Ducks and Red Wolves set to scrimmage Cape football

Quack Attack - The Odessa Ducks are coming to Legends live at 5 Friday to scrimmage the Cape Vikings football team. It’s a new team on the grid coached by Dan Pritchard along with nine assistants including Deuce and Scooter Selby, who played for Cape’s J.D. Maull when he coached at St George’s Tech. The Ducks are a fledgling program with only ninth- and 10th-graders on the roster. Conrad School of Science, coached by Chet Walters, is coming off a 3-4 season and is the third team in the scrimmage. The Red Wolves is the new Conrad nickname, replacing the Redskins. Cape will open the season at home Thursday, Sept. 2 versus Salesianum. Sallies is coached by Bill DiNardo, who has 12 assistants including offensive coordinator Gene Delle Donne, a former college quarterback. “I expect to see a more wide-open offense from Sallies,” Maull said. Sallies was 3-4 last season, including a 19-7 loss to Sussex Central.

Captains - Cape hockey and girls’ lacrosse have been relentlessly successful over the last dozen years in part by placing emphasis on their junior varsity programs. They are sports at Cape where all the athletes can play, top to bottom, usually about 50 players, so they are seriously coached up. Jenna Burkhart and Katie Collick coach Cape’s JV hockey team. They are both tightly organized and enthusiastic. Jenna has a notebook that would rival soccer guru Gary Montalto for its detail and thoroughness. On Tuesday, Jenna announced to her athletes that Aubrie Myers and Cadence McMahon had been chosen team captains by the players. The team was preparing for a Thursday JV play day at Polytech organized by Panthers coach Tori Huk after the JV teams were weathered out of the Cape play day last Saturday.

Girls of 2018 - I know Katie Fred’s Cape class of hockey and lacrosse players are now four years out of high school, so I went about verifying that all of them are now on the verge of graduating from college: Carly Truitt, University of Tennessee; Madison Buchwald, South Carolina; Jody Boyer, Shippensburg; Lindsay Monigle, West Chester; Annie Judge, Temple; Victoria Lockwood, Delaware; Katie Frederick, Delaware; Melanie McCloy, Princeton; Lori Ferguson, Wilmington University; Kaylie Truitt, Lynchburg; Mallory Jones, Penn State; Mary Cannon, Delaware; Leah Barry, Tulane. By the way, I’m not promoting college over any other life journey, but I have always thought that every high school should do summer assessments of its graduates – six years out – to discover, “Where are they now and did we help or hinder their development, or make no difference?”

Loosey-goosey - Great quarterbacks who are also lacrosse midfielders have loose hips and heads on a swivel, and can read on the run. They will calmly without much emotion torture a defense like a house cat on a porch mouse. Joey Cahill was that guy at Cape and so is Hank D’Ambrogi. Their games and styles are so similar. Joey lit it up in lax for the UMBC Retrievers, then later dissected Sunday morning flag footballers in the Rehoboth Y flag football league. Hank can go next-level lax no problem, but he could also be a nice football fit at a Villanova or Delaware running an offense based on deception and execution. I say all the time, “When the game speeds up, can you go with it?” You know the sports cliché, “The race doesn’t always go to the fastest man, but to the man who thinks he can.” Best to be fast and think you can; then you have the best chance.    

Dak Prescott - I saw an interview with Dak and he talked about being mixed-race and the quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys. His late mother was white, and Dak said: “I remember the three words she left me with, ‘Faith, fight and finish.’” Dak Prescott is a leader, and with him at the quarterback controls of the Cowboys, this Philly boy could actually root for them ... maybe?

Blue Hens football - The University of Delaware will open an 11-game fall schedule Thursday Sept. 2, playing at the University of Maine. Delaware beat Maine 37-0 in March and leads the head-to-head series  21-11. Delaware will host Dixie State University Saturday, Oct. 30, the eighth game of the season. Personally, I had never heard of Dixie State University. The school is in Utah and changed from a two-year college to a four-year college in 2000. This is just a weird matchup and an unnatural rivalry. My assessment after looking at the Trailblazers’ roster is they are loaded with athletic-looking people mostly from California with a sprinkling of Samoans. Delaware State opens its 2021 football campaign hosting Bowie State University at Alumni Stadium. 

Snippets - Is walking around with a gallon jug of water at practice a tell that you arrived dehydrated on a hot and sunny day? And there are limited reasons why that may happen. Salty foods a possibility, too much caffeine another, or drinking the night before. I get a player being overweight and sweating profusely during practice, but a diesel truck can climb a mountain road without refilling the radiator every 10 minutes. Go on now, git!