Tagging people in photos, but who is it?

Playing tag - Last week I posted a Facebook album of a Cape hockey camp. One photo showed a young girl driving a field hockey ball. Tara N. Brown, whom I know, tagged Katie Johnson Allen in the photo. I used the photo in the print edition identifying the player as Katie Johnson Allen, except the little girl is Emerson Allen, the daughter of Katie. Both Katie and Emerson will get one free ticket and two name tags each for my end-of-career banquet celebration of misnamed, misspelled and misidentified people. There are some doozers. You don’t have to imagine; you already know.  

Lax alumni game - There were so many tornado warnings along eastern Delmarva last Thursday that my head was spinning counterclockwise. I didn’t know whether to hunker down in my safe place or go find a game to watch or go to the Harrington Fair and catch a flying goat. All was clear by 6 p.m. at Champions Stadium and I was surprised how many former players and coaches showed up for the alumni game. Gretchen Wyshock,, P.J. Kesmodel, and Lindsey Eichner Underwood, the only head coaches the program had ever known, were there. Lauren Pearce Brueckner, the first girl who played on the boys’ team, was also there along with Chrissie Cannatelli Coveleski. The scoreboard was lit up, but the game was a friendly as the teams were mixed and matched. Each alumni player had a unique story to tell. Coach P.J. was happy to be out and about standing by a field where everyone knew his name. Lauren posted this after the game: “Last night, I had the pleasure of joining several Cape women’s lacrosse alumni to play against the current state championship team. Let’s just say that the score didn’t matter … What mattered was the incredible memories from 20 years ago in 2002 when a handful of women and their mothers petitioned the school board to add a girls’ lacrosse team to Cape. We were met with lots of opposition and reasons of doubt including fear that by starting a team, we would take players from the softball and soccer teams. Let’s just say that that did not happen … What happened was the start of an incredible program which has now resulted in 12 consecutive Delaware state championship titles!”

Rolling sevens - Cape sent nine players to a seven-on-seven football tournament at Sandhill Fields in Georgetown on Saturday. Led by rising senior quarterback Hank D’Ambrogi, the Cape team went 9-0 on the day to win the tournament. Joining D’Ambrogi on the squad were Chancellor Johnson,  LT Messick, Jaden Messick, Nate Horn, Oden Potemski, Jordan Baines, Daniel Saez and Maurkai James. Games were 40 minutes long. Cape will begin football practice Friday, Aug. 6. The first game is Thursday, Sept. 2, as the Vikings host Salesianum. 

A parent's perspective - Cheryl Weir ran cross country at Delaware and has a master’s in physical therapy from Temple. She and husband Mike are summer locals and have two children: Andrew, a senior soccer player at LaSalle University, and Olivia, who is a level 10 gymnast now on the team at the University of Maryland, who just completed her freshman year. I’m sharing a post from Cheryl after all the chatter on Simone Biles: “Over the years I’ve heard Liv and her friends talk about ‘bailing,’ 'balking,’ mental blocks, and ‘the twisties,’ which is what Simone says she’s been suffering from. Liv said she and her teammates have always called it ‘twistlexia.’ She said it’s like a disconnect between your brain and your body, almost like you completely have no control or muscle memory of skills you’ve done a million times. Your brain wants nothing more than to perform the intended skill, but your body feels like it suddenly has a mind of its own. She said that it’s like having vertigo in the air and you have no idea of where you are in space or what’s up or what’s down. Truly scary and SO dangerous because this all happens midair and you have milliseconds to react and try to land the skill safely. She also said it’s not anything you can fix quickly. The brain is more powerful than anything else. Several gymnasts have posted incidents of paralysis or severe injuries or even deaths resulting from mental issues. Being mental in gymnastics is completely different from being mental in most other sports. These gymnasts are continually asking their bodies to do ‘unhuman’ things … every now and then THEY and THEIR BRAINS remind them and the rest of us that they are still just HUMAN.”

Snippets - Autumnal tides: The ocean churns more forcibly, the waves get bigger and heavier, and the rips are real. A word to the wise: Stay on the beach, but if you must frolic in the froth, never swim alone or on an unguarded beach, always have a plan of escape and never bodysurf shore-breaking waves. The Sussex County chapter of the United States Lifeguard Association will send a competition team to the 45th annual USLA Nationals this weekend in South Padre Island, Texas. The 2020 top three teams were LA County, Monmouth County and Sussex County. Go on now, git!