Dugouts from Cold War era are monuments to a simpler time

INCONGRUENCE - I don’t know the value of real estate in Rehoboth, just that I can barely afford to slow down when passing through city limits. And I know the Cape district wants to protect its holdings by zoning property commercial or heavy-duty industrial or high-density residential - whatever it takes, like renting a building to the YMCA for a dollar a year.

But what is up with the neutron bomb look of the old Rehoboth Little League field? The dugouts look like solitary confinement centers for maximum security chickens. And the old bleachers are broken with shrubbery growing up through them. I mean, it is old school cool, but where’s the retired school bus up on blocks and rusted tractor in the high weeds? There is irony in demolishing the much-needed Cape Little Big House while dugouts from the bomb shelter Cold War era remain as monuments to a simpler time when fat people broke through bleacher seats and no one bothered to fix them.

STRAIGHT UP CUTE - You cannot describe a dressed for field trip track honor roll student like Savonne Seth as “straight up cute” unless you have “sports cred” like me and are out there covering these athletes for years and have even spoken to them in the classroom. Savonne had represented Cape through basketball and now track and that is what this public school deal is all about.

This May 10, I will introduce prom couples – again, which I’ve been doing for more years than this kids have been alive. I’m more than willing to step off and relinquish this opportunity for career-ending comments to a younger, quicker and cleverer teacher, but for anyone who has ever taught off a lesson plan this is not a job for you.

CREATIVE WRITING - “Teach for Transfer” - is there any other reason to learn anything? School becomes its own inside game and most of the time there is little relevance to the dynamic that is the actual living of a life.

What is creative about writing in a classroom then being evaluated by a professional with no demonstrated writing talent in the real world? You want creative, try writing 500 words on a 1-0 late- night soccer victory with a clever lead and lively quotes and having it clean and ready to go by 8 a.m. the next morning.

NONE AND DONE - College basketball needs not to be paid attention to. When I read that freshman Kevin Love of UCLA and nephew of Beach Boy Mike Love was “coming out,” I first thought, “Wow I’ve never met a 6-foot-9 gay dude,” or maybe I have.

Do you wonder why former Temple coach John Chaney went crazy at a post-game press conference in 1994 and told John Calipari, then the head coach at UMass, that the next time he saw him he was going to kick his —-. By the way Calapari is in the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame and I’m scared to make a joke about that.

CLEARING THE DECKS - Sussex Tech won its first girls lacrosse home game earlier this week defeating Red Lion Christian 18-9. Scoring for Tech was led by Natalie Justice with 6 goals and Maxine Fluharty with  6 goals and  3 assists; Lindsay Danz had 1 goal and 1 assist.  Hannah Cryne, Sara Adams and Lauren Joseph each added one goal. Courtenay Rickards had 3 assists.  Audrey White had 2 goals and 1 assist. Red Lion Christian had 27 shots on goal.  Tech’s goalie Caitlin Stone had 11 saves.  Tech had 39 shots on goal.  Red Lion goalie Emily Gripp had 12 saves. The Sussex Tech junior varsity squad defeated the Mount Pleasant JV 9-2. Rachel Springer scored 6 goals for the Ravens and Aja Tenerovich, Heidi Perez and Ashley Bice each scored one.

The Cape co-ed relays will be run Saturday afternoon at the high school, if you like eating hotdogs and watching others run. Concession wars are looming at Cape if diplomatic efforts fail to resolve who gets dibs on the first full football season at Surf and Turf with the new fieldhouse and bleachers. It’s the junior class versus the athletic lobby.

SNIPPETS – Twenty-five years ago Cape principal Mike Mock called me into his office to explain how I could possibly think it was a good idea to throw a shot put inside the gym. I quickly went and got the 12 pound rubber orange shot put filled with sand. He fondled it like Woody Allen on the Orb in “Sleeper,” and the deeper message was that I am dumb enough to drop a steel ball on a rubberized floor. Currently, the metal shot is being tossed onto the $700,000 field turf at Legends Stadium as bits of rubber jump like dust in the wind with every implantation. People who generally worry about such things think this is not a bad idea and who am I to ponder?