Cross country running is a blissful jaunt while chasing yourself

They call me the breeze - Cross country and road running are such great sports, it’s incomprehensible that a low percentage of coaches from other sports still use running as punishment. I played football in high school, but was amazed and perplexed at cross country runners (just boys before Title IX) who would run seven miles up and back on the Levittown Parkway after school. I loved my own running years from the early ’70s until my skeletal system and body type determined I should stop and buy a camera. I covered a Cape at Sussex Academy cross country meet Sept. 21 because I just like it, from the athletes who finish in the front to those chasing personal goals from the middle to the back of the pack.

Eagles fans - Years ago, a lady in Philly was waiting for the trolley when a bowling ball fell on her head and killed her. That became my metaphor for being an Eagles fan. The ball was being used to hold a window open and it just rolled out like a geranium on the cranium. Old-school Eagles fans keep an even perspective on team success and never refer to the team as “we.” So everyone shut up about Carson Wentz already before you all succeed in ruining him, because no one can live up to the hype in Philly. I predicted this team to be 9-7 before the season - very optimistic - so do “we”  have a chance against the Steelers on Sunday? The Steelers are three- to five-point favorites. The game is at 4:30. It will be a rock-and-roll old-school football show at the Linc in Philly. It’s already like a Super Bowl - Kid Carson versus Big Ben – Schmidt’s versus Iron City.

I had a dream - I honestly had a dream I was a traveling speaker appearing at AA meetings trying to convince people to start drinking again. A friend of mine wrote: “It wouldn’t take too much convincing to get me back at the bar.” Somewhere is a connection to young and fit athletes from high school through college and then beyond who enjoy loosening up by slamming a few beers together and laughing at stuff that’s really not that funny when you’re sober. The cautionary tale is, “Leave it behind or your life will be dark, like the inside of a keg from which you can’t escape the sound of your own sorrows.”   

Division III - No one really wants to play a sport at Division I level on a partial scholarship and games in front of less than 300 people. Many athletes just want to play a sport or two while they are in college, and Division III programs are the best for that. If you’re a good student, you may qualify for grants you don’t have to pay back, which is as valuable as any athletic scholarship. There is an entire college network of clubs teams by sport. There are 87 teams in the National Field Hockey Club League. Delaware won the national championship in 2011.

Cape football takes it to the River - Indian River is 0-2 hosting 1-1 Cape Friday night. It is a game featuring teams looking to get well. Cape should not be fooled; Indian River has some skilled and fast people. If not for a 15-0 third quarter put up by Sussex Tech last week, the Indians would have lost 33-28 (a closer approximation of the game) rather than 48-28. Cape beat IR last year 34-0. Seaford High has Dwayne Henry as head coach of football and Duane Henry as head coach of soccer. Neither Henry is Dwayne Henry, the former Middletown star who was first-team all-state in football, basketball and baseball, who pitched 11 years in the major leagues.  

Snippets - Coaches are reminded to post roster numbers and results on websites4sports.com. That way the press can identify and pass on information to interested people. And anyway, it’s part of your job to promote your athletes and make my life easier. Sussex Tech hockey is off to a slow start (0-2) before the Poly game. But the Ravens have a combined 43 players on varsity and JV. The Ravens won back-to-back state titles under coach Nancy Tribbett in 2009-10. “Squeak” was a point guard who led Cape to a girls’ state championship in basketball in 1973. Go on now, git!