Selections

This week is always the week I least look forward to each year. I've taken to calling it "Hell Week. " It's the week I gather stats and make the selections for The Herald-Mail All-Area baseball and softball teams. The teams will appear this weekend - softball on Saturday, baseball on Sunday. Gathering the information is simple enough - usually all it takes to get what I need is a handful of phone calls to area coaches. Sifting through and analyzing the information in an attempt to make the best possible decisions is the difficult part.

St. James Brethren Church , St. James, Williamsport Ministerium's Choir Fest will be at 7 p.m. Sunday. Church choirs in the Williamsport Ministerium will sing, in addition to two selections for large mass choir. A free will offering will go to the minsterium's outreach programs.

Hagerstown Community College and Maryland Symphony Orchestra present free Kinder Konzerts at the Valley Mall today. The MSO's woodwind quintet will stage two 30-minute performances in J.C. Penney Court at 9:25 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. The program features short selections from Handel's "Water Music" and Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker Suite" as well as Debussy's "Serenade of the Doll. " Kinder Konzerts, designed especially for young audiences, feature short musical selections and introductions to instruments.

CLARKSBURG, W.Va. - Hedgesville's Ashton Butler, Martinsburg's Dakeea Marshall and Musselman's Nikki Stephenson were honored as West Virginia Class AAA All-State Third Team selections by the West Virginia Sports Writers Association. Butler, a 5-foot-8 senior, averaged 17 points per game; Marshall, a 5-8 sophomore, averaged 13 points; and Stephenson, a 5-9 sophomore, averaged 15 points. Jefferson's Aissa Diehl was an honorable mention.

Wilson Christmas vespers CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - The Rev. Katherine Smanik Moyes, Helen Carnell Eden chaplain at Wilson College, will lead vespers, which feature a selection of music and readings in the spirit of the season. 6:30 p.m. musical prelude; 7 p.m. service. Wilson College's Alumnae Chapel in Thomson Hall, 1015 Philadelphia Ave. The public is invited. Rohresville Cornet Band ROHRERSVILLE - Rohrersville Cornet Band will present its Christmas concert. Selections include "Sleigh Ride" by Leroy Anderson, "A Child is Born" arranged by Elliot Del Borgo; "Shenandoah" by Frank Ticheli and others.

The Hagerstown Municipal Band kicked off its 86th Summer Concert Series with a tribute performance to veterans and the late musician Robert Grab at the Hagerstown City Park band shell Sunday. The evening got started with a Flag Day ceremony presented by the Elks Lodge of Hagerstown, who explained the history of the U.S. flag. Boy Scouts from Troop 2 of the Mason Dixon Council carried various versions of the flag that predate its current design. A crowd of nearly 100 people sat on park benches, or on blankets and chairs, listening to the music, which included such selections as: "Washington Post March," "LaForza Del Destino Overture," "Capitol Dixieland Band," "American Portrait," "TM Blues" and "Long May It Wave.

Lynn Lerew doesn't believe in theme nights. Instead, Lerew, in his 35th season as director of the Hagerstown Municipal Band, selects a variety of musical pieces for each Sunday evening concert. With 10 to 11 selections each concert, hopefully audiences enjoy most pieces, said Lerew, 67, who lives in Chambersburg, Pa. The band kicks off its free summer concert series this Sunday at the Peter Buys Band Shell in Hagerstown's City Park. This Sunday's program includes the overture from the opera "Merry Wives of Windsor"; selections from "Annie Get Your Gun"; and "Fandango," an exciting Latin American number that Lerew said the band and audience enjoy.

At last season's Washington County Indoor Track Championships, Williamsport came from behind to edge North Hagerstown 161-159 for its seventh straight girls team title. "I have high hopes that we'll be better than second this year," said first-year North head coach Brian Myers, who took over for Sarina Hamilton. The Hubs have reason to dream big. With nearly all of their top performers back from last season, they clearly look like the team to beat in the county this winter.

koelble@herald-mail.com As the 2005-06 prep basketball season unfolds, fans in the Tri-State area will see a substantial amount of individual talent meshed within team concepts. Some Pennsylvania and area private schools are off to an early start, but the remaining Keystone and Washington County schools open play this week. West Virginia schools will gradually take off the lid this week, heading to a full slate next weekend. So, who comes to the forefront among the boys and girls teams?

koelble@herald-mail.com As the 2005-06 prep basketball season unfolds, fans in the Tri-State area will see a substantial amount of individual talent meshed within team concepts. Some Pennsylvania and area private schools are off to an early start, but the remaining Keystone and Washington County schools open play this week. West Virginia schools will gradually take off the lid this week, heading to a full slate next weekend. So, who comes to the forefront among the boys and girls teams?

