manassas journal messenger 01/24/01

Wednesday,

January 24, 2001

News

Hornets

sting foes: ‘Incredible season’ for girls

By

Staff

MANASSAS – In the soccer rich Manassas area, being the first at something

is a rare achievement.

But the Manassas Hornets – an under-17 girls travel team – accomplished

not one, but two firsts this past fall season.

The team became the city’s first Washington Area Girls Soccer (WAGS)

Division I team, and to top that off, they became the first-ever Division

I champions as well.

“It was an incredible season,” trainer Dave Tenney said. “There’s

no way we could have expected this. It was certainly possible, just not

expected.”

The Hornets are part of the Manassas Area Travel Teams club of soccer

squads. Currently there are 22 boys and girls teams of varying age groups,

and Tenney is the training director for the entire club.

WAGS is the premier soccer venue for girls travel teams in the northern

Virginia area. And while the location of teams fluctuates each season, Tenney

said, the competition is always top-notch.

“It’s a different level of play,” Tenney said. “The kids

here are at the top of their games.”

Divided into five divisions, each step up being a more competitive level

of play, WAGS sports teams from Stafford all the way up to Baltimore.

On the season, the Hornets won seven games, lost only one and tied another.

The record was good enough to place the team a half game ahead of its nearest

competitor from Springfield.

It didn’t start off that way for the Hornets. Eight years ago, the team

started as an under-9 team at the Division 5 level, with microscopic thoughts

of one day being championship caliber.

“When we started it was just to have fun,” goal keeper Ashley

DeLaHunt, who recorded five shutouts during the season, said. “At first

we needed to just grasp the game of soccer.

“For a totally crappy team to come this far is just amazing.”

DeLaHunt is one of four players who have been on the team since its

inception, along with Heather VanWickler, Rianna Barrett and Stacy Crites.

The team is currently made up of 15 girls, mostly from Manassas, but also

hailing from Woodbridge, Annandale, Bristow, Haymarket and Montclair.

The team seemed destined to stay in the middle of the pack after the

first three seasons. The Hornets stayed at Division 5.

That was until Tenney arrived four years ago.

Tenney, who played professionally for the Baltimore Blast of the Major

Indoor Soccer League and the Washington Warthogs, came to the team with

a no-nonsense approach and a desire to succeed.

The Hornets quickly latched on to Tenney’s message: “Work hard

and good things will happen.” Soon the team’s fortunes started to change,

but not before one obstacle had to be overcome.

Bill VanWickler, whose daughter Heather plays for the Hornets, was the

original coach of the team.

Admittedly not the toughest disciplinarian, VanWickler watched the first

year Tenney coached – the U-13 year – and almost witnessed a mass exodus.

“I was their coach from the time they were nine years old,”

VanWickler said. “So they didn’t pay a lot of attention to me, discipline-wise.

“But as soon as Dave came on board that changed.”

Tenney, being more authoritative in style, challenged the team to train

much harder than it ever had before.

“He’s a tough coach,” DeLaHunt said.

That toughness almost resulted in the premature end of the team, VanWickler

said.

“It seemed like they all wanted to quit,” he said. “The

girls weren’t used to working so hard. But when Dave backed off a little,

they started making progress.”

It didn’t hurt that Tenney was a handsome, 26-year-old professional

soccer player.

“They were a bunch of 13-year-old girls you know,” VanWickler

said with a laugh.

Whatever the original reasons for listening to Tenney, it started to

pay dividends.

The team moved up to Division 2 quickly, but stalled there.

“After three seasons in Division 2 they were ready to take the

next step,” Tenney said.

It wasn’t known if they would move up until July 2000, Tenney said.

After some consolidation of teams and others moving on, the Hornets got

the promotion.

“We finally moved up!” was the team’s reaction, Tenney said.

Heather VanWickler said the move was exciting.

“We knew it would be challenging, but we were ready,” she

said.

Tenney didn’t put too much pressure on the team as they took the field

for the first time.

Matching up against teams that had been Division 1 for years can be

a daunting task. He just wanted the team to keep learning.

It learned all right, learned it could win.

“They were playing against teams where the players had 75 to 100

Division 1 game experience,” Tenney said. “But they stepped up

to the challenge.”

The team, which has six players on the Osbourn varsity team and numerous

others on the Brentsville, Osbourn Park and Stonewall Jackson squads, will

only enhance the local high school soccer programs, DeLaHunt said. Fellow

Cardinal District team Woodbridge went 21-0 last year, winning the Virginia

Group AAA state title as well as being voted co-National Champions by NSCAA/adidas.

