Here I am stuck in the middle after peaking in eighth grade

Coach Kenny - I have been a mentor and friend to Kenny Riedel since he first got lost in the hallways of Cape Henlopen High School his freshman year, when he was 14 years old. Now 32, a 2007 University of Delaware graduate and basketball writer for the Cape Gazette, Kenny is the middle school track coach at Mariner. He is like a character right out of an afternoon kids special where young athletes excel while enhancing positive self-image through sports. I laughed with Kenny April 23 as he straddled a curb in a Mariner parking lot, an orange traffic cone in his left hand and a measuring wheel in his right, a collared shirt open at the neck, his long curly hair blowing in the breeze. He was talking through the passenger’s window of a car, telling a young mother that her daughter needed to ice her calf muscle when she got home because she couldn’t run the last 300 of her interval workout. I hit the track April 25 with my bottomless library of “I can tell it but can’t sell it” track stories and caught a candid of coach Kenny in his natural habitat. I’ll save coach Gilbert Maull and Tim Bamforth stories for later. I coached both athletes when they ran track for Cape. I can’t sell too much history in the same paragraph.

Fredman in the Middle - I peaked in eighth grade, so it’s understandable that I’m quite comfortable covering middle school sports. Perhaps I’m searching for my best game that I left back at our Lady of Grace Grammar School. I was at boys’ lacrosse at Mariner April 23 and Beacon April 25, and both teams beat Fifer – a CR school – with Mariner winning 6-3 and Beacon claiming an 8-1 win. Mariner lost “too much talent” from last year’s 10-0 squad, but they have responded with a 5-0 start to the season and a record number of Afro-American athletes learning the sport. Beacon lost a road game at Easton 8-3 with leading scorer Hank D’Ambrogi “out to illness.” The previous week, Beacon beat Easton 8-3 at home. Beacon is 5-1. I dropped into the very end of the Mariner versus Beacon dual track meet at Legends Stadium April 25, a blend between a track carnival and a multi-generational family reunion. The Mariner boys coached by Kenny Riedel and John Horst defeated Beacon 60-49, while the Beacon girls ran by Mariner 73-36. Beacon is coached by Tim Bamforth, Gilbert Maull and Jaime Louks. Beacon lacrosse is coached by Joey Vavala and assisted by James Affeldt, Corey Mahoney, Jim Derrick and Nick Luzak. Mariner is coached by Jacob Kee and assisted by Thom Pickard, Steve Hamer and Drew Messick. Great coaches in middle school. They are unsung heroes, but they can make or break a kid’s career before they hit high school.

Snippets - The Phillies are seven games over .500 at 15-8 early on, while the Nationals are three games under at 11-14. Does anyone believe that the Phillies are a better ball club than Washington? Sure, after the Eagles win in the Super Bowl and Villanova wins the National Championship in college basketball, a slew of Philly fans are on board with the Sixers and Phillies contending for a championship. Cape baseball will play at Riverdale Baptist April 28, a team that is ranked No. 7 in the country. David Erickson will get the start. “We’ll split it up,” said coach Ben Evick. “We have a big conference game at CR Tuesday, May 1.” This is Penn Relays weekend at Franklin Field in Philadelphia. It was on a Saturday morning in April 1975 I first heard announcer Jack Ryan say, “Cape Henlopen coming off the turn.” He commented, “Cape Henlopen, I just love the way that sounds.” I didn’t know at the time he was talking to me. Lily Nowakowski, daughter of Thad who wrestled 103 for Cape in 1988, will be running track for the College of Charleston Cougars in the fall. Lily ran in high school for Spring Ford in southeastern Pennsylvania and will be a 200- and 400-meter sprinter and long jumper in college. Thad is a LaSalle grad, which puts him in Philly in the first place. Cape Vikings Pop Warner football and cheer signup will be this Sunday, April 29, at Meineke from 1 to 3 p.m. Find Harry Hudson on Facebook for the complete flyer and you can message him questions. Signups do not include a free oil change. I spotted Scott Kammerer, the Secret SoDel Man, on the sidelines of a Beacon lacrosse game – his son Carson is the goalie. You can get anything you want at a SoDel restaurant – cheese dogs on request. Go on now, git!