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Cape girls’ swim team 62-1 since 2012

January 31, 2017

Splash down - Swimmers are like track athletes, because they compete in front of small crowds of relatives, but they are also underwater. The Cape girls’ swim team is currently 10-0 this season. Last season, they lost to Easton (Md.) after winning 50 straight dual meets, and unofficially they are 62-1 going back to 2012. Sandwiched inside field hockey and girls’ lacrosse, there are a few multiple-sport girls who have come through Cape and never lost a game or meet. And honestly, almost all these girls are academic powerhouses who do Academic Challenge, Advanced Placement and Honors classes. A ridiculous number are on the first honor roll. Cape is a private school for girls embedded inside a public school for everybody. That argument could easily be made, but I’m the only one making it.   

Run through a wall - The sports expression has been around since I was a player. It is seen as a positive personality trait, a player who will run through a wall for a coach to get his team a victory. And we’ve all heard contemporary coaches say, “Back in the day, a good player would run through a wall if you asked him. Now, you ask him and he wants to know why. Players today are just different.” OK, enough already, just stop!  Ain’t nobody runnin’ through no wall because walls don’t fall down. You run into one, you fall down, then you go into the concussion protocol. I do hear a lot of coaches say, “Athletes today aren’t as tough as they used to be.” That statement is always uttered by a coach who is not as tough as he used to be. You can’t couple overemphasis with undercommitment in describing today’s athlete; it just makes no sense. I have told some coaches, “When this season is over, you should get three credits in abnormal psychology because of the skills you used to put a competitive team on the floor or field.” I see too much excellence to buy into “kids don’t care as much as they used to,” but perhaps they are more complicated. The high school athlete has always presented a tough challenge, harnessing the talent, making it better and molding the player into the fabric of a team. Good coaches have a player’s back, but they are not running through any walls. 

Fat is fun - People who have lived a large portion of their life pushing the morbidly obese envelope knows how much fun they had getting there and maintaining that condition. Drinking is fun too, but there comes a time when neither is worth it if your life turns into a haze of skimmed mayonnaise and ridiculous laughter. I have recently noticed several guys who had achieved ideal weight status but subsequently ate their way back to burly and beefy - it’s just too much fun. I have read tons of psychological material on the subject - it doesn’t help - but the general consensus is any type of personal rehabilitation should not celebrate successes by beating a drum. Just quietly incorporate healthy decisions into your lifestyle then say goodbye to your last deviled egg.

Homecoming - Dr. Dave Robinson, former Cape and Caesar Rodney school superintendent, is coming home to Lewes three months after he hit a parked car while riding his bicycle, which threw him off his bike onto the roadway, splitting his helmet and fracturing vertebrae in his neck. He was flown by a helicopter to Jefferson Hospital in Philly for emergency surgery to relieve pressure on a swollen spinal cord, and he has spent most of the time away from home at Magee Rehabilitation Center in North Philly. He is scheduled to be home Tuesday, Jan. 31. Sussex County friends are great at home visits but also famous for their reluctance to leave. Dave has a lot of adjusting to do being back home, so call first before popping on by. Magee, by the way, is a magical place that does a great job taking the darkness out of despair while pushing the patient toward the bright lights of hope and helping them cope with a life changed if not for the better but with a chance to get better every day.      

Snippets - I think NBA players are mostly bored by playing too many games and answering too many post-game questions about those too many games. I saw Steph Curry warming up before a game by pretending the ball was a shot put and then using a perfect spin technique to throw it. Most games are like pickup games, and the Warriors have the most players who can run and shoot. Defense is where players rest because it’s impossible to go full tilt over an 82-game schedule. Did you ever pretend a basketball was a giant grenade? No, me neither. Go on now, git!

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