Mr. Cameraman rocked but not rolled by referee
Referees rule - There’s something wrong with me; I don’t think there’s any question about that. I know that at any athletic contest the officials rule the roost. Notice I didn’t say "zebras," because in some sports like soccer the colors are quite festive, dare I say gay. During the first quarter up at Smyrna, the football sideline zebra singled me out in front of the chain gang crew, calling me “Mr. Cameraman,” telling me to stand back, and when he said it a second time, I said, “Hey, Chick-fil-A, worry about the game, and leave me alone." He must have thought I looked like a Whaler sandwich out of water harpooned by Burger King in 1985. The next afternoon I was on the sidelines at Dover for the Cape versus Saint Mark’s soccer game, and the young and quick flag guy kept stopping in front of my giant lens giving all my photos a Mr. Potato Head view of the action. It was kind of interesting in a Rehoboth Art League sort of way. I mumbled something - Mr. Potato Head had his ears on - and he started to intentionally move his head in front of my camera in a good-natured manner. I told him, “You run the sideline, man; it’s my job to stay out of your way.” Late in the second half all the forces of nature seemed to coalesce in front of the Cape goal. Keeper Kammerer was down, the ball was slightly beyond his grasp and Saint Mark’s striker Jeff Richards was bulldozed from behind and awarded a penalty kick. I got the camera shot but out of focus because flag guy ran into me at full prance shaking up my camera stabilization feature. I stood straight like a tree, perhaps some dandruff fell from my head, and the official said, “I’m sorry,” when he should have said, “Listen, you Whaler, Whopper, Extra Cheese Grande Cameraman, can you please stand back before I have to red card your grand pappy self.”
Who’s pestering him? Soccer is a fast and physical game with no unskilled positions played by very athletic people. I get all that. But some of the sideline comments are foreign to me, having grown up playing football on mud fields wearing high-top football cleats that, if you stepped on someone’s hand, caused an immediate carpal conniption, and the victim could never write cursively again, having to sign their checks with a hand stamp. Max Euler came across midfield in the second half, settled the ball and surveyed the field (soccer talk) and someone from Saint Mark’s bench yelled, “Who’s supposed to be pestering him?” That’s what I’d like to know. Maybe we can finally get rid of the word "bully” and replace it with “pester” because a real bully will actually embrace the term, but no one wants to be the Person who Pesters People.
College stuff - Delaware field hockey (16-4) beat Northeastern 5-1 Nov. 10 to win the CAA tournament. The Hens will host Liberty, 17-4, at Rullo Field at p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 13. The winner moves on to play at North Carolina Saturday, Nov. 16. Maxine Fluharty had the winning goal in sudden-death overtime as Maryland field hockey beat Duke 3-2 in the semifinal of the ACC Tournament. The Terrapins beat North Carolina 2-0 in the conference championship game. Fluharty, a Sussex Tech grad, was named first-team All ACC. Maryland is the top seed in the NCAA Tournament and will play Quinnipiac Saturday, Nov. 16, then play the winner of Princeton and Penn State Sunday, Nov. 17. UMass with Izzie Delario, a Cape grad, in the lineup opens the tournament at Virginia Saturday, Nov. 16.
Snippets - Cape’s Austin MacElrevey placed fifth in the DIAA Divison I cross country state championship meet with a personal best time of 16:17. Sam Hete was Sussex Tech's No. 1 man in 16:54. Salesianum won the boys' Division I competition. Sussex Tech was fifth and Cape placed sixth. Madison MacElrevey was Cape’s top girl in the Division I race with a time of 20:52, good for 32nd place. The Cape girls were 10th in the team competition while Sussex Tech was 12th.
Severna Park hockey, which Cape tied 2-2 in overtime this year, won the Class 4A Maryland State Championship. Nice kids, good for them! Go on now, git!
