CITY TITLE NOTEBOOK
Big Crowd Comes Out to Watch Games
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Wednesday, March 5, 2008
With Gonzaga making its first appearance in five years in the City Title game, organizers enjoyed seeing perhaps the biggest crowd since the game was held at Cole Field House in the 1990s.
Attendance was announced as 6,258, including such luminaries as Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley (a Gonzaga alumnus) and D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray. However, with most of the Gonzaga student body seated behind one basket, the crowd seemed much larger, filling in as the H.D. Woodson's victory over Bishop McNamara in the girls' game concluded.
Last season, attendance was announced as 3,807.
"We're very pleased," said Jim Leary, the first-year commissioner of the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference. "Ticket sales at Gonzaga and McNamara were impressive. Both athletic directors said they were besieged for tickets. It turned out well. [Gray] and his staff did a good job promoting the game."
Leary said there is no deal in place for next season, but he expects that making arrangements will be simple.
"After seeing this, I'm sure we won't have a problem coming back," he said.
While there is nothing in the works for resuming a City Title football championship -- discontinued after fighting followed the 1962 game -- Leary said there has been talk of creating a new event in baseball. This year, most of the District's public and private schools will compete in a baseball tournament, with the semifinals and final scheduled for Nationals Park, according to St. John's Athletic Director Tom Veith.
Chin Is Honored
Allen Chin, outgoing director of the D.C. Interscholastic Athletic Association, was honored as the City Title games' honorary chairman at halftime of the boys' game.
Chin retired effective immediately this month as D.C. public schools' director of athletics, a job he held since 1991. Shortly after D.C. schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee was hired last June, Chin learned that she wanted him removed from his position.
Speaking for the first time since he announced his retirement, Chin said he felt proud of the work he did.
"When they started cutting money from our budget, that hurt," Chin said, "but we still kept doing things in spite of it."
Chin, 57, said he plans to take some time off, but added that he would like to continue working in athletic administration at some level.
