What's Up Magazines

Athletes Worth Watching
By Pat O'Malley
Photos by Larry French

David Cross
Arundel High School
Soccer and Track

A Coaches' All-County selection as a junior last year, Cross is a team captain on the Wildcats' SUN 11th ranked soccer team and a champion pole-vaulter in track. With the graduation of Justin Kondos (now at Georgetown), Cross has become the Wildcats' go-to player this fall on a club that was 13-3-2 last season. Cross has started for Arundel coach Nick Jauschnegg since his sophomore year, while also maintaining excellence in the classroom. "We lost Justin Kondos but have a lot of returning players, a strong defense, and good depth," said Cross, who was also the Anne Arundel County pole vault champion in the spring and took third place in the states, "It's a very close team that does everything together." Cross, who is also into snowboarding and swimming, has a 3.7 grade-point-average, scored 1,600 on his SAT, and is ranked 40th in his senior class of 530 at the Gambrills school. He is also a volunteer for the Special Olympics. McDaniel College in western Maryland is the school Cross hopes to attend and major in criminal justice. "TV shows got me interested in the FBI and detective work," said Cross. Cross is the son of David and Tammy Cross.

Emily Eckert
Severn School
Soccer

After leading the Admirals to the Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland B Conference Championship with 20 goals and 15 assists as a junior last season, Eckert hopes to close out a brilliant four-year varsity career with an encore. "We had come close calls before, but put it all together last year," said Eckert, "We have enough talent to repeat." Eckert is a well-rounded student/athlete who carries a perfect 4.0 grade-point-average with honors and scored 2,240 on her SAT, while logging a very impressive soccer resume. She began playing soccer at age five, started as a freshman at Severn, and gradually developed through club ball into an All-County forward. Undecided on a college, Eckert is considering Penn, Colgate, American, MIT, and Swarthmore, and plans to major in Economics or International Relations. "I want to get into international business and will go to graduate school for that," said Eckert. In addition to soccer, Eckert is Vice President of her senior class and a member of the National Honor and Spanish Societies, Amnesty International, a participant in the Appalachian Service Project, is a Spirit Captain, and Maryland Distinguished Scholar nominee. Eckert also serves as an intern for the Governor's Grants Office. She is the daughter of Steven and Kim Eckert.

Corinne Manuel
Severna Park High School
Field Hockey

Manual plays guitar in the Blues Project band, is a good student, and is the metro area's premier goalie in field hockey. Manuel, the SUN's All-Metro goalie on last year's Class 3A State Champion (19-1), as a junior, has a knack for big stops in big games and a 90 percent save rate. "She made a great save in the State semifinals that I will never forget, " said the Falcons' legendary coach Lil Shelton, who is a member of the Anne Arundel County Sports Hall of Fame, "It was a stroke that is tough to stop because they flick it with power. Corinne jumped up to keep it from going into the right corner." Manuel, a two-year starter for the record 15-time State Champs, remembers that, "I knew I had to put everything behind the save because strokes are meant to go in. By her body position, I thought she had to be going right and she did and I got a stick on it and got the save." With a 3.0 grade-point-average and 1,750 on her SAT, Manuel expects to play in college, likely at Division-III Dickinson or possibly Christendom where she could play club ball because they don't have varsity field hockey. "They're (Christendom) a Catholic college and I'm very much into my faith," said Manuel, who is a lector at her church. "I want to major in theology and love music and would like to do something with my band, but that takes a lot of hard work," said Manuel, who is the daughter of Paul and Pat Manuel.

Michael Rose
Severna Park High School
Soccer

After a good high school season last year, as a second team All-County choice for sophomore midfielder, Rose carved out a sensational summer. He led the Casa Mia Bays 16-and-under team to the U.S. Youth Soccer Association National Championship in Des Moines, Iowa. Rose, who scored the first goal in a 4-0 win over Georgia in the national final, was named the winner of the prestigious Adidas Golden Boot Award as the Most Valuable Player of the National Tournament. "I was surprised when they called my name for the Golden Boot because it usually goes to the leading scorer," said Rose, whose all around play impressed the voting panel. Rose, whose dad Roger Rose is a Naval Academy graduate, was born in Seattle, WA and has played soccer all over the world, including Israel, because of his dad's 25-year military career. "We lived in a suburb of Tel Aviv from 1998 to 2001 and soccer is the main sport over there and I learned a lot," said Rose, who scored six goals and handed out 12 assists for Severna Park last fall and has been named team captain for this season by coach Bob Thomas. A member of the National Honor Society and the Leadership Institute, and a volunteer for the Special Olympics, Rose has a 3.9 grade-point-average and is ranked 69th in his junior class of over 400 students. He is the son of Roger and Joni Rose.