Every picture tells a story in every race that’s run

Reason to believe - I capture some great photos of real people. I don’t even know I have the image until I upload my photos onto the home computer. I consider some of them the reason God woke me up to run another day. At the Prader-Willi Syndrome 5K in Milton Nov. 17, my camera card was filled with special photos. The good news with Facebook albums is you can share them all. The first was Lucy Mae Darmstadter pretty in pink rounding the turn at the start of the race. The other was Lilly Barnett, who has come a long way back from injury to walk a 5K, flashing an easy smile at the end of the race. Real people run and walk and later talk, which is why I love covering these events. 

Drop back and pundit - You can’t drive someone from the campsite where they pitched a pundit pup tent of strong beliefs without a pack of wild dogs baring their teeth and making growling noises. And so resides the campgrounds of the Colin Kaepernick true believers versus those who simply can’t stand the dude and wouldn’t sign him to a contract if he agreed to play for free. I sit back on a fat tree stump hoping campfire songs don’t break out and just listen to arguments and position statements from both sides. There is the intersection where billionaires meet millionaires all shrouded inside the cloud of social issues. I must admit, for a guy who owns three cars whose ages total 42 years, I have a hard time relating. Likability is at play in sports, just as in politics, and that determines in large part how we reason our position on issues. I liked Michael Vick. He was quietly charismatic and a team leader (had to overlook the dog thing), but I don’t find Colin Kaepernick the least bit likable, and so the reason for the sit down, then kneel down gets lost. 

All Hall Teams - Back in the days when the hallways of Cape were populated by jokers who looked like NFL and NBA athletes, there were entire teams of big strong guys who didn’t play sports, but who could light it up in the gym on change-of-pace Fridays. The demographic is different in 2019. Development and gentrification have changed the configuration of the school population. Cape excels in girls’ field hockey and lacrosse in addition to volleyball and swimming. This fall, the boys’ and girls’ cross country teams were county champs, with the boys also winning the Henlopen Conference Championship. Well over 100 fall athletes were on the A Honor Roll. Twenty-eight Cape athletes made Henlopen Academic All-Conference teams. Recent state titles were won by boys’ lacrosse and baseball, with baseball one bad call away from reaching last year’s state final. Someone once wrote: “Cape is a private school embedded inside a public school.” OK, it was me, but es verdad, mis amigos. 

Turkeys are the stuff - Wild turkeys roll down my driveway and across my backwoods on a semi-regular basis. They sort of float, they don’t trot or wobble, and you can be Usain Bolt, but you ain’t catching no turkey with your bare hands. Races2Run will host the Gobble Wobble Sunday, Nov. 24, in Felton and the Gabby Gobble Thursday, Nov. 28, in Lewes. There are Turkey Bowl games all over the place Thursday in all sports because everyone is looking for an excuse to escape meal preparation and furniture rearrangement. The Seashore Striders will host the Huffin’ for Pumpkin Pie 5K Saturday, Nov. 30, and the Sea Colony Turkey Trot 5K Sunday, Dec. 1.   

Snippets - Like a fat gibbon, I’m going out on the shaky limb and saying the state of Delaware has put more field hockey players in college programs than any other sport. Cape alone had 14 athletes playing on a college team this season. Cape’s Adele Mears played on Old Dominion national title teams in 1982, ‘83 and ‘84. Carrie Lingo was on the 1997 North Carolina title team. Robin Adair and Donna Peck played on the 1986 Salisbury Division III title team. Amanda “Dewey” Deloy was a starter all four years at Bloomsburg and played on Division II title teams in 2007, ‘08 and ‘09. Jody Boyer was on the 2018 Shippensburg title team. This weekend in the Division III semis, Franklin and Marshall plays Johns Hopkins. Erin Coverdale and Darby Klopp have a shot to play for a national title. Salisbury University plays Middlebury in the other semifinal. Four Henlopen Conference players are on the Salisbury team including Maci Long of Cape. In the NCAA Division II tournament, the semifinals feature Saint Anselm versus East Stroudsburg, and West Chester versus Kutztown. Sydney Ostroski of Cape is on the West Chester squad. Lisa Klopp Kammerer, aunt of Darby Klopp, played on Lock Haven Division II national championship teams in 1992 and ‘94. Lisa was a first-team All-American, and her high school coach at Sussex Central was Debbie Windett. Speaking of honor societies, should top-of-the-line, single-sport athletes go out for another team if they know they can help them out? I mean, really, stop focusing on yourself and share your talents with others! Yes, that does sound stupid. I couldn’t get near an honor society when I was in high school, but if someone needed my help, I was there without logging in my community service hours. Kevin Charles, retired executive director of DIAA, has been hired by the state of Delaware as a consultant to DIAA. Kevin is a quintessential fair arbiter with good judgement. Go on now, git!