Training Camp

Andy Reid had to use a siren on top of his car to get through the traffic. Chuck Bednarik, who lives four miles away in Coopersburg, left early and still took 1 1/2 hours to reach the Eagles' training camp. Drawn by Terrell Owens, a Kids Day promotion, gorgeous weather, and lofty expectations about this tantalizing team, a record 25,000 spectators swarmed to Eagles camp yesterday morning, generating game-day enthusiasm and massive tie-ups on the narrow roads leading to Lehigh University's football complex.

The Eagles will break training camp at Lehigh University today, but coach Ray Rhodes won't leave with fond memories of his monthlong stay. Between yesterday's morning and afternoon workouts, Rhodes said that a team with Irving Fryar, Ricky Watters, Darrin Smith, William Thomas and a host of other seasoned veterans should have more to show for its efforts than two embarrassing preseason losses. "We've had the best personnel we've ever had," said Rhodes, in his third year with the Eagles.

After allowing 49 goals, tied for the second-highest total in Major League Soccer during their inaugural season, the Union addressed the back line with last week's signing of two Colombian national team members, goalie Faryd Mondragon and central defender Carlos Valdes. All of a sudden, the team's biggest weakness appears to be a strength, and now it presents a pleasant problem for team manager Peter Nowak during training camp: who to play on defense. It could have an impact on team captain Danny Califf, who started 28 of 30 games last season as a central defender.

SOME QUESTIONS and answers as the Birds head to Lehigh: 1Every summer, we hear this is a watershed year for Donovan McNabb. Yet, he's still the quarterback. Should we pay any attention to the rhetoric this time around? No question, many of us jumped the gun at midseason in '07, assuming McNabb was gone at the end of the year. He played better in the second half and management showed it was not as eager for regime change as some of us had thought. But Kevin Kolb is not a figment of our imagination.

A preseason training camp may not seem like a big deal. But it could have been the beginning of one of the best soccer seasons ever at Archbishop Carroll. The boys team went off to Kutztown for a weeklong summer camp, and according to junior midfielder John Caruolo, that time together bonded the team. "It really did seem to help," said Caruolo, who has eight goals on the season. "But we've played hard all season, too. We just really wanted it this year. " Archbishop Carroll just finished a record 12-1-1 season in the Catholic League with a 2-0 win over Cardinal O'Hara on Monday.

Gordie Lockbaum was a little embarrassed. Here he was, a lowly ninth-round draft pick of the Pittsburgh Steelers, and reporters were lined up to interview him. On picture day, he signed autographs for 30 minutes and finally had to break it off to keep an appointment with a reporter. Young boys stood on tiptoes to touch him. Young girls swooned. One teenage girl blushed when he spoke to her, then stuck a camera in her mouth and pretended to faint. Three television crews stopped him for interviews before he could walk from one end of the gym to the other at St. Vincent's College, where the Steelers train.

Eagles coach Buddy Ryan climbed out on a limb yesterday and told the crowd of doomsayers gathered below that they had all been barking up the wrong tree. Holdouts? There won't be any holdouts, he boldly predicted. When training camp opens tomorrow afternoon at West Chester University, all 88 players who have been invited will be present. "I think everybody's going to be there," he said. "Maybe I'm crazy or something, but I think the guys we have here, from what I saw in those minicamps, want to win, and they want to be Philadelphia Eagles.

All through the afternoon, the shiny Jeep wagons and sporty cars pulled up the curved driveway and stopped in front of the eight-story, tan brick Gertrude K. Schmidt Hall. Giant men in colorful, casual attire spilled out, opened back hatches and trunk lids and began hauling bedding, stereos, TVs and luggage in the front door of the West Chester University dormitory. Knots of children and avid fans waited to pounce. "When's Randall Cunningham coming in?" asked one of the children.

Changes during the off-season have made the 1987 scholastic football season unpredictable. John Barr is the new head coach at Cheltenham High, Bob Finley took charge at Archbishop Wood, Larry Greene took over at Central Bucks East, Bill Caum is the head coach at Germantown Academy and former Central Bucks East head coach Chuck Rocconi is an assistant with Mike Pettine at C.B. West. The one thing that can be predicted with certainty is that many schools will begin training camp tomorrow.