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Gold team practices ahead of 63rd annual game

A lot going on in Milford, if you know where to look
June 22, 2018

On a late Wednesday afternoon, June 20, down the road from the Milford Grotto, it was pizza oven hot for the scheduled Gold team practice/scrimmage in preparation for the 63rd Blue-Gold All-Star game at the University of Delaware Saturday, June 23, beginning at 6 p.m.

Too many media with not much going on followed coach Bill Collick on his farewell tour from college and high school football. Bill Collick is not a sign off personality type, he can pick you up in mid sentence from three weeks earlier. He is too valuable not to be resourced in multiple ways.

“Camp is tough in June,” Collick said from the field before the scrimmage. “These young men are fresh off graduations, are looking toward the future, and now they’re in camp for two-a-days with full contact. The camp used to be two weeks long, but I can’t say it goes by quickly, it is a grind.”

Cape had two players in the game Zach Dale and Kolbi Wright, but evidently Wright decided not to play. Ben Ashby is a manager. “I would love to play,” he said from the practice field. “But I’m not cleared yet from my ACL surgery eight months ago. But I’ll tell you there are some crazy guys on this team that can flat out hit.”

Ashby will suit up for Salisbury University in the fall.

Head on a swivel is the best way to comprehend what is going on in a Gold team scrimmage. The cheerleaders are on the track practicing routines and, oddly enough, “heads up!” means “duck” when there are footballs in the air.

Zach Dale, a college level left-footed punter, was booming kicks warming up. A high flier drifted over the track and came point down onto the top of the head of Smyrna cheerleader Sarah Ruckle. She dropped because that seriously hurts. Later, the girl bound for West Chester University, where she will cheer for the football team, was sitting with an ice bag on top of her head.

Back on the field, it was a 7-on-7 passing drills, while down in the end zone, the linemen did stupid linemen tricks interspersed with throwing touchdowns to each other.

It is hard to know what’s was going on when the brief full-contact scrimmage took place because numbers and helmets don’t match-up and there are logos from every team covering each helmet.

The Gold won last year’s game 44-0, while the Blue leads the all time series 32-27-3.

Howard’s Dan Ritter is the Blue coach.

The game benefits DFRC, but think hand-in-hand and all-star buddies going back 63 years. A look along the fence found three player buddies, and buddies to each other, watching the scrimmage

Matt Beck, Brendon Popp and Justin Haggerty will be ready Saturday night. The five minutes before the game when buddies charge from the end zone to find their players as the song plays “reach out and touch somebody’s hand, make this world a better place if you can” is the best five minutes in Delaware sports of the entire year.

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