Frozen moments in sports only get more vivid over time

Capturing moments - The save and the shot. In the final minutes of a Cape JV lacrosse game at Stephen Decatur, Vikings goalie Cami Smith saved a hard-shot ball tracking toward her helmet. Looking through the long lens, I saw her flinch. Cami is a volunteer second-half goalie - it’s not her natural position. That is bravery. Down on the offensive end, Cape had a chance to win or head home with a tie - there is no time for overtime in JV. Cape moved the ball around; someone has to attack at go time. Moving toward the center off her power right side, Lola Messick gets into the must-shoot zone. She has not scored in the game. Check that, she has scored once, the game-winner with 2 seconds on the clock. The final, 7-6. Afterward, I walk toward the Cape bench and yell out their names, “Cami and Lola, over here!” They know what time it is. They stand together. I walk far enough away to frame them inside a 500 mm Nikon lens. A memory is captured, and the athletes get it. Cami and Lola understand they are part of a frozen moment.

Hit them with your best shot - I arrived at Polytech under harsh sunlight to grab a cool thousand track photos before heading home to process them. I see senior Marissa Legates sitting in the grass getting her hair fixed by a teammate. Focus is dead on, green grass as a backdrop, red hair over white skin with summer freckles. Other girls go for a two-person and a three-person photo, but Marissa alone is the classic. I know the senior, and she knows me, but we have never spoken for more than 30 seconds. I know her mom Regina from way back and knew her late dad David when he ran up and down the Cape lacrosse field and coaches Rob Schroeder and Moose Mohr yelled “C’mon, Rooster!” I feel privileged watching the process of history, and, to me, the moment is simple yet touching. That’s what happens when you give gramps a big old camera. Regina Smith and David Legates graduated together in 1983. David passed early in 2005. Marissa’s older brother Derek also pole vaulted, which is how she got into track. 

Gentle Ben - Ben Rothstein is a Cape sophomore. Teachers call him a great kid, very smart with a keen sense of humor. Ben has used the sport of track not to physically reclaim himself, but to discover a trimmed-down life in the outside lanes. He runs the 400 meters, and at Polytech April 11, he lost the slow heat of a one-lap race by half a lap. But magic happened when he hit the final straightaway. Groups of athletes, mostly Afro-American, stopped to cheer him on to the finish line. Tapping into that brotherhood is just magic, and it’s what makes track and field such a special sport.

Passing the baton - The first exchange in the girls’ 4-by-100-meter relay is freshman Sydney Green to Niyashja Mosley. There’s something about teamwork on the baton exchange at full speed. Sydney is a gymnast while Niyashja plays basketball and sprints for the track team. Cape did not win the relay, but they were right there doing what so many adults suggest, having fun out there.  

Journey on! - Anna Frederick with professor Julie Kessler of Temple’s School of Education. The current course being taken is literacy instruction. Players and professors were introduced before the game. They stop in front of me as I take their photo. Anna announces, “This is my grandfather.” Professor Kessler is surprised and impressed. She smiles and says, “I just love Anna.” I say, “Yeah, me too.” 

Snippets - Madi Bada of Sussex Tech scored her 100th career lacrosse goal last week in a win over Newark Charter. Madi and Cailey Thornburg of Cape both passed the 100th milestone in the same week. They are summer teammates in the Eastern Shore Lacrosse Club. Madi is heading to play at East Carolina University, while Cailey is going to Mercer in the Atlantic Sun Conference. Mercer University is in Macon, Ga., and the team is currently 10-2 on the season. ECU is a Division I program playing in the American Conference which will begin its inaugural season in spring 2018. Unfortunate that Lou Ianire’s bar on Pilottown Road and Luigi’s Wheel House on Lewes Beach are closed, otherwise, there would have been serious baseball talk after Austin Elliott’s no-hitter and two-run homer game versus Caesar Rodney at Chris Short Field. Lou and Jonny Elliott would love to brag about their grandson and son. Just get ready for the Chris Short stories. Go on now, git!