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Griffin Kammerer awarded prestigious Fulbright scholarship

College sports takes a toll on your body
May 11, 2018

Fulbright to new heights - Griffin Kammerer, a soccer goalie and baseball pitcher at Cape who then went off to the Swarthmore Garnet-Griffin, is an academic guy – the thinker and reflector. He is the ponderer – often someplace else. He has been awarded a prestigious Fulbright scholarship and will be teaching English in Malaysia beginning in January. “I’ll be with the equivalent of middle and high school students,” Griffin said. Griffin was an economics and psychology major at Swarthmore. A total of 700 graduating college seniors worldwide annually receive a Fulbright scholarship, and 59 have won Nobel Prizes and 82 have won Pulitzer Prizes. Only one wears a SoDel hat.

Fizzle my shizzle -  Forizzle, the Phillies are in the mix 36 games into the season, posting a 21-15 record and two games ahead of the Nationals at 20-18. Is it safe, Marathon Man? It’s a long season. Is it safe to think the Phillies won’t be 10 games out by the all-star break? Up to this point, they look as good as anyone else in the National League. Watching baseball on television is a built-in excuse to not do much of anything but multitask on the laptop, interspersed with naps and snacks. 

School and society - I took a class by that name, and it was as deadly as it sounds. Education courses were always ranked high on the boredom scale. The good writers don’t have much to say about education. Anytime a presenter produces a chart or says the word “portfolio,” run to the real people who are just hanging out someplace. Madison Avenue in New York, the place where commercials are made, will tell you what is trending in the real world, which ain’t Twitter. There are now many commercials depicting mixed-race families, and you don’t have to be a sociologist to deduce that lots of mixed-race families in America have money to spend. This deep into the new millennium, I stay away from commentaries on race and sports because I don’t know how people self-identify and I don’t know its relevance when watching a game. Cultures change; it’s what they do. We all have multiple muppet disorder – it’s simple, yet complicated.

Ain’t that tough enough? Allie Yeager just graduated from Winthrop University, where she was a four-year starter in lacrosse. Allie excelled at Cape in field hockey and lacrosse all her four years, and she is part of the state championship saga. I saw Allie after the CR at Cape lacrosse game May 9. “She is the toughest person I know,” said her dad, Steve, as Allie sat in the car wearing a leg brace. Allie tore her ACL and MCL just two weeks ago in the quarterfinals of her conference tournament. She has also dealt with torn hip labrums on both sides and I’m not sure what else. I said to her, “I know it’s a grind, and I know you are glad to have some downtime.” She said what I’ve heard a lot of college athletes say, “Fredman, my body is just beat up.” Mine is too, but nobody cares except Brent Hochrein. Two years ago after he broke his arm in a soccer game, I asked him, “How you doing, Brent?” He answered, “I’m OK. How are you doing, Fredman?”  

Shoutouts and whereabouts - For girls’ lacrosse Senior Night, granddaughter Katie wrote, “Thanks to Fredman for attending more of my games than I did and always being so supportive.” The previous day I had covered Cape baseball and fielded lots of questions and comments: “Where have you been? We figured you didn’t like baseball anymore.” Listen, I’m rounding the clubhouse turn in the plow horse derby for 70-year-olds. I’m at some sporting event every day with a camera that weighs more than my head. I’m somewhere between an anachronism and a throwback. But my blue chair sinks when I sit in it; I just thought my knees were going bad. 

Snippets - The Cape soccer girls are 10-4 and will host 12-1 Caesar Rodney at Champions Stadium at 6:30 p.m., Tuesday night in the last game of the regular season. Cape is fast with great goaltending from Lucy Siranides and will try to hang close. The Riders beat Sussex Tech 3-2 and Delmar 2-0 and other times they have blown teams out. Beacon soccer finished the season 9-1-1, and many of their better players also play Atlantic Lacrosse, so next spring the freshmen will have to make a choice. Go on now, git!

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