Photo by Skip Lawrence Frederick High School quarterbacks Andrew Zimnik, left, and Deon Walker work out Saturday, the first day of practice for Maryland public school teams.

It began shortly after dawn Saturday, the first day public school high school sports teams were allowed to practice for the fall season in Maryland, and continued later in the day as Conner and his team worked for the first time on the sturdy blades of synthetic grass comprising their pristine playing surface at Oakdale.

The Linganore coach -- like at least eight other schools in the county -- will have a new quarterback under center and he must decide, between three contenders, whom will be handed the keys of his high-powered offense.

"They all got a lot of reps this summer with seven-on-seven. We went to a lot of camps in the Mid-Atlantic area," Conner said.

"Sure, we wish they'd have played 10 or 12 games last year, but they didn't. Taking that into consideration, we are pleased with where they are at right now."

The only returning starting quarterback in the county with a firm grasp on his job is Middletown senior Rob Michels.

At Urbana , senior Joe Novotny returns after starting nine games last season, but it's not certain he'll hold off junior Jesse Heon for the job.

Not that Hawks coach Joe Polce feels a little competition is a bad thing.

"Last year, we had nobody with any experience. Now we have two guys that have some. We're happy about that."

Some schools, like Frederick , Thomas Johnson and St. John's-Catholic Prep, have already selected their new signal callers for the season.

But other schools are staging competitions that may not conclude much before opening night on Sept. 6.

New Brunswick coach Patt Foster had not seen any of the three quarterbacks vying for the Railroaders' job throw a football prior to the start of practice Saturday.

"They all seem to be intelligent kids with some athletic ability," Foster said of his quarterback contenders, seniors Jeff Lambright and Marcus Hall and sophomore Tyrus Lawson.

"We'd like to name a starter after the intra-squad scrimmage next Saturday. That way, the rest of the team is used to that person in the position before the start of the season."

At Linganore , juniors Nick Marth, Sam Ashton and Ricky Conner, the head coach's son, are vying to succeed graduate Alex Phelps, who threw 26 touchdown passes in the regular season last year.

Marth was Phelps' backup.

"There definitely is some pressure to come in and be good right away, especially after the season Phelps had last year," Marth said.

Rick Conner is dividing reps evenly between the three in the early stages of practice and is willing to let the competition play to within proximity of the season opener.

"When one of those three steps up and makes a real claim for the position, we'll know," Conner said.

"Our quarterback last year was outstanding. So asking a new guy to step right in is a tall order, but we feel like we have guys around him who can help him out and keep us moving in a positive direction."

Frederick coach Vince Ahearn, who has already selected 6-foot-3, 180-pound junior Deon Walker as his new starter, is anxious to see the kind of impact these new quarterbacks will create.

He said, "Regardless if they are just stepping in, there's some really good quarterbacks out there that might surprise some people."