Brett Melson drops 75 pounds, runs first 5K in 20:36

Go on now, Brett! I spoke to 43-year-old Brett Melson Oct. 12, just 15 minutes before the Ashley Furio 5K. He told me he’d been training using the Map My Run app and had lost 75 pounds, and he was hoping to win his age group. I looked around and behind him and asked “What 75 pounds? Where is it? You look like the same Brett I’ve known forever. And win your age group? There are some jokers out here who can run.” Brett said he had run sub-20 in his cyber mind and in real time, the only witness was his wife Natalie. The Furio 5K produced 383 finishers. Brett was 12th overall and second in his age group, running 20:36, which is a 6:39 mile pace. David Hume, 47, of Milton – the runner, not the Scottish philosopher – won the 40-49 age group in 19:20. Speaking of philosophy, Brett is an illogical positivist. I love his approach, but there’s no way you run 20:36 in your first 5K at 43 years old. The bigger question, is it back to Map My Run or Hand Me My Hoagie? I’m guessing a runner was born.

Not enough bodies - The JV football game featuring Sussex Central at Cape scheduled for Monday, Oct. 14, was cancelled because most of the younger players played in the Friday night game at Central, which Cape lost 47-0 after trailing 41-0 at halftime. The Vikings’ varsity is 1-5 on the season, having yielded 34.6 points per game while scoring an average of 11.5. Half the players on the Vikings’ 53-man roster (when all are healthy) are freshmen and sophomores. A postseason “self scout” is essential because, right or wrong, football is a showcase sport that draws the most fans along with the band. I don’t have answers, only insights, but I can reflect and argue the Cape football program has chewed up eight good coaches I can think of over the last 50 years. There have been runs of success, but history shows more valleys than peaks. It’s time to shake this thing down for an inside-out analysis. 

Indian River field hockey -  The River has a demographic similar to Cape, producing an array of fit athletes suited for the up-and-down sports more than the crash-and-collision sports. On Oct. 12, the 10-0 field hockey team of coach Jodi Stone faced off against 10-0 Delmar at Rullo Stadium as part of the University of Delaware’s Turf Bowl. The final score was 4-1 with Delmar enjoying a 17-9 advantage in shots on goal, but Indian River enjoying a 5-4 edge in corners. Cape is fighting to win the Northern Division of the Henlopen Conference. The prize being they get to play Delmar in a Henlopen Conference Championship game. Delmar, Indian River, Lake, Tower Hill and Sanford are all in Division II. Division I teams that could bite Cape in the postseason are Polytech, Padua, Wilmington Charter, Concord and Dover. 

Blue Hens football - Explaining Delaware football requires resorting to bad grammar to explain Saturday’s game. “You can’t be losing to no Elon on the road 42-7!” Elon’s nickname is The Phoenix. It is located in North Carolina’s Piedmont region, which I hear is beautiful this time of year. Elon has just 6,196 undergraduate students, and 60 percent of them are women. The football team competes in the Division I Football Championship Subdivision, formerly 1-AA, which was too easy to remember. By my rough calculations, if the Elon Phoenix has 90 athletes in its football program, roughly 26 percent of the male undergraduates play football. Some locals who graduated from Elon include Sam O’Shields, IR softball coach; Lisa Ingram Peel; Jason Peel; Kevin Gillmore; Buffy Jackewicz Neace; Regina Shelton Williams; Kathy Lynn Haring McMahon; Katie Collins; Holly Joy; John Doney; Julie Schneider; San Eastlack; Devon Borga Eastlack; Justin Hetherington; Brian Seglem; Ward Culver; Khara Conlon; Zach Palmer; David Campbell; and Colleen Donahue is there now. The Peel people also have degrees from UD. I believe allegiance goes to the school where you drank the most beer.  

Snippets - Northwestern field hockey beat Rutgers Oct. 13 4-1. The Cape caravan was there in Piscataway, N.J., which I hear is beautiful this time of year. The published attendance for the game was 267. Alia Marshall (Cape) started on defense for the Wildcats, who are ranked eighth in the country. It’s a Fats Domino Blue Monday when only Redskins fans from the NFL East are happy.