

(Actually, I told a little fib in saying I had never heard anything like that. I did, after all, end up on I-95 North toward New York one Opening Day in Baltimore, when I took a left off of Conway instead of a right, when I was a mere spitting distance from the B&O Warehouse. But why bore the guy with that?)

"Well, be careful coming home," I said.

"We will," Jeremy said. "We know where we're going now."

I then proceeded to tell Jeremy Strother, the kid I used to cover when he was a high school athlete, but who is now a young man and a high school coach, how much the Times-News sports staff appreciated his reliability in reporting his games all season long.

"I know that can be tough when you have a season like this one," I said. "But better days are ahead."

"It was a tough season," Jeremy admitted, "but the kids were so young. They've gotten a lot of good experience from this, though, and I think they've all learned a lot."

"I have no doubt about that," I said.

"Plus," Coach Jeremy Strother of the Calvary Christian Academy Eagles added, "they got to see Camden Yards."

Contact Mike Burke at mburke@times-news.com.