Beach Blast lax set to blanket Lewes this weekend

Beach Blast lacrosse - 100 girls’ club lacrosse teams playing on 10 fields at Cape High and the Lewes School will be in town Friday, Saturday and Sunday for the Beach Blast lacrosse tournament. Traffic could be problematic, especially Saturday; it depends on what else is going on in the town. The Eastern Shore Lacrosse Club Pirates, founded by P.J. Kesmodel, are represented by teams from the 2018 graduating class through 2022. There is also a team of local players called The Henlopen Storm. The sport of women’s lacrosse is operating under new NCAA rules, which prohibit any contact with players by college coaches until the first day of their junior year of high school. 

Cross-trained athletes - A backward glance at the Cape sports of field hockey and lacrosse finds 14 total state champions since 2009, with an average of 15 varsity athletes per school year who play both sports. The cross-trained athlete tends to be a better all-around competitor with a more varied skill set than the single-focused, single-sport athlete. I use the word “tends” intentionally because there are always those notable exceptions to rules and patterns.

Hammertime - Twenty years ago I was walking slowly when a cherry bomb went off in front of my sneaker. I responded by bleating like a billy goat, a series of creative and vile adjectives ending with the word humper. I had broken a little toe, guess it was its time to go. Now the toe walks around like a dromedary and doesn’t hurt. I just can’t wear dress shoes, which Linemen for Life hate anyway, which is why Scott Kammerer wore sneakers to deliver his graduation speech. The point of this seemingly pointless lesson is, when is it advisable to seek surgical repair for injury as opposed to just living with it? Grandmom Rose: “Pain is the strongest motivator for change, which is why I decided against Tommy John surgery. Now it is just straight fastball balls and changeups.”

Before the boom - The late local (by way of Philly) runner Luther Burdell - we called him Birdman because he weighed 113 pounds - was intrigued by the local running community of the ’70s and ’80s. Luther came from a time when 10 runners would show up for a race and everyone thought they were crazy. Luther ran a lifetime on a daily schedule of hard, easy, hard, off. I remember once seeing him charging the giant dune by the overlook near the naval jetty. He barely left footprints in the sand. I remember trying it and other dunes before being ordered to stop by park rangers; of course, I always had a dog with me. Run up a dune today with an unleashed dog and someone in a tower will call in a drone strike. It just ain’t like it used to be, and never will be again.

Snippets - Retrievers and doodle dogs are in abundance in our local seaside community, just try getting one into salt water without breaking some law or ordinance and running into some deputized wanker representing a homeowners association. Local dogs should have the right of way, and everyone else get out of the way with your inflated dinosaurs and floating watermelon rings. Cape lacrosse player Eddy Shoop made Faces in the Crowd in Sports Illustrated. The photo is mine, so I will now add Sports Illustrated photographer to my personal list of exaggerated truths. I often joke that the god of sports is Catholic. Cape Henlopen has 55 state championships, more than any other public school. Saint Mark’s, of course coed, has 100 titles. Salesianum, an all-boys school, has 155 state championships. Champions Stadium now sports 16 state championship signs in field hockey and girls’ lacrosse because “that is where the girls play.” I’m guessing out of 456 NBA players, most fans have never heard of 70 percent of them. It would make a good board game, and you could throw in the NFL and MLB as well, and, of course, the NHL and WNBA and almost anything ending in soccer. It’s just strange that so many no-names are making so much money. The rubber chicken circuit (sports banquets) is shut down for another school year. I alternate between emcee and not making the cut. My position is “better slighted than invited,” that way you not only don’t have to show up, but you can make someone feel guilty about it. So much for being the journalistic Chia Pet of the upwardly mobile. Go on now, git!