Cape opens boys’ basketball playoffs with IR Feb. 26
Boys' basketball tournament - Cape will host Indian River at 7 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 26, in an opening-round game. The winner of that game will move on to play at 7 p.m., Friday, Feb. 28, at Woodbridge. Sussex Tech will open the tournament at home on Friday, hosting the winner of Charter and St. Georges. Caesar Rodney opens at home Friday playing the winner of St. Elizabeth and Delaware Military Academy. Milford plays at Middletown Wednesday, Feb. 26; the winner goes against top-seeded Salesianum on Friday night. The quarterfinals are Sunday, March 2, at the Bob Carpenter Center. Remember when the final was at the magical Delaware Field House? Now that all-turf arena looks like a cross between the Home Depot Garden Center and Bonkersville. The girls' tournament opens Tuesday, Feb. 25. Sussex Central will host A.I. DuPont, and the winner moves on to play at Concord Thursday, Feb. 27.
Land Rovers to Landover - Delaware schools with indoor track teams traveled to Landover, Md., Feb. 21 to compete in the DIAA Indoor Track State Championships. The Prince Georges County Sports Complex was the venue. The distant location points out that, when it comes to parks and recreation, the entire state of Delaware is out to lunch. Cape’s Megan Hart was second in the high jump, clearing 5 feet, while Chris Young placed second in the pole vault with a jump of 13-feet-6-inches. The Padua girls and the Tatnall boys won team titles. I wonder how many downstate sports fans could find either school without printing out directions or trying to outsmart their smartphone. The Cape girls placed 19th in a field of 26 teams while the boys placed 10th. Austin MacElrevey ran a personal best 10:03 in the 3,200 meters to place sixth in the event.
Shark tank - This is serious competition time for Cape’s crew of talented swimmers. The boys' preliminaries at the University of Delaware will be Wednesday, Feb. 26, and the girls' Thursday, Feb. 27. The championship meet is Saturday, March 1, with basically two sections of eight for each event contested. Any Cape athletes or relay placing in the top three should be bought a jacket by a booster. But seriously, this should be Cape’s best showing in school history.
Spring Saturday - Spring sports practices start Saturday, March 1, with a 30 percent chance of snow in the forecast but temperatures predicted to reach 42 degrees. Girls' lacrosse is on a quest for a sixth straight state championship. With 14 players returning from last year's team, the Vikings should be pretty good, but coach P.J. Kesmodel is pushing hard to erase from everyone’s mind the notion that the past entitles any team to success in the present. Softball is a program ready to be competitive with Tiara Duffy and Alexis Burger coming off a summer where their Big League club won a World Series. And remember, baseball will spend the week of spring break in Hawaii. I was invited to go but didn’t want to get my computer and camera wet.
Snippets - The Slam Dunk to the Beach basketball tournament will return to Cape in December 2014. The field is close to being finalized, so stay tuned. I believe eight national-caliber teams will be brought in for the event along with a separate Delaware side tournament.
Anna Frederick, Cape product not to mention Fred progeny, scored her first collegiate goal for Temple, but the Owls lost at Cornell 17-9. I try to track every local athlete who is out there playing in college.
Jack Redefer, a sophomore midfielder out of Sussex Tech now playing at Wesley College, had a goal in the Wolverines' 9-8 win over Scranton. And lefty Jack managed to crank eight shots on net; the boy is not bashful.
Willie Davis, the Woodbridge 152-pound state champion for head coach Jenna Pavlik, is on his way to Drexel University. Davis is something like a third cousin to former Cape soccer player of the year Erin Williams, who also starred at Drexel. Erin is living in Fishtown Philly, fully acculturated part of young professionals who are reclaiming and restoring the city.
I thought both Elliot Young at 138 pounds and Austin Smith at 160 wrestled heroically at states; they came back to grab third and both were a whisper away from winning the tournament, each losing by a point to the eventual state champion. Spring is also time for Hudson Field to get cranking, always good to drive by and see all those fields filled with kids.
Go on now, git!
