TALENT POOL - The more sports offered by a school during a season the more diluted the underground spring that feeds the talent pool. Cape went from just girls softball, track and tennis then later added soccer and lacrosse for women.
Sussex Tech has done the same thing for women’s sports and by the looks of participation levels, 47 soccer players along with 40 for lax and 30 softball girls and a herd of athletes over at the track, there seem to be enough opportunities for everyone. In fact, perhaps women’s rugby should also be added and maybe a skimboarding team.
I coached boys track for 10 years at Cape and I recruited everyone, mostly annoying people in the lunch line and offering to help them cut in if they attended one practice. One day after boys lacrosse was up and running, practicing next to the baseball field, I looked around and said, “So, let me get this straight. I get all the black people. That certainly works for my program.”
But seriously, I never waited for kids to come to me; I always stalked talent because I knew that great kids drawn to my magnanimous personality could make me look smart.
BIRDMAN - Vincent Glover set a state record in the triple jump at the 1983 Penn Relays when he flew 48-6 taking off two feet behind the board wearing six pairs of socks. The record stood for 20 years and is currently held by Mike Roberts of Tower Hill at 49-5.
And the only reason Vincent - who looked a little like George Foster of the Cincinnati Reds - came over to track from baseball was because he kept bailing out on the curve ball. Glover jumped 44-4 his first time down the runway - and I don’t mean that television show - although I’d like to see an underfed model triple jump 44 feet and you would too.
DEMOLITION VERSUS RESTORATION - I raise more questions than I have the attention span to answer and that is the interest group I front. Cape’s Little Big House needs to stay because there is not enough indoor sports space for all the teams and age groups. So why are we all twisting in the wind until we tear the house down?
Basically it’s about voter-approved referendum money which planned to demolish, not restore what some students without a clue still call “the gym room.”
“You just can’t use money approved by referendum to do one thing to do something else,” said assistant superintendent Janis Hanwell. “We couldn’t build a pool if there was money left over at the end because the community voted no to that idea.”
However if there is money left for spending, a second turf field and mini stadium would be within guidelines and you can put it in the bank that dream will come to reality, understand what I’m saying playa?
A tangled sticky web of government regulations also queer any hopes of retaining the “Keep the Little Big House” movement because, at some point in time, DelDOT and DNREC got all up in everyone’s business and it all comes down to site plans and parking spaces versus square footage of buildings and stadiums and like, shut up already. We get it but we don’t care. It’s our “House,” but because of too many rules there is no chance of keeping it. How in the heck does that happen?
CAPE BLUE DEVIL - Shemik Thompson, a Cape kid forever, was just named the North East Conference Rookie of the Year for the Central Connecticut State Blue Devils. Shemik is the first CCS Blue Devil to win the honor. During the regular season where he dished off 90 assists and scored a personal game high of 21 points he was named Rookie of the Week three times.
The question I ask is while Delaware was messing about challenging this honor roll student’s residency and guardianships rights, where was the University of Delaware if not sleeping at the big wheel of “he’s good but he can’t play here.”
Shemik has been a Cape player since middle school and everyone from coach Dwight Tingle and his coaches to Tom Pederson and Jesse Millman, owner of the Concord Comeback Ball, all share in this proud moment. Sportswriters, too!
SNIPPETS - Coach KK, Kathleen Fluharty, will be conducting a field hockey clinic, skill drills and games for grades 2 through 8 beginning Friday, April 25, at the Eagle’s Nest fields off Route 1 north of Lewes. The cost is $70 dollars for eight weeks, or was that 10 weeks? Fliers can be picked up at the school or you can email coach KK at coachKK@aol.com.
Speaking of devils, why aren’t evangelicals after devil sports mascots? I mean if anything Indian is politically incorrect, what about devils?
Athletes of the Week in the Cape Gazette is a place to celebrate accomplishments of all ages and animals including dogs and horses and perhaps a marlin who jumps and spits a tournament hook back into a million-dollar boat. The rule I follow is, “If I see them in person then I may use them.” I don’t care where or if they went to high school, how many times they have been honored or whether or not their family likes me.
When coaches of little kids yell incessantly players on the other team internalize it and wonder, “If I yelled like that at home I’d be grounded for a month.” There are some adults who need porch penance and bologna sandwich lunch detentions. Bookmark viewmyschedule.com to check the latest sports schedules for all schools. And if you don’t know how to do that and coordinate www.mapquest with your GPS then don’t complain when you miss a game or can’t find a field. And if you find yourself at an afternoon away high school game and you are not related to one of the players then you must ask yourself the question, “What am I doing here?”
I ask myself that all the time.
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Sports Editor Emeritus
Email Fredman at fredman@capegazette.com
