Hearts will be broken at dual-meet championships

Goodnight, sweetheart - The state dual-meet championships set for Tuesday Feb. 14, Valentine’s Day, at Smyrna High School feature six teams from Division I and six from Division II. Smyrna is No. 1 and Cape the No. 2 seed in D1, and both draw first-round byes. No. 3 Sussex Central will wrestle No. 6 William Penn at 3:30 p.m., while it’s Caesar Rodney versus Dover in the other bracket. The likely matchups in round two at 5:30 p.m. are Sussex Central versus Cape and CR against Smyrna. The semifinal round begins at the 170-pound weight class. “You couldn’t write a better script for the fans,” said Cape coach Chris Mattioni. “If it’s  Cape-Central, it ends at 160 with Cory Lawson and Brandon Bautista, both defending state champions, going at each other.” The Division II bracket has Milford seeded No. 1 and Indian River at No. 2. Third-seeded St. Georges wrestles No. 6 Caravel, while fourth-seeded Sanford grapples with No. 5 Laurel in the other quarterfinal. Indian River lost to Milford 37-33 during the regular season, but the Indians under coach Jeff Windish put together an 11-2 season. If both teams make the finals, it will be all about the bonus points. Smyrna, under coach Kurt Howell, will be tough to take down in a title match, and they wear red and gray on Valentine’s Day; the gray is for the other guys.

Tiara Duffy - Now a junior at South Carolina, Tiara was a gifted two-sport - field hockey and softball - Afro-American student athlete at Cape, with a near-perfect GPA and fat SAT scores. Tiara was an invited, non-recruited walk-on softball player coming out of Cape. The Gamecocks opened the season 5-0 last weekend, and all Sweet T did was walk three times in one game which included a force-in run; win another game breaking up a scoreless tie with a double, then a steal of third with nobody covering and then coming home on a bad throw; and in another game she hit an opposite-field home run, the first of her career. Sweet Tea is batting .375, appearing in four of five games.

Amber lights it up - Temple sophomore midfielder Amber Lambeth from Souderton High in southeastern Pennsylvania went from zero to four in 60 minutes. I snapped Amber’s photo and congratulated her on her four-goal performance after Temple lacrosse won at Rutgers 13-11. I asked how many total goals she scored as a freshman. She smiled and flashed the universal sign for zero. And that is how the journey goes in Division I sports - very predictably erratic, everyone can play, but you need opportunity, luck and the planets aligned. “Amber plays like a dog testing an electric fence,” said coach Bonnie Rosen. “She runs through double teams, feels the sting, but never drops the ball.” Taylor Gooch (Cape) is now a redshirt freshman on the Temple squad. She missed all of last year with a ruptured Achilles tendon. She was on the field for the final minutes with the game on the line.  Anna Frederick scored a goal, while Lizzie Frederick sat out with a foot injury - she is close to full speed go. Every roster player has a story to tell, it’s that way at all schools and in all sports, which is why ... here comes grand pop ... get that education and stay out of the concussion protocol.

Snippets - I spoke with Justine Donohoe after she ran the Valentine’s 5K and learned that her sons Connor, an engineering major, and Quinn, majoring in athletic training, both made the dean’s list at Delaware their first semester, while her daughter Colleen is a Cape junior getting ready for soccer season. I learned this because I ask - curiosity fuels the fat cat. Shannon Timmons has been named the new softball coach at Cape, replacing Jeff Evans, who resigned last month. Timmons was the head coach at Smyrna from 2002-05. She played high school ball at Lenape High School 1990-93, then played at Wesley College. Timmons is certified in physical education and driver’s ed and currently teaches driver’s ed at Cape. Sophomore power hitter and left fielder Kaeli O’Neill-Willey has an ACL injury and apparently will be lost for the season. Willey had two home runs in an 18-10 loss to Red Lion in the state tournament. Cape must also replace the pitching battery of Riley Shields and Sydney Ostroski. Doc Masser, 81, is off on another year of running. The math man runs 100 races a year, which, at 81, doesn’t add up, but Doc hangs in there, always with a smile on his face. Go on now, git!