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BIG BAND, BIG BANG Jazz and swing traditions come alive with 17-piece orchestra.
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The Gazette GAITHERSBURG | MONTGOMERY VILLAGE
DAILY UPDATES ONLINE www.gazette.net
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
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What if water woes hit county? Replacing aging water mains carries a $2 billion price tag
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BY
BRANDON ENG
SYLVIA CARIGNAN STAFF WRITER
Walt Whitman
JOEY SHAVATT Bowie
LEXI D’ORSANEO Bowie
LINDSEY JANOSKIE Paint Branch
NICOLE WARREN James H. Blake
After a water crisis was averted in Prince George’s County, Montgomery County representatives are considering the reliability of their local water infrastructure. In parts of Prince George’s County, the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission temporarily enacted water restrictions last week after a 54-inch pipe threatened to break. The main was repaired and back in service by July 19, thanks to a small team of workers who were able to repair a stuck valve, according to a WSSC press release. WSSC’s Prince George’s County customers did not lose service, the release said. Stuart Freudberg, director of environmental programs at the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, said the aging water main reflects the state of some of the region’s water infrastructure. The utility may have few options when it comes to pipe maintenance and replacement, depending on the location. In some parts of the system, redundancy exists, and secondary pipes are able to shoulder some
See WATER, Page A-9 In the search for a college athletic scholarship, parents have endless opportunities to spend money, including youth teams, camps run by college coaches, buying top equipment, and online recruiting sites that market athletes. The trend has led to children specializing in sports at earlier ages, which has led to more serious injuries, youth giving up free time to chase their athletic dreams, and in some cases burnout. Another trend is that many top athletes now are being forced to choose between their club and high school teams.
Elite athletes sacrifice to play prep sports Most college recruiting now takes place outside of high school competition n
BY JENNIFER BEEKMAN STAFF WRITER
Thomas S. Wootton High School tennis star Titas Bera went undefeated this spring, winning his third consecutive county singles championship and the state boys doubles title. Bera, a rising senior, hasn’t lost a singles match in three years of
See ELITE, Page A-10
$5B
Nationwide spending on youth sports each year.
$2B
Amount of athletic scholarships awarded by Division I and II schools each year.
Only 2 percent of youth athletes earn scholarships that average about $11,000 n
BY
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Early start can lead to burnout
C
STAFF WRITER
30M
Children nationwide (18 to 5) who participate in youth sports each year.
3.5M
Children nationwide under 14 who receive medical treatment for a sports injury in a year.
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Online services change recruiting A-11
TRAVIS MEWHIRTER
andy Thurman had a rough idea how much she was spending on her daughters’ athletic pursuits — between $11,000 to $14,000. She knew that a field hockey stick went for $150 to $400 and that letting her children play on the Futures team — field hockey’s version of the Amateur Athletic Union — would cost nearly $3,000. While it was happening, though, “I didn’t realize I was spending all that money on it,” said Thurman, the Montgomery Blair High School field hockey coach. She chuckles now, thinking about the expenses of youth sports — the lucrative industry it has become. Baltimore author Mark Hyman wrote a book on the topic, titled “The Most Expensive
Doctors see more injuries
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Game in Town.” In it, he estimated that parents spend $5 billion a year on youth sports. He says that’s a low guess; it doesn’t include gas and other expenses parents pay just getting their children to practice. Thurman’s daughter, Taylor, could run up a bill of $5,000 to $7,000 a year just on field hockey. Just one event on her Futures team cost about $2,800. Add in swimming and track, and that’s another $3,000 to $4,000. That’s just one child, who competes at Oberlin College in Ohio, but is not on scholarship. “Few athletes get full rides,” Thurman said.
See SCHOLARSHIPS, Page A-11
145K
Students who receive either partial or full athletic scholarships.
70%
Children who drop out of youth sports by age 13. Reasons cited are adults, coaches and parents.
SOURCES: MARK HYMAN, BALTIMORE-BASED AUTHOR OF ‘THE MOST EXPENSIVE GAME IN TOWN’; NCAA; CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION; SAFE KIDS (CHILDREN’S NATIONAL MEDICAL CENTER)
NEWS
BRING ON THE BUSES? Gaithersburg is weighing the possibility of a new circulator bus system.
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SPORTS
STEPPING HIS WAY TO THE TOP Bethesda man rises to among the best in the world at competitive stair climbing.
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Man found in Gaithersburg pond identified
Automotive
Baker, 25, might have been in water since Friday night
BY
ST. JOHN BARNED-SMITH STAFF WRITER
The man whose body was recovered from a stormwater retention pond in Nike Missile Park on Sunday has been identified as Matthew Baker, 25, of Gaithersburg. It took police several days to identify him: The only information they had about him at first was the clothing they believed he was wearing before he died and his tattoos. One tattoo on his left bicep was of crossed dumbbells and he had others of letters and a cross encircled in flames on his forearms. Police say they made the ID after releasing photos of the tattoos to the press. The cause and manner of death are still under investigation, police say. Baker’s body may have been in the water since Friday night. According to a police statement detailing the incident, Maryland-National Capital Park Police visited the location Friday night after someone reported finding clothes near the stormwater retention pond. It is a pond with lots of weeds and growth, Montgomery County Police Capt. Jim Daly said, explaining that if the man went in at night, “he may not have known how gross the pond was.” Investigators from both agencies are working to determine if these two incidents are related. sjbsmith@gazette.net
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