Fall season finds a diverse array of Cape athletes playing college sports

Fall fashions - This segment features Cape athletes wearing college uniforms across the array of fall sports. Carey Karl is entering her senior season playing field hockey for the Royals of Queen University in Charlotte, N.C. Carey has started all games the last two seasons, listed as a defender. She is majoring in nursing. Tess Bernheimer is entering her senior season at Drexel University. Tess has started all 46 games played by the Dragons hockey team since she arrived on campus. Tess is majoring in biological sciences. Annie Judge is beginning her sophomore season for the Temple Owls hockey team. Annie played in all 18 games as a freshman and started in 12. She is majoring in early childhood education. Alia Marshall is one of only four freshmen on the field hockey roster at Northwestern University. Alia is majoring in speech pathology. Other former Cape field hockey players on college teams are Amanda Sponaugle, Newberry; Maci Long, Salisbury; Anna Harrington, Washington College; Darby Klopp, Franklin and Marshall; Erin Coverdale, Franklin and Marshall; Marcella Sabbagh, Christopher Newport; Sydney Ostroski, West Chester; Jody Boyer, Shippensburg; and Kaylie Truitt, Lynchburg.    

Brandon Nixon is listed as a redshirt defensive tackle for the University of Delaware, majoring in applied mathematics. Brent Reed is a redshirt junior tight end, majoring in economics. Robert Mitchell, after a two-year career at Lackawanna, is playing football at North Carolina Central.

Soccer guys at the next level are: Bradley Seneus at Nazareth; Aidan Spoor at Goucher; Jack Ashby at Lynchburg; Steven Matalavage at Neuman; Richard Carey, soccer and baseball at Penn State, Altoona; and Troy Humphries, Marywood University. Kannex Camarco is trying to walk on at Hawaii Pacific University. Lindsay Swontek is playing soccer at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

Logan Shuttleworth enters her sophomore volleyball season at West Chester University.

Commit to smarts and grades - Many families of athletes obfuscate the truth in terms of scholarship monies and verbal commitments, and I could shake it down to the bulljive attention most of it deserves, but I play along like everyone else. I do believe that a college degree without smarts and savvy doesn’t help much with happiness or the job market. And I know that a high SAT and GPA make a decent athlete look a lot better when colleges start spreading around money you don’t have to pay back. But the longer I’m in the sports business, the more I realize that the financial profile of a college athlete is highly individualized and personal. 

Band camp - I went past the Cape track Wednesday afternoon. It was 100 degrees and if the new track were the devil, he’d of course be red. Band Director Chris Burkhart is a fellow Temple guy and Philly sports fan, and he does a great job with all the moving parts of the marching band. 

Shannon Lord - Just before graduation her senior year at Sussex Tech in 2017, catcher Shannon Lord was a backseat passenger in a crash. She suffered a spinal injury, severe enough to put her in McGee Rehab in Philly, a place where magic happens. I went to visit her, and we don’t even know each other. I took some photos and told her story. Shannon ‘s mom, Jill Kauffman Wharton, wrote to me last week. “Shannon is doing great. She is walking. Taking classes at [Delaware Tech] and has her own business – Shannon Danielle Esthetics. Her left leg has not come back fully, but that hasn’t stopped her. She is an assistant head coach for Sussex Tech softball. So very proud of her strength!! Thank you to all who ask about her and still pray for her. What an amazing community we live in.”  

Kicking back - Just as summer sports kick back, the fall season ramps up. The transition can be felt like the stronger-running tides of September. Summer fun gives way to the more serious focus of fall sports and school teams. Mentally, athletes can’t be on their game all the time. Anyone who tries always fails. It’s the law of diminishing returns. Young athletes have that adrenaline reserve, which is nature’s own performance-enhancing drug. I’ll take game-day junkies over practice heroes any day of the week, especially on Friday nights. “You play like you practice,” but actually the good ones play better than they practice. 

A Peek at Zeke - Ezekiel Elliott was suspended by the NFL for six games in 2017 for a domestic violence incident, and we ain’t talking running over the maid. That tarnished his image and now he’s a contract holdout, doesn’t want to play out the final two years on a contract worth a total of $12 million. By holding out, Zeke’s contract may balloon like the hair under his helmet, from $3.8 million to $14.1 million. The question is, would any of us rush 300 times into NFL defenses for that kind of money? Answer: 90 percent of us would be broken on the first possession of preseason, then wheeled around with dementia for the rest of our shortened adult lifetime. Zeke is a beast and he’s going to get paid. 

Snippets - The University of Delaware field hockey roster features seven foreign players – six from the Netherlands and one from Northern Ireland. Freshman Ashlyn Carr of Delmar is also on the roster. Jacki Coveleski was an assistant coach on the Delaware 2016 national championship team and last year was an assistant JV girls’ basketball coach at Cape as they went undefeated. Jacki’s late grandfather was Frank Coveleski. He was simply known as Coach in the Rehoboth and Cape community. Coaching is coaching, that is a truism; the question is, do you bring the same enthusiasm to all jobs? The good ones most certainly do. Go on now, git!