Coach Jim Alderman staring down serious surgery

Coach Jim Alderman - An alpha dog running up a great dune. That big ol’ boy, a Lineman for Life, is solid stock and relentlessly focused. He is the Chesapeake Retriever of football coaches. Jimbo coached Cape to its only state football title in 1979. A banner is nestled along the back wall of the Big House. If you are at the Slam Dunk on Friday, find that banner and send good thoughts to Florida. “Alderman” could punt a ball 70 yards and beat his running backs in a 40-yard sprint. A former lineman for the North Carolina Tar Heels, Jimbo is sorry he will miss UNC versus Temple in the Military Bowl game Dec. 27 at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis.

I will be rooting for the Owls and one Tar Heel. Jim has gotten in shape for game day and will undergo surgery to remove his pancreas, spleen and gallbladder; then surgeons will rebuild a digestive system with what is left. Drop messages on Facebook messenger to Jim, Kathy or Abbey or on their Facebook page or drop them on Fredman’s page. The messages will be read once Jim clears the fog bank of the recovery room. 

Hither and thither and yon - An old-school expression that means here and there and far away. The Slam Dunk to the Beach high school basketball tournament begins today, Friday, Dec. 27, at Cape’s Big House. The Slam runs three straight days with six games per day broken into morning and afternoon sessions. The gym will be filled with fans, many of whom are basketball savants with a knowledge of players and their rankings by year of graduation and where they have committed to college. The common expression is, “They are on the spectrum.” I’ve run into these fans and sports journalists over my career in sports, and these individuals hide inside provided stats generated from the scoring table.

The majority of players who chase the basketball dream after high school end up at schools you’ve never heard of before transferring to another school you pretend you know just to stay in the conversation. My basic advice has always been, “Don’t choose a college just to play a sport that you wouldn’t go to otherwise if you were not a player.” That advice is basically followed by no one, which is why schools like the University of Delaware have people in admissions whose job is to help homegrown Blue Hens transfer back to the First State after chasing a dream in another state. 

Snippets - The Battle at the Beach wrestling tournament will be contested at Indian River High School Friday, and Saturday, Dec. 27 and 28. Wrestlers have gotten a two-pound allowance coming out of the holidays heading into January. Many grapplers reached a targeted lighter weight class heading into the Beast of the East tournament and will now go back up for the final two months to allow for growth and to maintain sanity. Cape boys’ basketball opens the Slam Dunk tournament against St. Raymond of New York at noon, Friday, Dec. 27.

The Cape girls play St. Mary’s of New York at 6 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 28, at St. Elizabeth. Lots of schools named after Catholic saints in the sport of basketball. My mother Dorothy was a saint; how about your mom? The resolution revolution is once again upon us, with gym memberships and diet plans for the new year, and scheduling personal trainers, but the best are booked and have no vacancies. Diet plans are just so boring and tedious to follow. Remember, it’s not about the diet you’re on, but more about the diet you’re off.

Marcus Hall, a three-sport Cape star, class of 1988, dropped by the house on Christmas Day to say hello to his high school quarterback Dave Frederick and his defensive coordinator Fredman. Dave’s three running backs that season were Marcus Hall, William Lewis and Eddie Gaines. Receivers were Ricardo Reed, James Custis and Jose Horsey-Saez. That was a talented football team. The Delaware Sportswriters and Broadcasters Association will choose an all-decade team for the 2010s from boys’ and girls’ basketball. No matter what you accomplish, there will always be a team you don’t make even though you are no longer playing.

Darby Dog was cited for carrying a concealed deadly donut while parked in a handicap spot in front of Wawa. Now two months past diagnosis for dilated cardiomyopathy with related atrial fibrillation, the 14-year-old only passes out when he sees labs wearing sweaters. And if you ask, what do dogs have to do with sports, then you don’t comprehend local culture and have never swigged peach schnapps passed around by your buddies in the duck blind at sunrise. Merry Christmas! Honk if you love Jesus. The geese do.

Go on now, git!