Young millennial athletes chase their dreams requiring fewer words
Zoe Scott - The former Beacon student/athlete, now a sophomore at Caesar Rodney, emerged from the afternoon spring haze like a portrait come to life to give me a big hug and a hello. Zoe had surgery last winter to remove a benign tumor from her spine, so she is still out of commission this spring. I asked her if she was off restrictions and she said yes before seeing another friend and running toward another hug. But, not so fast, Zoe Dog is on the road to recovery and is not allowed to soar over a high jump bar and land on some stupid waterlogged pit. Zoe is defending state champ at 5-feet-2-inches, the same height she was clearing as a Beacon eighth-grader.
Great Scott - William Scott is a Dover senior in his first season of throwing the shot put. Mike Denny, his throwing coach, cranks out respectable weight men every year. Scott has thrown 50-feet-3-inches in the early part of his first season. He plans to walk on at Del State as an outside linebacker. He certainly looks the part, and when I said to him, "Throwing over 50 feet takes strength and quickness with great technique and explosion,” William looked at me and said, “Yeah, there’s a lot to it.” “Yes, that’s what I was trying to say, but it took me a lot more words.” Great kid, like most on my beat. If you pay attention to them in a complimentary way, you have an instant friend - same rule is in play at Wawa.
Señor Wentz - Carson Wentz, the quarterback out of North Dakota State, is 6-foot-5, 240 pounds. The Eagles traded up for a shot to get him and I think it’s a good idea. The party line, “Bradford is the quarterback, he isn’t going anywhere,” only holds until Wentz beats him out during the first quarter of the season. Señor Wences was a ventriloquist who appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show in the 1960s. Philly people love ventriloquists, so I predict Carson Wentz becomes Señor Wences. Did you hear about the ventriloquist who talked in his sleep? His wife had to go into the next room to hear what he was saying. (voice throwing joke)
Face on the Cutting Room Floor - A song written by Steve Goodman and sung by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band goes back to the days of actual film, when it meant to be physically cut out of the film. Last week, I did a sideline interview at Temple about my connection to granddaughter Anna, who plays lacrosse there. Karen Auerbach, associate director of athletic communications, sent me an email which read, “the vast majority of your actual interview didn’t make it, but it’s still a nice story. It can be found at the end of www.owlsports.com." I, of course, confidently believe I am unrelentingly entertaining and can only imagine some pudgy student editor dragging me to the digital trash can.
Tommy Ten-Miler - And Daffodil Dash 5K is this Saturday, April 23, at Irish Eyes in Lewes. You can register at 7:30 a.m. Ten-mile races are fun, you don’t have to worry about how many kilometers you ran. The Coastal Delaware Running Festival is Sunday, April 24, featuring a marathon, half marathon and 9K. All races start at Tower Road at 7 a.m., come into Rehoboth over Silver Lake Bridge and finish at the Baycenter in Dewey. If you see me on Route 1 sitting on a piece of pipe furniture taking photos you’ll know my life is still way out of control.
Snippets - You can’t play the games without officials and umpires, and, man, I wouldn’t want to do their jobs, but Holy Toledo, more and more people are stopping me in parking lots wanting to talk about officials. I know I don’t like officials who insinuate a bad attitude into a game, going for too much control which I believe translates to too little control inside their own domicile - at least that’s what I prefer to believe.
The Phillies have a higher winning percentage than nine other teams in Major League Baseball including the Yankees. I prefer to view the Phils as perched atop a 10-team division of teams with losing records. Go on now, git!
