Football coaches at Sweetbriar are formidable and friendly staff

Apocalypse Now - The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse – don’t mess with their world. These roughneck Cape football coaches who look like Boathouse bouncers from the ’80s in Dewey Beach are not to be trifled with. All four young men work at the new Sussex Consortium off Sweetbriar Road. Tyree Maull and Shamar Moore are both members of Linemen for Life. Zach Horstmyer played tight end and fullback at HBU Cheyney University. Zach has a degree in elementary education. R.J. Lopez played his high school football at St. George’s Tech under now-Cape head coach J.D. Maull. He is going through Wilmington University for his teaching degree and certification. All young men in their 20s are friendly guys, good coaches and great with kids. Shamar and Tyree work in the autistic unit, while R.J. and Zach work in the ILC unit. 

Crazy Eights - Cape field hockey hopefuls met on the Legends Stadium track at 7 a.m., Monday charged with running two miles in under 16 minutes. But eight laps of the Cape track – 3,200 meters – is actually 18 meters short of two miles. None of it is important because mathematical exactness only matters in rocket science and cutting roof rafters. I like watching a team of 50 athletes run past me for eight laps, as it affords some great opportunities for photos, all captured in two 16-minute segments. I learn to associate a name with a face and, from there, to diagram their family tree. Cape hockey has a play day scrimmage at home Aug. 21 beginning at 9 a.m. There are 14 varsity and 10 JV teams. Games are 25 minutes long and will be played on Champions, Legends, Bermuda 1 and Bermuda 2. Varsity teams are Cape, Caesar Rodney, Delmar, Indian River, Lake Forest, Milford, Padua, Parkside, Polytech, Sussex Academy, Sussex Central, Sussex Tech, Wilmington Christian and Wooten. First-year head coaches who are former Cape players are Katie Boyer at Indian River and Dominique Scott at Sussex Tech.

Coach Basile - I ran into the former Caesar Rodney wrestling coach Wednesday morning at the dedication of the new David E. Robinson Elementary School in the Caesar Rodney School District. Coach Pete Basile won state titles in 1975, 1978 and 1979. Pete lives in Ocean View. I run into him occasionally on the road racing series. His grandson Jackson runs cross country for Sussex Academy. Granddaughter Addison Basile was a freshman lacrosse player last year at Sussex Academy.  

My boy got a building - I sneaked a quick audience with Dave Robinson prior to the dedication of the new David E. Robinson Elementary School in Magnolia. I told him we should show up some morning to have coffee out front to see how quickly they would kick us off the property. I can always inject stupid into the most serious of situations. Back in 2004, Dave and I were standing by the backstop at Sports at the Beach watching Cape play Caravel for the softball state championship. The Bucs won 1-0. During the game, Dave said, “I have nominated you to the Delaware Sports Hall of Fame.” I said to him, “Done. I'm in. Say no more. A guy like you thinks that much of me, that becomes my hall of fame moment.” Update: Cape still hasn't won a softball state title and I’m still not in the Delaware Sports Hall of Fame, but on Wednesday, Caesar Rodney and Cape people joined the Robinson family in cutting the yellow ribbon of the new David E. Robinson Elementary School.

Snippets - When did baseball announcers start talking about two- and four-seam fastballs? And whatever happened to screwballs and drops, and enough with the split finger. And if we must know launch angles and exit velocities, let’s go the distance and use the K zone and eliminate home plate umpires altogether. Mariner and Beacon total 12 fall sports, including football, cheerleading, soccer, volleyball, cross country and field hockey. All the sports have coaches in place and are ready to roll. Hopefully, no renewed COVID crises will block middle school sports from resuming. Cape football is at Lake Forest Saturday morning, Aug. 21, for a down and distance scrimmage against the Spartans and Silver Eagles of Hodgson. Lake was 2-4 last season, while Hodgson was 5-2. This will be a big test for the Cape defense to see if they are ready to shut people down. Speaking of shutting down, how ‘bout them Phillies? Go on now, git!