Secret Weapon

How ironically refreshing to read of Soviet youth rebellion spurred on not by None Dare Call It Treason books or smuggled Carl McIntire speeches but by new wave music - the likes of which is suppressed in America as well (witness popular rock-and-roll radio stations and the Grammys). Does this mean that President Reagan will summon the CIA to distribute anarchic hard-core music to Moscow instead of arms to win the cold war? No, he'll blow it and send over recordings by Bruce Hornsby and the Range.

Last Sunday at Hartford, Drexel's Ross Neisler scored 14 points in 25 minutes off the bench in a come-from-behind 17-point win. That was four more points than the senior guard had accumulated in the seven previous games in which he played this season. And two more than his previous career high, which he'd set 25 months ago, in the third game of his sophomore season. Last night at the Physical Education Athletic Center, the new sixth man in Bill Herrion's rotation had 17 points in 30 minutes as the Dragons extended their winning streak to six with a come-from-behind 80-67 America East victory over Boston University.

She's the No. 2 singles player on the No. 1 girls' tennis team in South Jersey. Still, junior Meghan Burns is something of Haddonfield's secret weapon. "Sometimes I think people tend to overlook Meghan," Haddonfield coach Jeff Holman said. Burns was 31-8 at No. 3 singles last season. But while the addition of standout freshman Taylor Ng has resulted in other players moving down in the lineup, Burns has moved up. After what she described as "extremely stressful" challenge matches, Burns earned the No. 2 singles spot.

Not even Eric Tidwell could have imagined this two years ago. Then a sophomore, he was coming off the bench. For the junior varsity team. Now, two years later, he is Penn Wood's secret weapon. The guy who delivers the sucker punch. Other teams gear their defensive schemes to stop senior shooting guard Steve Alston, the team's leading scorer, and junior Richard Barnes - Penn Wood's chief inside threat. Then the game starts. And the opposing coach is left asking himself: Who is this No. 21?

After he won the 36-hole sectional qualifying tournament for the U.S. Amateur Championship yesterday, Rudy Virga hesitated a moment before disclosing his "new secret. " On second thought, he relented. "Ah, I don't care if these guys know," Virga said, gesturing toward a crowd of golfers anxiously monitoring the results board at Rolling Green Golf Club in Springfield, Delaware County. "It'll give them something to think about. " So it may. Virga, 22, attributes a recent string of his best rounds ever to a series of "sports enhancement" audio and video tapes he has been listening to and watching for about eight months.

Maybe it was the rollicking, bopping Chinese dragon, or the German beer, the raw tuna or reggae. Maybe it was the earthy, good-natured embrace of the place - Philadelphia's Reading Terminal Market. But it was hard to believe Monday night that somehow the city isn't going to make it. If the day's inaugural speeches were sober, reminding the citizenry of the red ink, the tough choices, the ticking clock, this last gala of Mayor Rendell's day tapped into something giddier: It showed off the city's richest treasure - it's unextinguished, unblunted capacity to, well, be a Big City, with all the starry-eyed, old-movie excitement those words once conjured up. Some of the lift came, of course, from the headiness of a fresh start, the glitter of the crowd, the offerings - from dozens of world-class restaurants - of feathery-light coconut shrimp, juicy escargots, Mexican cuisine, carts of pastry, drop-dead chocolate torts, china cups of capuccino.

In this township of 32,000, beyond the commercial corridor of Route 38 and amid rich Pinelands soil, a typical problem burrows just below the surface. Moles, the bane of lawn caretakers, dig crisscrossing tunnels. But unlike other municipalities, Pemberton has mole aficionado John W. "Bud" Clark, a councilman, who deploys a special weapon against the blind and carnivorous mammals. He kills them with Wrigley's Juicy Fruit chewing gum. The taste and smell seem to attract moles, but the gum sticks in their digestive systems.

Clad in their unofficial uniform of weathered work boots, jeans, athletic gear and baseball caps, they are a ragtag, nearly secret guerrilla squad in Philadelphia's 1999 mayoral war. On this sunny and brisk March Saturday, just like on every other weekend afternoon since late January, about 30 of them have shoehorned into a tiny storefront on Frankford Avenue in Mayfair to hear their marching orders - getting rowhouse Republicans to switch parties...

Hi! My name is CBU-87/B, but let's not be formal. A lot of my friends call me Cluster Bomb. I've been busy lately, doing what I'm supposed to. And I sure appreciate the careful treatment I receive from the American news media. My pals at the Pentagon put me in the category of a "Combined Effects Munition. " My maker describes me as an "all-purpose, air-delivered cluster weapons system. " Not to brag or anything, but such labels don't do me justice. When I explode, the results can really be quite awesome.

Just 12 games and 19 days remain in this lockout-shortened season, and the 76ers have finally found an alternative scoring weapon to Allen Iverson. It's the one they've been waiting for all along. Drafted in June as the No. 8 overall pick, rookie Larry Hughes was supposed to be Iverson's sidekick, the extra ball handler and sharpshooter who would team with him for alley-oop slams and an abundance of victories. For most of the Sixers' 38 games, that wasn't the case. Instead, Hughes, without the visible intensity coach Larry Brown craves, found himself lost in the shuffle, far from the center of attention he was used to in high school and college.