“We played as freshmen for Osbourn and it can only improve from

there,” she said of the Eagles’ third-place finish in the Cardinal

District last season. “Teams like Woodbridge have played together for

long periods of time. Our teams haven’t come from that [in the past]. Now

with our club established, hopefully that can start to change.”

·Randy Jones is the sports editor for the Manassas Journal Messenger,

he can be reached via e-mail at [email protected].

Scarlet

Fever reported in PWC

By

Staff

Parents of children in two Prince William County schools – one in the

eastern portion and one in the west – are being notified that cases of

scarlet fever have been reported at those schools and are being asked to

watch for symptoms of the contagious disease.

“Don’t panic,” said Dr. Alison Ansher, a public clinician

with the Prince William County Health District, on Tuesday. “Scarlet

fever is treatable with antibiotics.

“Although it is contagious, if people are vigilant about good hygiene,

it is controllable,” Ansher said.

A total of six children – four at Yorkshire Elementary School and two

at Lake Ridge Elementary School – are reported to have been diagnosed with

scarlet fever, said Irene Cromer, spokeswoman for Prince William County

Schools.

“Any time we receive information about a communicable disease in

one of our schools, it is our policy to send letters home to notify parents

that a case has been reported and to give them information about the symptoms,”

Cromer said.

The health department assists the school district with the information

included in the letters.

Cromer said Tuesday that she did not know when the children contracted

the disease, but that Yorkshire Elementary parents have already received

their letters. Parents at Lake Ridge Elementary School are expected to receive

their letters soon.

Scarlet fever is a highly contagious childhood bacterial infection that

is usually spread when an infected person coughs or sneezes contaminated

droplets into the air and another person inhales them. A person can also

get infected from touching these secretions and then touching their mouth

or nose.

It was formerly a very common and serious disease that could result,

if untreated, in kidney and heart disease as well as rheumatic fever.

In recent years, however, the number and severity of scarlet-fever cases

has greatly declined with antibiotic treatment.

Scarlet fever is caused by the same bacteria as strep throat, which

is also treated with antibiotics.

“It’s a strep throat that has gone an extra step,” Ansher

said. The symptoms of scarlet fever are similar to those of strep throat

in that they often include a sore throat, headache, swollen glands and high

fever. The additional and often more telling symptoms of scarlet fever include

a bright red, rough-textured skin rash on a person’s neck, chest, armpits

and groin area, as well as a strawberry-colored tongue, Ansher said.

Since the disease is contagious and children ages 2 to 10 are the most

susceptible, health officials do advise parents with children exhibiting

the symptoms of scarlet fever to contact their doctor.

“Generally, any time a child has a rash the parent should contact

the doctor,” Ansher said. Additionally, a child with the symptoms of

strep throat also should be seen by a doctor, since antibiotic treatment

is required.

Scarlet fever is not among the illnesses that health-care providers

are required to report to the health department, Ansher said. Therefore,

statistics on the occurrence of scarlet fever are not available.

“Strep though is common,” Ansher said. “We generally

don’t see scarlet fever as often.”

Still, health departments, including Prince William and Fairfax counties,

are receiving reports.

Additionally, schools in Washington, D.C., as well as in Prince George’s

County, Md., have been among those in recent weeks reporting cases of scarlet

fever.

Since statistical data on scarlet fever is not collected by public-health

officials, Ansher said, the reason for the number of reported cases in the

Washington, D.C., area is unknown.

Ansher said the number of cases now being reported to health departments

may be due to the recent publicity of the presence of the disease in the

general vicinity.

Since scarlet fever was such a threat before the widespread treatment

with antibiotics, fear of the disease may also have increased the number

of reports, Ansher said.

Frequent hand-washing and encouraging children to cover their mouths

when they cough can go far to prevent the spread, Ansher said.

Aileen Streng is a staff writer at the Potomac News in Woodbridge

Schools

seek revenue sharing

By

Staff

MANASSAS- In an effort to avoid a repeat of last year’s conflict over

the school budget, Manassas City Council will consider tonight a formal

revenue sharing agreement between the city and school division.

Tuesday, the school board voted 6-0 to approve the resolution agreeing

to an annual 56.2 percent share of the city’s general non-agency revenues.

Council will vote on the same resolution tonight.

If approved, the agreement will take effect for the fiscal year 2002

budget, which the board is working on now.

School board member Art Bushnell, head of the six-member city/schools

finance committee, said the proposal is an attempt to make the approach

to the budget more standard.

“If the two bodies did not have this agreement in place, then we

would be far worse off than we are in the current budget process,”

Bushnell said.

