Micah mistakes me for Colonel Sanders, the intersection of cool

Micah and Mike - I was visiting with longtime friend Cliffone Howell on the bleachers front row during the Cape freshman basketball game at Dover. Cliff was sitting with his friend Michael Gleasner. Big Mike’s son, Micah, just 3 1/2 years old but socially savvy, seemed intrigued by my Mr. Potato Head self. He spoke in toddler fragments, “Gray beard. McDonald’s. Bucket chicken.” I turned to Cliff, “Little guy thinks I’m Colonel Sanders.” I later got a Facebook message from Micah’s dad after posting a photo. “Thank you for the picture and for ‘chatting’ with the little guy ... I don't know who Micah thought you were, but he seemed to think you were pretty cool.” Someone once asked me, “Little kids seem to like you, why is that?” I said, “Because I wouldn’t care if they didn’t. Most adults try too hard.” Father and son always inspirational, never to be taken for granted.

You can’t be serious! Yes, we are, and don’t call us Syria. Big moments await the athletes of winter sports, the longest of seasons, which just seems like it will never end. Basketball and wrestling are a grind, which doesn’t apply to the pool where you just get soggy and put away wet for 15 weeks. The Cape boys’ basketball team is 11-5 with four regular-season games left to play. But coach Steve Re’s teams are more irregular, so it’s best not to pencil in a W for anyone on their schedule, but there is a good chance they could go 14-6 and get a first-round home game. There is no foreboding behemoth in boys’ basketball, as about 10 teams have a good chance to make it to the Bob when action begins Wednesday, March 1. The Cape girls are 10-7 with three games left to play - a single victory would guarantee a winning season. Cape has upset wins over Sussex Central, St. Thomas More and Caesar Rodney, but mixed in are befuddling losses to Lake and Polytech. Coach Lauren Carra is a good candidate for Henlopen Conference Coach of the Year. Wrestling is 15-1 and also won a couple tournaments, but Smyrna and Sussex Central are both crazy good teams, so it will be tough nailing down the state dual-meet title, which belongs to Smyrna until someone wrestles it away from them. And swimming is now “everybody in the pool” for the Henlopen Conference Championships followed by the state championships. Cape will be pushed at conferences with the girls going in as favorites, while the boys are even money, having won their last 10 dual meets.

Trolls don’t scare me - I grew up with the storybook image of trolls who lived under bridges with big green heads and long red tongues, sort of Yoda body types before Yoda was conceptualized and realized. My uncles tried to make me scared of trolls but I always stopped and talked to them but never saw one - never saw God either - so they had that in common. I had to look up “internet trolls” because, honestly, I didn’t know exactly what that meant. From lifewire.com: “An internet troll is an abusive or obnoxious person who purposely seeks to get a rise out of others, either online or in real life.” And so thousands each day sit down in the swivel chair of discontent for the sole purpose of rankling others to get something going and keep it going. Sports issues intersect political issues at every crossroad, and trolls are directing us into collisions like a four-way stop at a five points cloverleaf. The best advice is not to play with people who don’t play nice.

Snippets - There are new scoreboards for softball and baseball this spring, and that will be nice, I hope there is a place to stand where you can see them both at the same time. Patrick Kilby will be the girls’ soccer coach this spring with Chris Myers serving as JV coach. Lindsey Eichner takes over the girls’ lacrosse job with Jenna Werley as assistant and Debbie Windett back as JV coach. George Pepper returns to coach girls’ track, assisted by Rob Percival and Hannah Pepper. Golf has new head coach Chris Krueger, who will be assisted by Samantha Purple. Cape softball will have a new head coach to replace Jeff Evans, who decided to step off. Sussex Academy will have a varsity girls’ lacrosse team coached by Jenny Smith. The Seahawks boys will not field a varsity team. Temple opens its women’s lacrosse season at Rutgers Saturday, Feb. 11. New Brunswick was expected to get 10 inches of snow Feb. 9. Granddaughter Anna is a starter on the team that also has granddaughter Lizzie and Cape’s Taylor Gooch. I go to take photos, happy to be mobile and not senile, at least for now. Go on now, git!