Work Ethic

TO AT LEAST some Delaware Valley residents, early morning, rush-hour-traffic hassles have looked a lot better since August. Not that things have improved on the Blue Route or I-295, but the snafus have been monitored for Fox 29's morning news and gabfest "Good Day Philadelphia" by Kacie McDonnell. If the buzz is to be believed, she is well on her way to becoming Philly TV's next It Girl. There are plenty of folks - especially those who used to fall under the heading of "red-blooded American males" - who may assume that they get why the 5-foot-4-inch, hazel-eyed, raven-haired Pottsville native is garnering such attention.

Rasheed Brown looked at Future and saw the past. As in, the 2009 football season, when Communications Tech never had enough players for an intrasquad scrimmage and routinely struggled through practices with as few as 15. But just because his school's situation has now improved, vastly even, don't expect Brown to express sympathy for a downtrodden opponent. "They wear equipment, just like us," he said. "They're football players. That's what they do. " Softening ever so slightly, he added, "All they have to do is keep working hard, and they'll get better.

Skepticism trails relentlessly behind 7-6 Shawn Bradley, casting a shadow over whatever he does. It goes where he goes. It colors whatever he does. It will not go away any time soon. Bradley knows the drill. He is just back from nine days in Hollywood, part of the cast of a motion picture titled "Space Jam. " The characters range from Michael Jordan to Charles Barkley to Muggsy Bogues to Bugs Bunny. But all anyone in Philadelphia wanted to know was, why wasn't Bradley in the practice gym with the Sixers, working at his craft?

There is an electrical box in Franklinville that looks different from most in the area. It is dented and marked up and has the signature of Josh Awotunde, who also used the blank canvas of the box to profess his NFL dreams. Awotunde is probably not going to the NFL. He did start at quarterback for Delsea, the Group 3 state champion, but his future is in another sport: track and field. Last season as a junior, Awotunde won the discus and finished fourth in the shot put at the state Group 3 championships.

Early in the fourth quarter, when the Eagles were beginning to run down, when they were holding timidly to a 21-17 lead and John Teltschik punted short from the shadow of his goal posts, it appeared that another football miracle was in the making at Veterans Stadium. The punt fell from the sky and bounced crazily into the back of unsuspecting San Francisco linebacker Bill Romanowski and into the hands of Henry "Gizmo" Williams of the Eagles. From there, the Eagles went on to score and take a 28-17 lead with just 8 minutes, 24 seconds remaining.

From the mid-'70s through the early '80s, the critical word on Mark Harmon - who stars in the new Carl Reiner comedy, "Summer School," opening today at area theaters - was this: An ex-UCLA quarterback with bankable blue eyes, dazzling teeth and the acting talent of an ex-UCLA quarterback. For years, he scraped bottom in assembly-line Jack Webb TV productions and the horrendous nighttime soaper, "Flamingo Road. " Then, without warning, he emerged from Actor's Purgatory to deliver thoroughly believable performances as Dr. Bobby Caldwell, who undergoes a radical personality change, then suffers from AIDS on "St. Elsewhere"; astronaut Sam Crawford, who wins and then loses Maddie Hayes on "Moonlighting," and sex murderer Ted Bundy in the NBC mini-series, "The Deliberate Stranger.

John Chaney likes to say Aaron McKie has teeth in his stomach. "Moxie, toughness, inner strength," said Chaney, the Temple basketball coach who didn't know whether to laugh or cry when McKie completed his career last season, going to Portland as the No. 17 pick in the NBA draft. "I don't think you can say he has super-duper skills, but there's a great player inside him. A winner. " If that's the label attached to McKie, a 6-4 shooting guard, he's grateful. It beats being remembered as a Proposition 48, a kid from Simon Gratz High who couldn't crack 700 in the Scholastic Achievement Test, which cost him a season of eligibility with the Owls.

The music on Kurt Vile's new album, Wakin on a Pretty Daze , is deeply relaxed and absolutely confident in its laid-back, stretched-out, fingerpicked trance vibe. So much so that it would be perfectly reasonable to assume that the Philadelphia rocker is a prototypical stoner dude. Reasonable perhaps, but incorrect. Sure, Kurt Vile - yes, that's his real name - looks the part. He's the guy with the past-his-shoulders hair to rival The Addams Family 's Cousin Itt, and who sat down to talk on a recent morning at the Rocket Cat Café in Kensington, up the street from the four-story-tall mural that provides the cover image for Wakin (Matador ***1/2)

Just after Northern Burlington coach Joe Janney enjoyed his first winning season as girls' basketball coach, he's back in the rebuilding process. Four starters graduated and the remainder of his bench players are gone. He does have a couple of players back who saw some varsity playing time last year, but hardly enough to gain much experience or a letter. Many of the younger players are getting their first opportunity to play organized basketball because there is no junior high program.

Timber Creek football coach Rob Hinson thinks people have the wrong idea about Damiere Byrd. "There's a big misconception out there," Hinson said. "People think he's this guy who has been naturally blessed with all this speed, and they think that's where his success comes from. They don't realize how hard this kid works. " Timber Creek track coach Chris Grottini says the same thing about Byrd, in different words: "He doesn't take his talent for granted. He's the last one to leave the track at practice.

