GRAY SHIRT - Carl Hinton is a Sussex Central football and basketball athlete who has been recruited by Delaware State University as a tight end and will begin classes next January, even though he is an academic qualifier by NCAA rules. Hinton has the size (6-foot-4), speed and power to be a major player at the I-AA level, but he’s young and still learning how to put it all together.
Gray shirting is actually common in Division I football recruiting which limits the number of players who can be recruited with the freshman class and limits the number invited to fall practice.
Gray shirts of January can actually be red shirted the following year - not play but practice - and still have four years to play.
Let’s not even get into transfer rules across the different levels from Division III to Division I - suffice it to say that the athletes should know the rules as rules pertain to them.
Green shirt is a relatively new term and is applied to that high school senior who forgoes his/her spring semester in high school to enroll in college in January. Green means “go” as in “go early.”
More and more you see high school seniors pass up their final semester to get to campus early. Lydia Hastings, a Cape senior soccer star, is now a green shirt at the University of Maryland.
MCBRIDE AND THE RIDE - The NFL Combine begins next week at the Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis. Coach George Glenn will be there along with Delaware State coaches Mike Gallagher and Jeff Braxton. It is a week of football networking and in the real world of sports we all know each other. Shaheer McBride, who broke all of John Taylor’s records at Delaware State but was injured for most of last season, will be there. McBride, 6-foot-3 and 185pounds, was a football and basketball star for the Clippers of Chester High School. Coach Mike Gallagher reports that if McBride impresses with his 40 speed he could go in one of the money rounds of the draft.
SOFTLY WITH BIG STICK - I don’t know if Sean Mock is a plebe, midshipman or baby midshipman. All I know was that last week in a junior varsity lacrosse game at the Naval Academy, Sean was running around with a long pole in his hand whacking people. I know that because three different lacrosse enthusiasts, none of them related to Sean, thought I should know that the former Cape ‘man down man’ was recruited from club to play junior varsity at a top 10 Division I program. I could say I’m surprised, but I’m not. Sean is one of those people who allow the world to come to him, and if he ever steps on the varsity field I hope someone calls me because I know he won’t.
CAPE CRUSADER - Cape community action figure Tom Pederson is committed to all kids getting opportunities through sports, especially basketball. Tom asked me last week if I was onboard with efforts to get young kids started in basketball early, perhaps resulting in travel team ball. I told him I was absolutely on board. Then, the next day, I found out I was on the “board,” which is cool. It got me to wonder if I ran for school board and got elected could I still be funny? The answer is most likely not as in not get elected or not funny - either way I lose.
Check out the ad in the sports section for Cape Crusader youth basketball (page 113), and if you think your child has a future in the sport it is time to commit. Travel teams in all sports seem to be lacking children of color - that is the simple truth - so parents, aunts, uncles and teachers all need to help with talent search. The first of 10 workout sessions begins Saturday, March 15. The fee is $25 which is chicken feed for a family of chickens. The number is 226-3042.
SNIPPETS - Isaiah Brisco’s name did not appear on the Gold roster for this June’s Blue/Gold All-Star football game because he is not on the roster. The last two years in June, Brisco, a two-time state champion in the hurdles, competed in the Nike National Scholastic Meet.
Nic Kmetz of Indian River is going to Colby College in Maine. Colby plays Williams, Amherst, Bowdoin, Bates, Tufts, Middlebury, Hamilton, Trinity and Wesleyan. Bill Belichiek and Eric Mangini are alums of Wesleyan, not to mention Bo Pratt goes to school there.
Cape’s baseball and softball fields are available for play this spring. The soccer fields outside the stadium are unavailable for practice or play. The field hockey game field is available in the spring and you know what that means? That’s right, turf wars at the highest levels. Get off of my lawn! Actually it is my understanding that all fields are Cape and community fields and not owned by any specific sports. The new bleachers and support bathrooms surrounding the turf field will be ready for the fall 2008 season. The demolishment of old Cape is set to begin in the summer of 2009 and continue through the spring of 2010, which will set a new Guinness Book of Records time element for demolishment without dynamite. Whatever happened to blasting caps and imploding? If a building is being taken down so carefully then it begs the question when you’re chipping away with rock hammers, why not just leave the Little Big House standing?
The Henlopen Conference basketball championship is scheduled for that same worthless Little Big House on Saturday, Feb. 23 with game time at 2 p.m. because riff-raff don’t like day games.
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Sports Editor Emeritus
Email Fredman at fredman@capegazette.com
