Hannah and her Caravel sisters with a Cape connection

Hey, Tracy Jr.! The Caravel field hockey team was leaving Champions Stadium Aug. 19 after playing Cape for 25 minutes. It was the most closely contested game of the day for Cape. Caravel eighth-grade varsity player Hannah McLamb walked near the back of the pack and I yelled, “Hey, Tracy Jr., stop right there, so I can take your picture.” There was no mistaking the resemblance. I had been putting in some quality fence time with former students Donald McLamb and Tracy Smith McLamb, so I was alerted that Hannah was in a Caravel uniform, but I picked her out of the Buccaneer Brigade myself. The resemblance to her mom was striking but not uncanny; it would have been uncanny if she looked like someone else’s mom.

Three days at the races - In a 1937 Marx Brothers movie, Groucho plays horse doctor Hugo Z. Hackenbush. In a clubhouse scene, Margaret Dumont faints and Dr. Hackenbush pulls a giant horse pill from his black bag. “She’ll need five gallons of water to swallow that,” says Tony, played by Chico Marx. “That’s OK, she’s got a bridge in her mouth,” says Hackenbush. There were four 5K races in the last three days of the week, totaling 870 runners, and I needed a bridge in my mouth just to stay hydrated at the Rehoboth Fire Station. 

Run the Goat - “Hey Gladis, where’s your husband Leroy?” “He’s off running the goat.” “Well, that don’t sound good.” “No, it don’t.” The third annual Run the Goat 5K in Milford attracted 267 runners who started early because digital weather images screamed “duck and cover, brother, you can run the goat later.”  “I have a new weather app that shows the weather right where you are standing,” said Wayne Kursh of Races2Run. “But so does actual rain on your head,” I thought. Anyway, Milford is a happening place for families with lots a diversity and friendships, and people turn out to support the cause - the Boys & Girls Club - and for the parking lot party afterward in front of Arena’s. The Milford Arena’s is owned by Ramsey and Andrew Schraeder. The band 3C North played. I really wanted to stay, but the low-pitched rumbling and blackened sky threatened to sear the crowd which quickly scattered and skedaddled. Note: Baby James Fred beat his older brother Will in the kids race because Will ran into the back of a parked car. James couldn’t get the smile off his face, but he’s always that guy. 

Deweylicious and Bubbalicious - I make new friends easily, but before anyone starts in on me, the Rockettes pose was their idea; my job was lighting and focus and keeping them smiling before they toppled into the water. Shown are (l-r) Rachel Lucas, Jen Hawk, Kelly Pearson, Tracy Shirk, Christine Faya, Dana Schilling, Jane Nabulsi and Stacey Medway. The women have a beach house and are bonded because they “work out at the same gym” somewhere near Fallston, Md. In between, the girls just want to have some fun.      

Snippets - I dropped by the Eastern Shore Lacrosse Club tryouts Aug. 20 at Champions Stadium because I was going past there anyway, so figured I’d snap up some atmosphere photos. Coach P.J. Kesmodel was there, as he coaches a team, but he passed on the league commissioner duties to my son Dave. The league is for girls and this is its 10th year of existence. Tryouts are open for players from all over the Eastern Shore, not just Cape kids. More lenient transfer and choice rules, and the mothership rule “beam me back, Scotty,” have already affected the flow of talent this fall, just a few situations that I know about. As a coach, you hope all the surprises on your roster are happy ones. The Little League team from North Carolina was one umpire call away from two straight perfect games in a row, but an umpire called a 3-2 pitch right down the middle a ball and that was that. North Carolina still threw two consecutive no-hitters, but that call should have been reviewable and reversed because it sure looked wrong. But man, you couldn’t pay me enough to umpire in the Little League World Series, which is why they don’t pay them at all. Go on now, git!