Without a head coach for months and without program certainty in the future, Penn State's 2012 recruiting class could have been a lost cause. But throughout the tumultuous recruiting process during the Nittany Lions' most trying year, Larry Johnson, arguably the team's best recruiter, remained. And because of his presence, the Lions were still able to bring in what the coaches called an extremely successful 2012 class. On national signing day Wednesday, with the Lions snagging 19 incoming freshmen, fellow assistants new and old couldn't say enough about the Penn State defensive line coach and his ability to retain those high school athletes with murky minds about the university's future.

The Eagles unveiled a new, secret weapon last Sunday in their never-ending quest to cover opposing tight ends: Brandon Graham. The first-round rookie defensive end confirmed yesterday that he had short-range responsibility on Atlanta's Tony Gonzalez "with help over the top. " Gonzalez, targeted seven times, caught just three passes for 19 yards. Granted, two of them were for touchdowns, but as Graham noted, those were different coverages in which he was not involved. Graham was tight on Gonzalez when the 10-time Pro Bowler could only manage to tip a pass headed his way, straight to Eagles corner Asante Samuel, who intercepted it to kill a second-quarter drive in the Eagles' 31-17 victory.

The Cherokee girls' volleyball team has size, speed, talent, and tenacity. But it might be what the Chiefs are missing that's the key to their 6-0 start. "This is probably the first team I've ever played on in any sport where there's no drama," Cherokee senior outside hitter Michelle Meehan said. "It's amazing how well we all get along. That's the reason we're so excited about this season. " Cherokee probably has been the best team in South Jersey through the first three weeks of the season.

The most dangerous player on the Penn State offense is also the smallest, a 5-foot-7, 159-pound sophomore who gives opposing defenses the shivers whenever he gets the football in open space. Wide receiver Devon Smith is one of the fastest men ever to play for the Nittany Lions, a one-time secret weapon who isn't such a secret any more. After all, an opponent tends to pay special attention to someone who can run the 40-yard dash in 4.23 seconds, something Temple is sure to do when the Owls travel to Beaver Stadium on Saturday.

The tragic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is one clear sign that we're due for a significant reassessment of national priorities and policies. But that doesn't mean we should completely discard the past. Some of our history is too important to be lost in our inevitable evolution. Since 2004, I've been involved in what many of my friends and relatives would describe as a quixotic effort to preserve a largely forgotten 20th-century artifact. I have been part of a committed group working to keep America's national flagship, the legendary SS United States, from being destroyed by scrappers.

'Do you feel like you're stuck in time?" sang Dr. Dog's khaki-fedoraed Toby Leaman, a little more than over halfway into the band's homecoming night at the Electric Factory on Thursday. Yeah, a little. First, the Providence, R.I.-based openers, Deer Tick, covered Chuck Berry's "Maybelline" and ZZ Top's "Cheap Sunglasses" - with vocalist John McCauley donning guess-what? for the latter. And Dr. Dog, the temporally-obsessed main act, is itself prone to songs with titles like "The Old Days" and "My Old Ways," full of sonic callbacks to the Beatles and the Band, to name but two of their many prominent 1960s influences.

By now you've heard all about how important it is for new Eagles center Nick Cole and new guard Max Jean-Gilles to handle Jay Ratliff, the Dallas Cowboys' disruptive nose tackle, who had two sacks the last time these teams met. You've heard about the pressure that must be applied by the Eagles' Trent Cole and the Cowboys' DeMarcus Ware, a couple of Pro Bowl pass rushers who can change the momentum of a game with one sack or forced fumble....

He might be the best player you've kind of heard of. A name that sounds familiar, that's been around awhile now, yet that many would still struggle to truly assess. Andre Ethier was the Dodgers' best offensive weapon this season. Got that? Their No. 1 threat, their most consistent bat, their top clutch performer. This would come as a revelation to those enamored with Manny Ramirez or convinced Matt Kemp is the team's next superstar. Ethier is the other guy - not that he shouldn't be used to it by now. He's played with a chip on his shoulder his entire career, certain non-believers lurked around every corner.

She's the No. 2 singles player on the No. 1 girls' tennis team in South Jersey. Still, junior Meghan Burns is something of Haddonfield's secret weapon. "Sometimes I think people tend to overlook Meghan," Haddonfield coach Jeff Holman said. Burns was 31-8 at No. 3 singles last season. But while the addition of standout freshman Taylor Ng has resulted in other players moving down in the lineup, Burns has moved up. After what she described as "extremely stressful" challenge matches, Burns earned the No. 2 singles spot.

The golfer looks at his ball, then turns to his caddie with eyebrows arched in question. "See that big, high grass over there?" answers caddie Jack Hopkins. "You have to be 20 yards to the right of it. " The golfer nods his thanks and swings. Thwack! The ball soars off, an arcing, vanishing white dot in an immense blue sky; it lands on the green. The golfer nods his thanks again. Minutes later, another golfer in the same Merion Golf Club foursome lines up a putt, then turns to caddie Pancho Thornton.