Date Added: 15-01-2005

Crownsville can claim some responsibility for a thriving lacrosse program in Greensboro, N.C.

Bill Hook grew up here with his brothers and sisters Judy, Neville, Rick and Bruce and with a tremendous love of lacrosse.

He played the prep game and went on to play at Villanova. His college career got him a place in the Lacrosse Hall of Fame there. With the grown-up life came the move to Greensboro: a great place to live, but, alas, no lacrosse.

He took it upon himself to bring the sport to the Western North Carolina city. With the support of his wife, Wendy, and his children Billy, Andrew, Lindsay and Ricky as his supply of players, he started a county league. He used his youthful experience here as a model.

Not only did he teach children the game, but he taught their parents, too. After all, as we all know, a county league needs lots of coaches. His skill and dedication brought him a position as lacrosse coach at the local high school. He still shares his skill with our aspiring players through summer camps when he and the family return to the area for summer vacations.

This weekend he will be traveling to Philadelphia for the U.S. Lacrosse Association's convention. The convention features clinics for coaches of all levels. Ruth Rainey of Sherwood Forest will participate to sharpen her skills prior to her work as assistant coach for Navy's women's lacrosse.

Bill will be honored at a breakfast banquet tomorrow morning for the county recreation program he transplanted from his childhood in Crownsville. He was selected from among nominees throughout the U.S.

His siblings are all still here. They're proud of their brother, and it's nice to see a hometown boy succeed.

The Boy Scouts of Troop 804 are proud of their recent accomplishment. The boys, who meet each Tuesday at historic Baldwin Hall, were all Tenderfoots until December.

But after practicing their map skills, cooking over an open fire and learning first aid during several camping trips, the seven members of the troop, all ages 11 to 14, completed their requirements to become second class Scouts.

Kenneth Crisp has been elected by his fellow Scouts as their senior patrol leader. The Scouts are Patrick Brozena, Russell Buhrer, Nathan Jordan, Andrew Judson, Michael Kenny, Daniel Weller and Conner Crisp.

They meet under the leadership of Scoutmaster Steve Judson and Assistant Scoutmaster Mike Brozena.

At their December Court of Honor, the young men hosted the Cub Scouts who anticipate becoming Boy Scouts. They tied knots and collected Toys for Tots for the holidays.

The Brownies have been busy, too. All the first-year Brownies at Baldwin Hall participated in a program called the Gift of Caring.

The troop led by Sharon Knowles, Annie Medford and Debbie Clark sold lots of those delicious cookies-about 192 dozen boxes. With a help of the USO, they sent cookies overseas to the soldiers stationed in Iraq.

Local schoolchildren are coming up with ways to help victims of the tsunami in South Asia. Marsha Gardner shared one clever example with me. Her son Hunter is in kindergarten at Millersville Elementary, where students are bringing in $1 to buy a paper doll cutout. With the help of volunteers, the children put their names on their dolls. The cut-outs will be affixed to the walls, hand in hand in hand.

Source: http://www.hometownannapolis.com/cgi-bin/read/2005/01_14-41/CCV