Cape and family are one and the same after 50 years of Fred immersion

Cape and family - Susan, Davey and I left Lewes Saturday for a 10 a.m. JV field hockey game between Cape and unbeaten Caesar Rodney. It was a beautiful bluebird day. The skies were crowded with swarming clouds of grackles and migratory geese looking for a place to park without getting shot for their own good. It was Pink Out/Youth Day, a pretty-in-pink breast cancer awareness fundraiser at Caesar Rodney; the JV game was the undercard to the Mt. Pleasant at Caesar Rodney varsity game. Cape won the JV game 2-0, while the CR varsity team dominated Mt. Pleasant 8-0. Goal scorers for Cape were Hazel Mancari (Sara Caldwell) and Brielle Ramjattansingh. Alexis Puddicombe was credited with the shutout.

Falling on the sword - Penn State football coach James Franklin (salary: $10 million) after the Nittany Lions were upset by winless UCLA 42-37 and Texas coach Steve Sarkisian (salary: $10.3 million) after the Long Horns lost to Florida 29-21 both faced down the mandatory post-game press conference and said, “I gotta do a better job preparing us to play.” Falling on the sword is an idiomatic expression that means to take responsibility for a failure or mistake. “We ain’t trying to hear that, yo” is hip-hop for “do your job or you won’t have no job.” Is there a transfer portal for head football coaches? James Franklin and my nephew Mike Frederick were co-captains on the 1989 Neshaminy High Redskins football team. 

Say what? Mariner Middle School football was off to a good start with wins over Selbyville 36-24 and Laurel 40-26, but Oct. 2, the athletes formerly known as the Milton Warriors lost at home to the Seaford Blue Jays 60-0. I wasn’t there so I don’t know what to say except, "Say what?” Seaford ends its seven-game middle school season Thursday, Nov. 6, at Fred Thomas, a team currently undefeated after opening with three straight wins. “It will not be revenge the Freds are looking for, more like a reckoning.” – “Tombstone.” The Seaford varsity football team is currently 4-1 in Group 1. The Blue Jays are back in football and basketball, and will stay back if their talent exercises their school choice and elects to stay home. 

Nothing compares - Rankings and ratings by comparing scores are things that feed into the mindset of gamblers, but inside actual games, it counts for zero points. Cape football, after losing at Appoquinimink 48-14 to drop to 3-2 on the season, plays at 1-4 Smyrna Friday, Oct. 10. The Eagles are a very good football team. The predictors without partners  prognosticate that Smyrna may run the table, another sports idiom to describe a series of uninterrupted wins. The Eagles play Cape, Caesar Rodney, St. Georges Tech, Dover and Sussex Central. Back in October 2023, Smyrna was upset at Cape’s Senior Night 21-6 on Jackson Cunningham’s 16-yard fumble return and a pair of touchdown runs by Maurki James. Wilson Ingerski, now kicking for Shippensburg University, was good on all three extra-point kicks. Sports memories endure the good and the bad.

Honorary number - Mikey Frederick, now a senior at Mercer University playing lacrosse, will wear the No. 24 in the spring of 2026. Recently written on the men’s lacrosse team page: “The number symbolizes John Michael Night and his unparalleled perseverance and positive attitude in the face of enormous medical hardship. A tradition that started in 2017, having the opportunity to don the No. 24 is the greatest honor a Mercer lacrosse player can achieve. While the selection process has changed over time, the significance and importance of this honor has not. The player selected to wear 24 has nothing to do with on-field production, but moreso with who he is as person and teammate. The player chosen displays perseverance, dedication, hard work and always puts the team first day-in and day-out, all of which are qualities that John Michael has in abundance. Congratulations to the 2026 wearer Mikey Frederick.” 

Breakfast Club - Cape football players from the ’90s gathered at the Lewes Diner to share old stories with coach George Glenn, who was accompanied by his son Todd. “Don’t You (Forget about Me),” by Simple Minds was a song written for the film “The Breakfast Club.” The song aptly described the unbreakable bond between coach Glenn and his players at Cape who will never forget about Glenn or stop doing impressions of him. “We knew it could be the last time we see each other like this [coach is relocating to South Carolina],” said JD Maull. “It was a sad/good moment. Love me some coach Glenn. We all do.”   

Snippets - Old Dominion beat Coastal Carolina 47-7 in front of 20,000 fans. Maurki James (Cape) carried the ball five times for 26 yards. Mckenna Boyle (Sussex Central), a junior, has started nine of 10 games for the undefeated Shippensburg Raiders field hockey team. Mckenna has four goals and one assist on the season. Emily Bitters (Delmar), a Shippensburg sophomore, has a goal on the season. Ship defeated rival West Chester 4-1; the West Chester goal was scored by Ella Shockley (Delmar), the granddaughter of former Phillie Costen Shockley. Mckenna’s grandmom Jacki Johnson Shockey played field hockey at Rehoboth High School and was a teammate of legendary Cape coach Ruth Sponaugle Skoglund. Go on now, git!