Community policing at Sesame Street by the Sea

Community policing - The Silver Lake bridge was Tranquility Base. I was kicking it off the bumper of my 4Runner Sunday morning waiting for Chicken Chase 5K runners to reach the one-mile mark after a 7:30 a.m. start on Saulsbury Street in Dewey. Rehoboth police officer Tyler Whitman was there for traffic control. I saw and heard Tyler talking to a solo fisherman across the street, not about reasons why he shouldn’t fish there; they were actually talking about fishing. Then, like an Ernest Hemingway story captured in a Norman Rockwell painting, the fisherman, wearing a neck bandanna like a golden retriever out for the morning walk, handed Officer Whitman his cellphone to take a photo of him and his morning catch. I sneaked a snap, then blasted the photo to social media. People said it was frameable, which sounds like crime story lingo, but it was just a muppet morning moment at Sesame Street by the Sea.

Pop Pop Hop-Runner - Mike Piorkowski began to gather himself and I knew he was a jumper. He was approaching the two-mile mark at the Chicken Chase 5K. He joyfully lifted off and up, a prancer built like a dancer. I remarked, “Happy hamstring,” figuring the 61-year-old from Glen Mills, Pa., would pay for his mid-run, midair exuberance, but he didn’t. Mike ran 26:12 to win the male 60-69 age group ahead of Donald Cowie, 66, no relation to David Bowie, from Hollsopple, Pa., in 27:42. Hollsopple, with an 814 area code, is a small town in Somerset County, Pa., with a listed population of 194, according to the 2000 census. 

Senior lacrosse all-star games - On Flag Day, Tuesday, June 14, there are season-ending (finally!) all-star lacrosse games at DE Turf in Frederica. The girls’ game, basically north versus south, is at 5 p.m., followed by the boys’ game at 7. All-state players and all-Americans will be honored at halftime of each game. There is a 50% chance of rain, which means at least half the time it won’t be raining. 

Rise and run - Ryan Peters of RISE and Rehoboth Beach Volunteer Fire Company ran the SoDel Cares 5K Saturday in full gear in a time of 34:36. His wife Amanda ran at his shoulder in 34:41. And daughter Zoe, who just graduated from Cape, ran 37:24 while escorting Connor Anderson of RBVFC. Bunch of cool community people at the firehouse. 

Quick response - In 2012, after a Cape girls’ lacrosse 21-16 win at Saint Mark’s – Cape had won three titles in a row at that point – a player on the Cape boys’ team said to junior Anna Fred, “Sure, you guys are good, but you don’t have to play Sallies.” Anna answered, “We are Sallies.” When a Fred person sees an opening, the ball is in the back of the net quicker than you can pull the dagger out of your skull.

Recruiting your building - Back when I was the Cape boys’ track coach, I used to say, “Give me the athletes I identify as track talent and I'll win a state championship every year here at Cape.” I’d see sprinters and jumpers getting up and down the court in a JV basketball game, then in the spring I couldn’t find those people. Many head coaches were at cross purposes with what I was trying to accomplish. In 2022, with Travelocity at full speed, it’s absolutely amazing that Cape has so many top-shelf teams and many premier athletes who select to concentrate on one sport. How exactly do you do that? Stare at your hockey stick, caress a volleyball, wrestle with your thoughts? Clubs, camps and tournament directors are making beaucoup money on the back end of this system, enough to send their own kids to college.  

Snippets - The Phillies (30-30) looked like a Little League team Sunday, losing 13-1 to the Diamondbacks to ending their nine-game winning streak. And now the Marlins (27-31) come to town, and they always wear the Phillies out because it’s street fighters versus scaredy cats. There are seven teams in the National League with a better record than the Phillies, in case you're thinking about the playoffs. You have your whole life to work, but as a teenage travel baller, are there places you can work that will adjust your work schedule so as not to impact your sports schedule? Yes, there are, you just have to resource the network. Go on now, git!