Last year’s school budget process caused fireworks on both sides when

city council objected to the amount of city funds the board requested. A

large group of Metz Middle School and Osbourn High School students appeared

at a public hearing before the city approved its budget, asking council

for the additional $626,000 requested by the school board.

“We found ourselves disputing amounts within our budget; that had

not happened previously,” Bushnell said, calling the resulting process

“contentious.”

“This puts us on a much better, more collegial relationship with

the city,” Bushnell said.

School board Chairman Thomas Bradford took issue with calling the process

contentious.

Bradford said there was frustration, but the process was not contentious

or adversarial. City council members merely were concerned about how the

board wanted to spend the city’s money, he said.

Although he said he had some concerns with the proposal, “It is

the only way for us to go on as a board, I believe,” Bradford said.

Bushnell said the finance committee happened on the 56.2 percent figure

after looking at a variety of figures through the years. In the last ten

years, the amount of money the schools received from the city was on average

somewhere around 56.2 percent, he said. The same was true for an average

of the past four years.

According to the resolution that the board approved and the city will

consider tonight:

· If the city’s revenues are exceeded, the school board will

receive additional funding. Bushnell said if revenues come in less than

projected, the school division will deal with those changes the following

fiscal year.

· Both the city and school division will maintain an undesignated

fund balance. This is something new for the schools, Bushnell said. The

schools also will receive interest from the fund balance.

· In the years to come, either side can ask to take another look

at the joint five-year budget plan.

“Neither side is locked into this,” Bushnell said. “Both

sides can come back in the future and revisit this if need be.”

· Each side will adopt a capital improvement plan when the operating

budget is adopted. Bushnell said the board has moved around some CIP needs.

He added that the division intends to have a $10 million bond issue next

year to pay for a new administrative building and various construction projects.

· In addition to the 56.2 percent, upon adoption of the resolution,

the schools will receive a city transfer of $250,000 for the Sumner Lake

proffers. The schools also will receive $359,517 from the city. Bushnell

said the city and schools had different accounting procedures and the $359,517

is a “true-up” to account for those differences.

The agreement also calls for a transfer of $1 million from city funds

to the school division for fiscal year 2002.

Bushnell said for the fiscal year 2002 budget, the schools will receive

the 56.2 percent of the city’s revenues or $29.8 million, whichever is greater.

· Contact Tiffany Schwab at [email protected]

Old

Town Hall cupola campaign begins

By

Staff

MANASSAS

A private fund-raising campaign – the second one this week in fact –

is gearing up to pay for a new cupola for the Old Town Hall.

Construction drawings and a $70,000 estimate of the cupola were completed

by Gregory Construction June 1 and the campaign printed solicitation letters

to the public explaining the fund-raising drive Monday.

“This is something I know that everyone wants, to get that cupola

back on,” said fund-raiser co-Chairman Douglas Waldron. “It is

our city logo … It’s the most prominent building downtown.”

The original cupola was a dominant feature of the building, but the

domed structure was removed after its wood rotted out, Waldron said.

“We want to rebuild the cupola to have the building look the way

it was built,” he said.

The building, which was renamed to the Harry J. Parrish Town Hall by

city council in September 1999, was built in 1914. It doubled as a fire

and police station until the 1950s and was the town/city hall until 1986

when City Hall was completed. Albert Speiden designed the cupola, which

was painted white and placed on a copper roof, Waldron said.

The roof now has the old horn that was used to call volunteer firefighters

to the station. Modern fire departments use beepers, but in the 1980s there

was the failed attempt to reestablish another tradition, the blowing of

the noon whistle, Waldron said.

Waldron said the private effort hopes to have the cupola replaced by

the end of this year to acknowledge Del. Harry Parrish, who began his career

in public service in 1951 – 50 years ago.

“This project combines two initiatives. It is proper that we acknowledge

our appreciation for 50 years of service to local citizens by Harry Parrish

and that we restore the Town Hall to the beauty and architectural grace

it deserves,” wrote Waldron and fellow co-Chairman John Gregory in

the letter.

The cupola fund-raiser is in addition to the drive to raise $125,000

for the Pavilion project, which was kicked off by HMI President David Flach

Monday.

At their Monday meeting, council members remarked that Manassas has

depended on the assistance of the public, and especially the local businesses.

“Manassas seems to thrive by the strong economy and by a strong

business community … that has just a strong public spirit,” said

councilwoman Judy Hays.

· Tax deductible,contributions should be made payable to Parrish

c/o Manassas City Clerk, P.O. Box 560, Manassas, Va. 20108

· Contact Chris Newman at [email protected].