Come see about me and JV

Come See About Me - The Supremes’ song that rhymes with JV. So full disclosure: My granddaughter Anna is a Cape girls’ JV lacrosse coach along with Debbie Windett. I will be at most of their games taking photos with a big camera because I own it. But, “I’m just a man whose intentions are good; lord, don’t let me be misunderstood” - The Animals. Cape’s JV soccer team started the season with a 1-0 win over Sussex Academy on a penalty kick goal by Emma Judd. Brianna Burrell and Kaci Leppert combined on the shutout. Tyler Nichols is the soccer JV coach. The JV girls’ lacrosse team beat Polytech 15-1 March 22  on goals by Elaina Best with three; Landon Diehl, Kayleigh Mault and Olivia Burkentine with two each; and Natalie Pfaff, Anna Sullivan, Rosemary Waple, Keara Parsons, Kayla Droge and Alexis Truitt all scoring one. Cape outshot the Panthers 20-5. Mikaylah Lindsay had four saves in goal. 

Cape reunion - Liberty baseball (14-5) beat University of Virginia (9-11) 10-2 March 24 in Lynchburg, Va., as the Flames won their 11th game in a row. The Division I top-of-the-line game featured former Cape teammates David Erickson and Mason Fluharty for Liberty. Erickson got the win and is 5-0 on the season. Virginia third baseman Zack Gelof was 1-for-3 with a run scored for the Wahoos. Jake Gelof appeared as a pinch hitter. All four friends met for a photo after the game. 

Do coaches matter? - I think in the last five minutes of a close basketball game the team with the better coach should win most of the time. But I don’t believe that is true because I pay attention to that stuff from the pros down through high school. Few players are looking at the white board being marked up during a timeout. The NCAA games have been insane, just unpredictable based on all the busted brackets. But that’s the men’s game. Most men, as a rule, are more distractible than women. Have you ever picked a bracket in the women’s NCAA  tournament? I have not because I know little about the field, even less than I do for the men’s game. I read an article on ESPN.com. Some guy named Charlie Creme ranked all 64 women’s teams. The top four are Stanford, Connecticut, Texas A&M and South Carolina. On March 24, the tournament reached the Sweet 16. I’m thinking the University of Maryland under coach Brenda Frese has a gambler’s chance. Frese guided Maryland to a national championship in 2006; she also has 16 winning seasons, 16 straight 20-win seasons, seven 30-win campaigns and 16 trips to the NCAA tournament. In 2013, she signed an extension through at least June 2021. With rollover years, she can be on the Maryland sidelines through 2025.

Body mass index - The Metropolitan Life Insurance ideal height/weight chart, which predates body mass indexing scales, always had me two standard deviations to the right of ideal because they have no appreciation of the Linemen for Life subset of the homo sapiens species. And that’s why I haven’t “weighed in” on the issue of middle school sports. I'm just too far off center. I’m an enabler with an attitude. I would let them play even if their bus driver was named “Corona,” just as long as the parents signed a waiver that wasn’t worth the paper it was written on, like all waivers before any athletic endeavor. But out there in the sports world, it’s getting dicey moving away from nicey – there are more virologists than ventriloquists – although plenty of people throwing their voices think we don’t hear them, but I do. 

Virtual event - In my world, a virtual event is no event at all. It's like telling me you scored 36 points in a virtual basketball game in your driveway, and not only was there no shot clock, but you didn't even have a ball. If there is a live sports event, there is a good chance I may show up to cover it, but I will never virtually show up.  

Snippets - Hannah McLamb, daughter of Donald and Tracy Smith McLamb (Milton connection), scored six goals as Caravel lacrosse opened the season with an 18-1 win over Conrad. Freshman Madge Layfield of Sussex Central struck out 20 in her high school debut against Smyrna but lost 2-1 in extra innings to Payton Dixon, who struck out 10. Katelyn Evick was her catcher. Smyrna, coached by Nicki Shirley, won the last state softball title contested in 2019. Mercer University women’s lacrosse ,with former Cape players Izzy Cryne, Cailey Thornburg and Chloe Schaeffer on the team, will play at Delaware State Thursday, April 1, and that is no joke. Chloe has nine goals and three assists on the season. The unintended downside consequence of all these turf fields is that games are rarely called, so I’m shooting photos for two hours under water. Who am I, Jacques Custodian? Go on now, git!