Spring sports roar in like a wet lion

Hunker down - A weather front came through the Cape sports complex March 1 just as all sports teams prepared for the first day of spring practice. Baseball and softball players hunkered down in dugouts, while track, soccer and lacrosse made their way to the shelter of the field house. Day 1 looked like a washout, but then skies slowly cleared and teams went back to the turf and quickly draining ball fields, and resumed practices. I enjoy bopping around practices, but I’d enjoy a golf cart a whole lot more.  

Crosswalkers - Cape has won 13 total state championships over the last eight years in field hockey and lacrosse, benefitting the crossover athlete who plays both sports. Checking a college roster in either sport, you’ll find that many women played both in high school, and most times they were all-state in each sport. This spring, about a half-dozen girls in that two-sport pipeline, who declare field hockey as their No. 1 sport, have elected not to play lacrosse with all its time demands, to keep themselves free to play more field hockey. I thought of college field hockey players who played lacrosse at Cape, athletes like Jacki Coveleski, Erin Ricker, Maggie Delp, Tess Bernheimer, Jenna Steele, Caroline Judge, Kaci Coveleski, Karissa Lemaire. And a slew of two-sport athletes, some who played lacrosse in college and others who elected club-level competition. Players like Jordan Brown, Lexi Woodruff, Sam Broadhurst, Sarah Young, Anna Frederick, Kat Judge, Allie Yeager, Katie Yeager, Meg Bartley, Lillie Lingo, Sam Coveleski, Gina Voss, Lindsey Voss, Amanda Smith, Christina Bristowe  and Kelly Smith. Athletes make choices based partly on self-interest, which doesn’t mean selfish interest, but even a juggernaut like Cape lacrosse feels the sting of losing a half-dozen kids. Last year’s JV lacrosse team was 14-0, including a 5-4 win over St. Mary’s. The field hockey JV was 10-1-1, losing to Severna Park and tying Archbishop Spalding. There is plenty of talent in the pipeline, and crossover coaches would like to keep it in the same pipe.

Play the game - The Cape boys’ team (15-6) handled Caesar Rodney (14-7) on the road in the opening round of the state tournament, and their reward is a 90-mile bus ride to play the Mt. Pleasant Green Knights (17-3), the No. 1 seed in the tournament. Cape lost to Mt. Pleasant 48-42 in the Slam Dunk tournament in December. Mt. Pleasant has lost three games by a total of seven points. A Friday underdog game inside an old school gym is where real serious players respond. Cape has a chance Friday night. That is why they play the game.

Wrestling ain’t fun - I always thought when a coach or parent says to an athlete, “Don’t forget to have fun out there,” it plants the seed that there’s a chance you won’t. The sport of scholastic wrestling is many things to the athlete, but “fun” is not the first or 10th word that comes to mind. I saw a shirtless Dante Jacquet high jump at track practice March 1. Dante looked like he was having fun with his back to the mat and no one on top trying to pin him. Wrestlers Holden Kammerer, Andre Curry and Brock Maloomian play lacrosse in the spring. Ben Ashby left baseball for track and field to increase his speed for football. Ben’s great-grandfather Chic Reed, out of Middletown High, is a former high school national champion. He jumped 6 feet at Madison Square Garden using the western roll back in 1940, with a personal best 6-foot-3-1/4 and a 22-foot-8-inch broad jump. Lots of stories out there, you just have to know where to look for them.

Snippets - Thiel College junior guard and Cape alum Tyreik Burton aka Pop was named the Presidents' Athletic Conference Player of the Year Tuesday morning. Burton, who was also an All-PAC First Team selection, led the league in scoring with an average of 18 points per game. He also ranked third in the PAC in steals per game (1.7) and free throw percentage (82.1 percent). In addition, Burton ranked in the top 10 in the conference in assists per game (3.6), three-point field goals made per game (2.6), three-point field goal percentage (.368), assist-to-turnover ratio (1.5) and minutes played per game (32.4). The Player of the Year is voted on by the league’s 10 head coaches. Beacon Middle School, which hasn’t lost a track meet in eight years, had 75 girls come out the first day of practice. Both Mariner and Beacon have boys’ lacrosse teams this year. Most of those athletes also play Atlantic lacrosse, so it all translates to six days a week of practice and games, but as Bill Belichick from Annapolis High class of 1970 said in an interview last fall, “Football is work while lacrosse is fun.” Speaking of fun, I’m off to a Temple lacrosse game, my urban version of a Florida vacation. Go on now, git!