Checking out sports practices to get a sense of it all

Go to what I know - I’ve been sportswriter for 36 years, and it’s been a 42 years since I coached a track team that won a state title. When a Tuesday field hockey game at Laurel got rained out, what else was there for me to do but check out some high school practices? I take photos, talk to coaches and kids, and get a sense of the world as I know it. Legends Stadium accommodated a large number of cross country athletes doing their “dancing on air” warm-up routines, while on the turf the football team practiced in groups. I love the linemen “bull in the ring” drill as long as I’m not in it. Heading into Champions Stadium, it’s impressive to see 18 signs representing state titles in field hockey (8) and girls’ lacrosse (10). I went blue chair on the endline right next to the goal cage. Coach Debbie Windett laughed, “At your own risk, Fredman.” Hey, it wouldn’t be the first time I had my head glued back together at Champions Stadium. Hopefully Docs Stancofski and Sabbagh give their daughters (Anna, Marcella, Noelle) some airplane glue just in case Fredman cracks his cranium again. (See Severna Park overtime game September 2016.)

Bataan Manning - A hero from my hometown in Penndel, Pa., survived the Bataan Death March and made it back home. We called him Bataan Man. Every day he just drove around town in his Chrysler Imperial watching the world go by. We often saw him “down at the rec,” which was the Little League park, and we’d salute as he drove by. He’d respond by nodding his big old cue ball head. I call it Bataan Manning when I drive around in my big old 2006 Tundra just checking out my community, driving past buildings that used to be called something else. Tuesday I cruised past Gibbs Paint store and into the construction entrance to Showfield, brought and presented to you by Olympian Carrie Lingo. Cape is a rich school district because of real estate revenues collected, and the high school that used to be less than 800 students over three grades is now 1,600 students over four grades, and there are not many Buicks in the student parking lot.

Wham - “Wake me up before you go-go, don’t leave me hanging on like a yo-yo.” Sports Editor Emeritus Man. “I’ve been around a long time, I really have paid my dues” (BB King), and so when the football team books a game on Friday night against Northeast in Pasadena, Md., near the Baltimore Beltway, it tells me, “Go to the cross country invitational at St. Andrew’s.” If I’m going that far up Route 97 on a Friday, I’m stopping at BWI and getting on an airplane. I have a freshman grandson, Mikey, who is a 126-pound wrestler, so does that mean I’ll be going to away tournaments in Maryland like the Iron Horse Duals and Grapple at the Brook? Kinda maybe, but I doubt it, but who knows?

Snippets - Mike Hastings bowled a 300 at Millsboro Lanes last week while subbing for someone in league play. Mike is a regular Don Carter, but seriously that is an amazing feat. The Cape district used to have a bowling league years ago at Midway Lanes. I called it Bowling for Scholars. One former administrator would drink Manhattans, bowl, and tell jokes that weren’t funny. Man, those were the days. Are the Phillies still playing their way out of mathematical contention for the postseason? With 10 games left and six games behind Atlanta, no one could blow a lead like that, except the ’64 Phillies. My granddaughter Lina Frederick picked up a field hockey stick three days before middle school tryouts at Milford and made the team, coached by Rebecca Pepper and Marcy McGee. My son Jack asked Lina, “Does coach Pepper know who you are?” Lina answered, “I don’t know. Who am I?” A pond crowded with seagulls bobbing was adjacent to the finish line at the Sussex Academy Seahawks cross country meet versus Cape. Perhaps they were waitlisted? I had to Google the question, “Is a seagull a seahawk,” and the answer came back, “There are no seahawks recognized by science. They are all seagulls; although, some slangfully call the osprey a seahawk,” except the osprey, a bird of prey, ain’t all about that. Talk among yourselves. Go on now, git!