Brothers Wyatt and Whitman run a 5K then pose for photo

Child and the Blue Chair - A young boy approached me at the end of the Cannonball 5K Sept. 10, as I was contemplating springing to my feet from the blue field chair of shattered dreams. “Will you take my picture? I just ran my first 5K,” asked 7-year-old Wyatt Stout. I said, “certainly,” and asked him to step off into the grass. His older brother Whitman, 10, was also wearing a racing bib. “You may as well get in the photo with your brother.” I didn’t say anything as Whitman put his arm around his little brother Wyatt and they both smiled. I snapped a bunch of photos at different settings to make sure one of them would be OK. Afterward, Wyatt came over, looked at the back of the camera and said, “Can I see it?” Wyatt ran 34:49 for his first 5K, while Whitman ran a respectable 26:15. Whitman is in fifth grade at Long Neck Elementary - baseball is his thing - while Wyatt is a second-grader at the same school. 

Tom Draper - Tom was an athletically ripped, tough man, a former Brown All-American lacrosse player. At 76, he was still that guy. I shook his hand last fall out at Hudson Fields, one grandfather to another, one athlete to another, and thought, "Tom Draper is still a badass." He was inducted into the Brown University Hall of Fame in 1971, and at that time, he was the all-time leading scorer for the Bears. He was described on their website as a “rangy midfielder who accounted for 123 goals and 39 assists for 162 points. Draper earned All-New England honors in 1962, 1963 and 1964 and then was both All-Ivy and All-American in 1964.” Condolences to his children. I’m sure his grandchildren were gifted with those toughness genes and Ivy intelligences. Still sad to lose such an impactful community player so suddenly.  

Bulldogs bark - Georgia beat Notre Dame 20-19 Sept. 9. The teams hadn't played since Georgia defeated Notre Dame 17-10 in the 1981 Sugar Bowl to win the 1980 National Championship. Tens of thousands of UGA fans made the trip to South Bend, Ind., to watch the rematch. Sportswriter, humorist and Georgia fan, the late Lewis Grizzard, wrote of the Georgia National Championship win in New Orleans: “Bulldogs fans were in the streets on all fours barking after the game, prompting a Notre Dame cheerleader to say, ‘If it means that much to you, I’m glad you all won.’” Herschel Walker was a freshman on that team and had 100,000 bulldogs named after him over the next 37 years.  

Can’t be doin’ that! - Temple football escaped upset-minded Villanova Sept. 9 in front of 35,000 fans at Lincoln Financial Field, winning 16-13 on a last-minute field goal. The Owls had led 13-0 early in the second half. Liberty University of the FCS upset Baylor, while Howard won at UNLV as a 44-point underdog. Temple losing to Villanova in Philly would have been a major blow to the Owls’ program, but why are the Wildcats even close in talent? Villanova is sometimes called the Stanford of the East, a great school that is nationally recognized, and it costs close to $60,000 a year, but they have 65 full football scholarships to award. It can’t be difficult to recruit a blue-chip kid to Villanova. A check of their roster sees a heavy concentration of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Florida players. Temple operated with 85 scholarships. Delaware will have their hands full at Villanova Nov. 18, the last game of the regular season.

Cross country confusing - I watched a 5K race at Killens Pond Sept. 9, and I didn’t know it was two races embedded into one - a Varsity A and B that was based on enrollment, with the computer sorting it all out at the finish line. I figured it out the next day when I finally found results. And some of Cape’s JV runners ran faster than some varsity runners. Greg Boyce won the A race in 17:01, while Kolbe O’Donnell in 17:48 was Cape’s second runner. Three through five were John Di Stefano in 18:49, Douglas Heid in 19:31 and Bryan Ciabattoni in 19:39. Caesar Rodney won the A race with 38 points. Cape and Sussex Tech were tied for third with 71. St. Andrew’s won the B race with 29 points, averaging 17:27 per runner.  

Snippets - Freshman Natalie Quigley ran 21:35, good for seventh overall, and was Wesley College’s first runner at the Delaware State Invitational Cross Country Meet. The Wolverines placed fifth overall in a meet with several Division I schools. Tyre Maull (Cape/Milton) is the starting right tackle for Stevenson University. Maull started all 11 games as a sophomore. Solomon “Yum Yum” Cox is a senior on the cross country team at Goldey Beacom, where he is majoring in sports management. Cape volleyball will play Thursday, Sept. 14 at Smyrna. The Eagles were 13-3 last season, including a 3-0 win over Cape. Speaking of Smyrna, reliable sources report that 7-foot basketball star Azubuike Nwankwo, who helped led the Eagles to a 23-2 record and state championship, will not be returning to Smyrna for his senior season. Cape football will host Suitland, Md., Friday, Sept. 15. Suitland is 2-0 with wins over Great Mills 25-12 and Bowie 33-3. The Rams are a speed team that runs the spread, not a ground-and-pound squad. Field hockey finally opens the season Tuesday, Sept. 12, at Dover. Dover lost to Tower Hill 3-0 in their home opener Sept. 8.