The Washington Redskins' attempt to improve their biggest weakness centers on a player who needs to figure out when to take his chances. The reigning NFC East champions selected David Amerson of North Carolina State in the second round of the NFL draft Friday, a choice aimed at helping a secondary that ranked 30th in the league against the pass last year. The 6-foot-1, 205-pound cornerback set a single-season Atlantic Coast Conference record with 13 interceptions in 2011 and won the Jack Tatum Award as the nation's top defensive back, but his play regressed last year as he tried to do even better.

A teacher at Highland View Academy in Hagerstown is among 27 science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, educators who were selected for the 2013-14 Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellowship Program, according to the Triangle Coalition for Science and Technology Education. Ophelia Barizo will serve at the National Science Foundation's Directorate for Engineering, Emerging Frontiers in Research Innovation Division, under the guidance of Rosemarie Wesson. Selected educators will serve in Washington, D.C., for 11 months, beginning Sept.

You know, I've been doing this media thing for a little time now. Those of you that know me know my dome is bathed in gray as I continue my trek into the 60s, and I don't mean the year. At times I've done television, at times I've done radio, but for the most part it's been behind the desk working in the print business. As you know, or may not, at the end of a prep sports season a newspaper generally selects all-star teams for specific sports. It takes time putting the teams together, believe me. It's not that you just throw names into a hat and presto.

The Judicial Nominating Commission for Washington County has selected four attorneys whose names will be forwarded to Gov. Martin O'Malley for consideration to fill a vacancy on District Court. Mary Anne Day, Terry Allen Myers, Roland David Pembroke and Margaret Lynn Williams were selected from the dozen applicants to fill the vacancy created when District Judge Dana Moylan Wright was elevated to the Circuit Court bench this past summer. Wright was appointed to fill a vacancy created by the retirement of Circuit Judge W. Kennedy Boone III. The commission met Thursday to vote on which names would be forwarded to the governor for his selection and confirmation by the state Senate.

A local FFA chapter recently was selected for national recognition in a career development event at the 85th National FFA Convention, which will be Oct. 24-27 in Indianapolis. The Smithsburg High School FFA Chapter will send four members to Indianapolis as they vie for national honors in the area of Agricultural Issues Forum. National support for the Agriculturual Issues Forum CDE is provided by Elanco. FFA members who will represent the chapter in the contest include Matt Lewis, Morgan Nicely, Hannah Rohrer and Justin Martin.

Thursday, June 21, 2012 As the old song goes, Alex Meyer has “been bad,” now “he's nationwide.” The Hagerstown Suns' starting pitcher has been selected to play for the United States team in the 14th annual All-Star Futures Game as part of Major League Baseball's All-Star Sunday festivities. Meyer, the Washington Nationals' first-round selection in the 2011 amateur draft, leads the Suns with six wins and has a 3.33 ERA. In 14 starts, he is fifth in the South Atlantic League with 77 strikeouts and has the fifth-lowest batting average against (.217)

Former UCLA basketball coach John Wooden used to say, “It's not so important who starts the game but who finishes it.” The Hagerstown Suns won't be on the field to start the 53rd annual South Atlantic League All-Star Game, but they most surely will have a hand in finishing it. Four members of the Suns - and manager Brian Daubach - were selected as Northern Division reserves for the SAL's exhibition on June 19 at Joseph P. Riley Jr....

Former Smithsburg High School star Josh Conway has been selected in Round 4 of the Major League Baseball draft by the Chicago Cubs. Conway was the 134th player selected overall and it came in the Compensation Round B.

Now pitching for the Chicago Cubs - Josh Conway. Now batting for the Boston Red Sox - Nathan Minnich. Those public address introductions sound pretty sweet for Conway and Minnich, two local baseball stars selected on Tuesday in the Major League Baseball Draft. Conway - a 2009 Smithsburg High School graduate who was eligible for the draft a second time - was picked by the Chicago Cubs in the fourth round with the 134th selection overall. “It's been a long wait but I'm happy and ready to go into a great situation,” said Conway, who just completed his junior year at Coastal Carolina University.

St. James Brethren Church , St. James, Williamsport Ministerium's Choir Fest will be at 7 p.m. Sunday. Church choirs in the Williamsport Ministerium will sing, in addition to two selections for large mass choir. A free will offering will go to the minsterium's outreach programs.