Cape’s vaccinated run at Collegeville High School Invitational

Tracksters and Vaxers - Cape brought close to full boys’ and girls’ teams to the Collegeville High School Invitational indoor track meet Jan. 9, hosted by Ursinus College and contested at the Floy Lewis Bakes Field House. No one without proof of vaccination was admitted and there were no spectators allowed, including fully waxed wives (spell checker got jokes) of vaccinated and credentialized sports writers who may also be grandmoms. Cape’s boys’ 4-by-200-meter relay took first with the team of Konner Knarr, Ja’On Harris, John Small and Daniel Saez in a time of 1:37:44. Harris also took fourth in the 200 meters in 24.5 seconds, while Small placed second in the 55-meter hurdles in 8.51. A complete listing of results can be found at demilesplit.com “I found a meet up in Kutztown next weekend – no vaccination required,” said coach Ellis Gaulden. “We are hoping to run there with the athletes we were missing on Sunday.” Girls’ coach Tim Bamforth will cover the Collegeville meet in his Friday running column in the Cape Gazette. 

Tons of wrestlers - There were two mats set up for JV matches Jan. 8 for the Cape Henlopen at Stephen Decatur wrestling match. “They have a ton of kids and so do we (two tons). Both schools wanted to make sure that all our JV kids got at least one match and many of them will get two,” said Cape JV coach Shane Jensen. I made a quick calculation in my brain and concluded that the number of bouts multiplied by the total weight of wrestlers easily exceeded two tons of fun on a Saturday afternoon.

A different cat - Coaches are a different breed and Scoobie Pup Chris Mattioni is a different cat altogether. “[Luke] Bender had his elbow surgery yesterday,” Mattioni said, adding, “even though he was cleared to wrestle, we felt surgery [Tommy John] was inevitable, and the sooner the better to get him ready for senior season. So we are hoping for Luke’s sake that the rehab is quick.” Years ago I had a gifted distance runner who got “door-to-door born again.” He handed in his stuff and told me, “God didn’t want him to use his talents to beat other people in track races.” I used every argument known to philosophers from the past 2,000 years as to why God wanted him to run  and all the young man did was smile at me and say, thank you for being my coach, adding, “you are crazy, Coach Fred.”

Boys’ basketball - The Sussex Tech boys coached by Damon Ayers, D.J. Ayers and Warren Perry carry a 19-game losing streak into the game at Cape on Tuesday night. Tough times in the “ebb and flow, so where all the talent go?” world of high school basketball. The past two seasons show Sussex Central is 8-10, Cape is 6-11, Sussex Academy 1-16, Indian River 7-13 and Milford 6-13. Call it “ball time.” To me, basketball is a game born by the improvisation of pickup games; make it take it, I’d rather be charged with harnessing and controlling talent than looking for it. Much respect to all the coaches, many of whom I know personally. It's a vexing problem compounded by a mobile middle school class of the most talented players. 

Wild Card Weekend - Forget week 18, the scenarios have been settled. There are six wild card games over three days starting Saturday, Jan. 15. Are you ready for the total saturation of insurance commercials, Uber Eats, lollipops and psoriasis sufferers cannonballing into swimming pools? Millions of people a day must be changing insurance providers only to change back to get better policy perks. Some “dogs” are surviving the wild card pound of rounds. Karma tells me Steelers over the Chiefs and maybe 49ers over Cowboys. Steelers have true grit, while Cowboys flashed that frontrunner approach against the Eagles, which makes me question their toughness against a Niners team lucky to be there, but there they be.   

Snippets - Athletes are swimming through the transfer portal while the ship is underwater without telling me. I cover signing ceremonies only to later learn by accidental happenstance that they transferred to someplace else. College lacrosse teams start playing games in January, which seems incomprehensible, but that’s the way they do it. Go on now, git!