The music on Kurt Vile's new album, Wakin on a Pretty Daze , is deeply relaxed and absolutely confident in its laid-back, stretched-out, fingerpicked trance vibe. So much so that it would be perfectly reasonable to assume that the Philadelphia rocker is a prototypical stoner dude. Reasonable perhaps, but incorrect. Sure, Kurt Vile - yes, that's his real name - looks the part. He's the guy with the past-his-shoulders hair to rival The Addams Family 's Cousin Itt, and who sat down to talk on a recent morning at the Rocket Cat Café in Kensington, up the street from the four-story-tall mural that provides the cover image for Wakin (Matador ***1/2)

FOR THE 12th straight year, NFL Network analyst Mike Mayock is breaking down each of the positions in the draft for the Daily News , providing his assessment of the best player at each position, as well as his top riser and sleeper. Mayock, 54, resides in Newtown Square and is a graduate of the Haverford School. A former safety, he was a 10th-round pick of the Steelers in 1981 and played two seasons with the Giants (1982-83). INSIDE LINEBACKERS THE BEST Name: Alec Ogletree School: Georgia Height, weight: 6-3, 242 40 time: 4.68 225 bench: 20 reps Vertical jump: 33.5 inches Arms: 33 1/2inches Round projection: 1 Mayock: "I've got him No. 1 among the inside linebackers, but hesitantly.

Drew McIlhenny doesn't talk much about the combat he faced in Iraq or the loss of five fellow Marines during his unit's deployment to Al Asad in 2006 and 2007. The Port Richmond man focuses on friendships with service buddies, his young family, and a new civilian job as a sheet metal worker. Bryan Hummel, a Marine reservist who lives in Erial, Camden County, also concentrates on a sheet metal career - made possible for him and McIlhenny by a national federally funded program, Helmets to Hardhats.

Jacklyn Pezzato is a threat, no matter where she is on the softball field. In the circle, she is Shawnee's ace starting pitcher. As a junior last season, she went 19-3 with a 0.93 ERA for a team that was 23-4. In the batter's box, she is the Renegades' leadoff hitter. She batted .518 in 2012 and broke Shawnee's single-season hits record with 44 and the school's single-season runs record with 37. When she's not pitching, she plays third base, the "hot corner," arguably the toughest defensive position to play.

DAYTON, Ohio - Traditionally, a glue guy on a basketball team is the person who does all the unheralded work. He lacks superior talent but compensates with his work ethic. Instead of scoring baskets, he makes it possible for teammates to do so. "A lot of people say Rahlir is our glue guy, but I think he does even more than that," Temple guard T.J. DiLeo said of undersize power forward Rahlir Hollis-Jefferson. "He makes big plays. He's not just a guy that's doing the unsung stuff.

Jacklyn Pezzato is a threat no matter where she is on the softball field. In the circle, she is Shawnee's ace starting pitcher. As a junior last season, she went 19-3 with a 0.93 ERA for a team that was 23-4. In the batter's box, she is the Renegades' leadoff hitter. She batted .518 in 2012 and broke Shawnee's single-season hits record with 44 and the school's single-season runs record with 37. When she's not pitching, she plays third base, the "hot corner," arguably the toughest defensive position to play.

There is an electrical box in Franklinville that looks different from most in the area. It is dented and marked up and has the signature of Josh Awotunde, who also used the blank canvas of the box to profess his NFL dreams. Awotunde is probably not going to the NFL. He did start at quarterback for Delsea, the Group 3 state champion, but his future is in another sport: track and field. Last season as a junior, Awotunde won the discus and finished fourth in the shot put at the state Group 3 championships.

There is an electrical box in Franklinville that looks different from most in the area. It is dented and marked up and has the signature of Josh Awotunde, who also used the blank canvas of the box to profess his NFL dreams. Awotunde probably is not going to the NFL. He did start at quarterback for Delsea, the Group 3 state champion, but his future is in another sport: track and field. Last season as a junior, Awotunde won the discus and finished fourth in the shot put in the state Group 3 championships.

TO AT LEAST some Delaware Valley residents, early morning, rush-hour-traffic hassles have looked a lot better since August. Not that things have improved on the Blue Route or I-295, but the snafus have been monitored for Fox 29's morning news and gabfest "Good Day Philadelphia" by Kacie McDonnell. If the buzz is to be believed, she is well on her way to becoming Philly TV's next It Girl. There are plenty of folks - especially those who used to fall under the heading of "red-blooded American males" - who may assume that they get why the 5-foot-4-inch, hazel-eyed, raven-haired Pottsville native is garnering such attention.

NEW YORK - Mike Knuble has played 1,058 games in the NHL. Even after finding himself on the wrong side of Peter Laviolette's lineup card for the Flyers' previous two games, Knuble didn't see any reason to change what worked in his first 1,057 before Tuesday night's contest at Madison Square Garden. No professional athlete wants to be a healthy scratch - but especially not a 40-year-old veteran trying to make one more go of it at the game's highest level. "I'm not going to beat myself up. I am what I am," Knuble said, humbly.