A gathering of Gooches at Temple sports complex

Family Ties - I got the lead column photo of the week after Temple’s 13-11 win over Villanova April 8 at the Temple sports complex. There were so many Gooches in a row fronting the logo, I was going to yell “Second Checker.” You have to be local to understand that inside joke. You see, Dawn’s father is Lloyd Purcell of Lewes IGA fame, and if you go into that store today and are not recognized, it means you are not a player or all the real players have left town.

Augusta to Aleppo - From the rough to the rubble, from the west to the east, the contrast is sharp between Augusta National, where the Masters tournament is played, to Aleppo in Syria, where bombs were dropped on rebels who look like ordinary people, from children to the elderly to small animals. Most Americans know a lot about sports and spend more time watching them on television than we do studying the geopolitical world scene. It’s not a bad thing, it is just our thing. I watched the Masters, and I was stunned by the beauty of the course. So much so, I wouldn’t mind driving around on an electric cart and taking photos. The holes at Augusta have names like Tea Olive, Pink Dogwood, Flowering Peach, Juniper, Pampas, Yellow Jasmine, Carolina Cherry, Azalea, Firethorn and Nandina. The holes of Aleppo also have names like crater, fissures, pockmark and blighted bunker. It’s amazing and incomprehensible that both places exist on planet earth at the same time.

Process and plan - The Cape girls’ lacrosse team lost at St. Mary’s of Annapolis April 8 11-8, falling to 4-1 on the season. Cape’s goals came from Eddy Shoop with four, Alia Marshall with two, and Mallory Jones and Cailey Thornburg with one apiece. The Vikings were outshot 21-9, and Izzy Cryne was credited with 10 saves. During Cape’s run of eight straight state championships and 103 straight wins against Delaware opponents, Cape has lost 13 games to out-of-state teams while putting together undefeated seasons in 2010 and 2012. The 2012 team beat Episcopal 12-11, Severn School 16-15 and Worcester 13-12. The 2012 team had eight athletes who would go on to play Division I lacrosse or field hockey. Cape lacrosse has always gone looking for competition to get tournament ready by the end of the season. That is the plan, and losing some games is part of the process. 

Cape baseball - “What’s wrong with our baseball team?” is a question I fielded several times Sunday while photographing a half marathon in Lewes, but there were no questions about tomahawk missiles making unscheduled landings at a Syrian airport. There are high expectations for this Cape baseball team, which is good because it means sports fans are paying attention. Cape had played seven games as of this writing, having won three and lost three with an unresolved 2-2 tie at Smyrna that was called after 10 innings due to darkness. Caravel is 3-3, Sallies is 4-2 and Milford is 4-2. There are teams to look out for like Delmar (5-1), Dover (5-0), Saint Mark’s (6-0) and Appoquinimink (6-0). There is nothing wrong with Cape baseball; they are an upper-tier team in Delaware. I’ve said it for years, “Baseball is the hardest sport to make a living. Everybody plays hardball. Just got to win the close games and keep your head above the waterline to make the tournament.”  

Sports channel god - I firmly believe that if there is a god, the supreme spirit of the universe could not care less about the outcome of games played, otherwise he’d be rooting against half his own children all the endless day long. Half of both teams - makes a full team - rock unhappy after games because of a paucity of playing time translated into not enough. My line of commiseration and consolation to extended family members is “God is testing me! The rest of you are collateral damage.” Grand Mom Rose: “Life is a real test; you’ll wish it was all about playing time in some silly game.”

Snippets - The Mariner boys and Beacon girls each won team titles April 7 at the Jim Blades Invitational track meet held at the new Woodbridge High School. Expanded results will be in this Friday’s Cape Gazette. April is Parkinson’s Awareness Month, and I went down to Rise Fitness April 6 to watch People with Parkinson’s - members who take multiple classes - receive orientation before getting after the gym’s climbing wall. Personally, I had no expectations, but I was shocked at what these athletes were able to accomplish and their willingness to hang it all out there. I talked to retired electrician Tom McCullum, and it turns out he went to high school at Dobbins in North Philly, where he played football, the same school as Dawn Staley, the head coach of the University of South Carolina women’s basketball. Dobbins is at 22nd and Lehigh across from the now-leveled Connie Mack Stadium and just two blocks from where “toddler on a trolley” Fredman grew up. Happy 70th birthday to my great friend Dave Kergaard. You all should look so good. Yo Skippy! Go on now, git!