I might as well jump or run or throw – just let me know
Incongruence - I remember taking a Cape team to an indoor track meet at Widener College 30 years ago. A huge athlete with 19-inch neck supporting an aircraft carrier head screwed onto a 400-pound body stepped into the shot put circle. He looked confident and coached up, slid across the circle and let a roar that rattled the exposed field house pipes. The 12-pound shot put barely got away from his body. I don’t think I had ever seen an 8-foot throw before. Greg Rowe of Woodbridge, coached by Bill Degnan, was next and the studious- looking athlete threw it 58 feet. The 8-foot thrower with a voice so deep he made Barry White sound like Aaron Neville was wearing a Cape uniform and called me coach, to which I responded, “Do I know you?” We both laughed because really, who cares?
Hanging out - A seasoned track athlete becomes a self-sufficient competitor; he or she knows how to prepare for an event, how long it will last and what is the recovery time until the next event. Indoor track or winter track is all about bus rides and crowded field houses filled with high school teenagers with hours of down time interspersed with burst of energy. Distance runners have the toughest days, sometimes tripling down in 4 by 800 relays and two open events. Sunday at the University of Delaware Field House, 16 Delaware high school teams from private to public to Catholic and charter got after each other for five hours – but who’s counting? A college kid on the PA made an announcement: “All electronic devices are not allowed.” Well, that’s one way of putting it. Are you kidding? There were enough devices and parents with digital cameras to open a Best Buy franchise. But no grand daddies like me – don’t want Pop Pop wandering across the shot put sector.
Hamster wheel - Basketball and wrestling seasons are up, along with swimming and indoor track. Time for this sportswriter to run the hamster wheel to nowhere, going to places like Snow Hill and Salisbury plus Tuesday nights in Smyrna, Dagsboro and many venues where adults just don’t show up like they used to. Cape boys' basketball opens the season with four home games, beginning with Smyrna Tuesday, Dec. 4, then Sanford Friday, Dec. 7 Pearl Harbor Day, Caravel Tuesday Dec. 11, and Sussex Tech Friday, Dec. 14. Sussex Tech opened the season Nov. 30 with a home win over St. Georges Tech 66-57. St. Georges eliminated Cape last season in the second round of the state tournament. Junior Robert Larkin had 34 points. The Ravens play Dover at home Tuesday, Dec. 4. The Senators lost to Polytech 58-57 in their opener. Stop the wheel, I want to get off! It is on like Donkey Kong! Donkey Kong? How old are you? Donkey Kong?
Fog delay - The Cape track bus was scheduled to disembark from the Cape parking lot at 6:45 a.m. Dec. 2 for the journey to the University of Delaware. The fog was "Werewolf of London" thick and so dense you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face but you don’t need to; it's cars and trucks you need to see. And so, some key people missed the bus and maybe they were smart or lazy, perhaps irresponsible and should be bounced like an out-of-round Super K outdoor ball on a cracked macadam court. I know some athletes who are always on two-hour fog delay. Grandmom Rose: “Shrug and move on with your life. Take no responsibility for the irresponsibility of others.”
Taylor Swifter - Old Dominion quarterback Taylor Heinicke is the frontrunner for the Walter Payton Award as the top player in subdivision football. The 6-1, 195- pound athlete is the next Drew Brees coming out of college. He lit up Coastal Carolina like Christmas Decor on Tanger Outlets Dec. 1 as the Monarchs throttled the Chanticleers of Coastal Carolina 63-35. Heinicke threw for 497 yards and six touchdowns and ran for another two scores. George Glenn, my good friend, is director of football operations at Coastal Carolina and he knows what I know: the Chanticleer has got to go. Who wants to explain that on a helmet? A proud and fierce rooster who dominates the barnyard – what Grandmom Rose called "cock of the walk." Schedule the Blue Hens so I can write the lead: “Ain’t nobody here but us chickens.”
Snippets - Charlie "Backup” Batch, 38, led the Pittsburgh Steelers to a 23-20 upset over the Baltimore Ravens proving the country lyric, “I ain’t as good as I once was but I’m as good once as I ever was.” Batch is a smart and classy guy and from Pittsburgh, so he is all good for all time in the Steel City. Go on now, git!
