Cape wrestles Central at the Castle on Wednesday night

Focus groups - Cape will wrestle at unbeaten Sussex Central Wednesday, Jan. 25, with JV bouts starting at 6 p.m. and varsity scheduled for 7 p.m., but realistically closer to 7:30. The Golden Knights are tough bottom to top, having just won the Canal Classic in Middletown with 333 points, followed by Oxford, Pa. with 298 and Caravel with 256.  Cape has tournament championships from the Governor Mifflin tournament and Grapple at the Brook. Central is led by Malachi Stratton (113), who won the Canal Classic. Placing second for the Golden Knights at the Canal Classic were Talan Savage (132), Andrew Long (144), Jayden Drummond (150), Gabe Cannon (175) and Ivan Neal (190). There are some hammer-on-hammer matchups with underlying shifting strategies. The winner of the overall match will most likely be the regular-season Henlopen Conference dual-meet champion, although Central still has to grapple at Caesar Rodney Wednesday, Feb. 8. The Jan. 25 match will be streamed on YouTube, with in-person tickets purchased online using GoFan at goldenknightssports.com. Whatever happened to the fat wallet in the back pocket secured by a chain to a belt loop? 

Toggle bolt sharp - I’m 76 and still sharp as a toggle bolt and limber as a frozen bungee cord. I emceed the Cape football banquet at Hyatt Place in Dewey Beach Saturday night playing off numerous personal requests: “Don’t talk too long, the Eagles game is at 8:15.” And so armed with that pregame encouragement, I told 200 people, “We’ll begin the banquet after you all eat, just don’t take too long.” There was a stage with sets of steps but no railing. The biggest laugh I got was coming down and saying, “I feel like Joe Biden getting off Air Force One.” Booster parent Joy Bitter did a great job making sure the room and program were set up and good to go. An anonymous donor wrote a check to cover the cost of the banquet and all the coach types at my table took credit for it, but I’m pretty sure Ben Ashby didn’t write that check. 

“That’s right. We bad.” - Remember the scene in the movie “Stir Crazy” when Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder entered prison? Reminds me of NFL partisan fans on Monday morning after the divisional playoff games. There is some serious social media silent noise going back and forth as fans use the proverbial “we” as if they played in the game. Dallas fans always throw their own people out of the boat beginning with Dak Prescott and Zeke Elliott and ending with coach Mike McCarthy. Josh Allen, the Bills quarterback, is also a regular target. And don’t talk like you’re real Philly if you don’t know a row house from a townhouse or a stoop from a step and have never ridden on a PTC trolley car. 

Fourteen Freds - There were 14 members of my family at the DMA wrestling match Friday night, and our wrestler Mikey graduated and is now in Macon, Ga., playing lacrosse for the Mercer University Bears. Fredman, Susan, Carrie, Dave, Liza, Anna, Lizzie, Katie, Davey, Jack, Suzannah, Lina, Meredith and James were all at the Big House supporting a program that does so much good for so many kids.

NBA - The Sixers host the Nets Wednesday night, and the game can be found somewhere in your Comcast lineup of channels. Kyrie Irving scored 38 as the Nets, minus Kevin Durant in the lineup, beat Golden State Sunday night 120-116. The Sixers, winners of five in a row, are 30-16, while the Nets are 29-17. The impossible-to-like Irving is insanely talented; he is Allen Iverson with a better shot. 

Snippets - Lindsay Monigle (Cape), a lacrosse player, returned to West Chester University to complete her fifth year of eligibility. Peyton Hagy (Sussex Academy) is a freshman goalie for the Golden Rams. Ryan Baker ran 4:25.53 at New York Armory to set a new school record for the indoor 1,600 meters. Lance White ran a 4:27 mile, winning the High School Invitational Mile at the Spectrum in 1978. The conversion from 1,600 to the mile is to add 1.7 seconds. Three great Cape distance runners I would like to have seen in the same race are Lance White, Danny Harmon and Ryan Baker. Americans still don’t relate to the metric system: “Take me to your liter and put a gallon in me, Alan.” Go on now, git 50! (1976 slang).