Chanelle Downing played mostly power forward and center her first two seasons at Coppin State, a Division I school in Baltimore.

FREDERICKSBURG — The Fredericksburg Area Youth Football League’s 36 head coaches have enrolled into USA Football’s Certified Coaching Education Program.

A free lacrosse clinic for beginner boys and girls will be held at Stafford High School Feb. 28 and March 1, 10:30 a.m. to noon.

It took a medical scare for Damian Rodino to start swimming on a competitive level. And the George Mason University senior from Stafford has made the most of that opportunity.

STAFFORD — Four Brooke Point High School field hockey players signed letters of intent on Feb. 6 to play at their colleges of choice.

HARRISONBURG — Heather Lambert and Brittany Wilhelm competed against each other in high school as top track athletes in Stafford County. Now the two not only are freshmen teammates but also roommates at James Madison University in Harrisonburg.

STAFFORD — Joe Pantaleo admits that he loves Goldfish crackers, a small, orange snack that has little nutritional value. Pantaleo, a freshman wrestler at Liberty University in Lynchburg, also admits it can be a challenge to make weight at 125 pounds.

STAFFORD — While some may dream of making it big by being scoped out by a big-name college, North Stafford High School senior Reynaldo Radlin, ran quite literally headfirst toward the opportunity.

ARLINGTON — The Washington Capitals and the American Red Cross will host a blood drive on Feb. 28 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

TAMPA — So how do you get a hyperbaric chamber into your hotel room? Hines Ward laughed. “How do you do it? You move some tables out of the way and tell the hotel to pick up some tables and just lay it right beside my bed,” the Steelers’ all-time leading receiver said Tuesday.

TAMPA — Have we got a story for you. Larry Fitzgerald has covered 28 Super Bowls as a journalist but had never been at a Media Day like Tuesday, and not because there was a Spanish TV guy wearing a red gown.

Ken Reightler is a retired astronaut who flew into outer space in 1991 and again in 1998. He is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and the uncle to Kelly Reightler, a 2008 graduate of North Stafford High School and a freshman swimmer at Navy.

Thomas Lacey was an all-conference wrestler as a junior and senior at North Stafford High School. He finished second in the state at 145 pounds as a senior and was an all-Met selection by The Washington Post.

STAFFORD — Four Stafford County high school gymnastics teams competed Jan. 10 at the Glory Days Grill/Park View High School invitational gymnastics meet.

Colonial Forge High School graduate Jerry Neufang is getting ready for his second baseball season at a junior college in Florida.

TAMPA — The Titans, Panthers, Giants and Steelers hope that coveted first-round playoff bye lives up to its reputation this weekend.

The Commonwealth Soccer League will be participating in a special indoor exhibition game with the FC Fredericksburg Generals — the defending Premier Arena Soccer League Mid-Atlantic Division Champions — on Jan. 17 at 8 p.m. at Fredericksburg Field House.

The University of Georgia baseball team was runner-up in the College World Series in 2008. And despite the loss of several top players to the pro ranks, the Bulldogs are ranked fourth in the country in at least one pre-season poll with the start of the 2009 season just weeks away.

It’s time to hand out the hardware for a 2008 NFL season marked by suspension, dissension, controversial officiating, key injuries and a flood of terrific performances.

Garrett Marin visited Niagara in New York but decided against going north to play college baseball. He took part in a showcase at Coastal Carolina, in the warm-weather South, but did not pitch as well as he had hoped.

ASHBURN — Jim Zorn addresses the media each Monday in an area about the size of a living room. He is given a podium and a Redskins background to create the appearance of a massive auditorium, though his left arm could grab a soda from the Coke machine right next to him.

STAFFORD — The Division III University of Mary Washington women’s swimming team won its first four meets of this season and one of the reasons is a strong freshman class, according to second-year head coach Matt Sellman.

WOODBRIDGE — So the Washington Redskins finally got a home win, ending a couple of dreadful streaks — three straight overall, three straight at home.

WOODBRIDGE — Potomac Nationals baseball is offering a Holiday Four-Pack, which includes two tickets to Opening Day on April 17 against the Myrtle Beach Pelicans and vouchers to any other three games of choice excluding the Fourth of July and playoffs.

Kevin Ives and Bruce Crawford both played football at North Stafford High School for coach Tap Pace.

Jackson Brown had a hit song a few years ago entitled “Runnin On Empty”. I don’t know if Mountain View High School senior Thomas Porter was running on empty last Saturday when he competed at the Foot Locker Nationals in San Diego.

You will not find too many college basketball players who are co-captains as a sophomore. But Christopher Newport University has two of them and one is Jessica Moore of Stafford.

The winter sports season has begun for some Stafford County schools.

Chris Darnell, a North Stafford High School graduate, cannot remember a time when he was not playing basketball. He started off with hoops when the family lived in the Park Ridge neighborhood of Stafford and continued when they moved to Windsor Forest, which he still calls home.

LANDOVER, Md. — Jim Zorn’s sunny outlook remained, even in the wake of Sunday’s 23-7 loss to the division-leading New York Giants. Zorn’s Redskins could only sporadically move the ball and only occasionally prevent the Giants from moving.