High-performance two-sport athlete Jamie Schirmer heading to motorsports

Big Diesel Cat - Jamie Schirmer is a Sussex Tech senior and homegrown citizen of the 684. He weighs about 277 pounds and was an all-conference defensive lineman in football in the fall. He was also named academic all-state. Jamie is a heavyweight wrestler on the cusp of 100 wins, most by pin – he’s not hanging around for three periods if he doesn’t have to. Jamie knows what sports he wants to pursue in college – high-performance motorsports with a concentration in diesel technologies. He with attend University of Northwestern Ohio and pursue those majors and will not play football or wrestle unless someone takes his lug wrench without asking. He is one focused young man.

Mikey and Carson - Mikey Fred and Carson Kammerer are wrestling teammates, classmates and neighbors, and they are the only freshmen in the varsity wrestling lineup, taking over the 120 and 126 weight classes. Anyone who knows wrestling understands that the lightweights through the middle usually have the most technique and tenacity. It’s a hard place to make a living. Both athletes will win some big matches and also take their lumps along the way. And it’s hard following older siblings who were great athletes. For Mikey, it is Anna, Lizzie and Katie. Carson follows Griffin and Holden. But mostly, Mikey and Carson are blue and gold Cape kids, members of the extended family of Vikings that’s been around for 50 years.

Hair and head gear guy - Double-digit numbers of high-hair wrestlers were at the Battle at the Beach tournament Dec. 28-29, and no one paid any attention to them except me. I was taking photos since everyone was talking for a week about the high school grappler with dreads who had them trimmed way down by a student manager to allow him to wrestle. And yet I was immersed in wrestler culture for two days and no was was talking about it. They were too busy being tough and hungry, I guess. I have noticed a similar bond among wrestlers and ruggers. The athletes get after each other furiously and ferociously, but there is a brotherhood, a code. You just don’t lose your cool or it ruins everything.

Fredman at work - I’ve sheltered in place inside Slam Dunk to the Beach since 1992. For me, it has been work and free food. I’m always in pay attention mode, but I decided to take a break this year and cover sports that are not Slam Dunk to the Beach, like wrestling and running. What will happen next is several people will ask me if I saw a certain great game, and I will nod my head, “Sure, I saw it. What game are we talking about?” Sometimes I do that just to see how long I can stay inside a story that I know nothing about. The answer is, I can pretty much fake it forever because bottom line, I’m just a sounding board. No one really cares what I think. Who am I, Stephen A. Smith?

Family vacation - There are some people – a lot, actually – who think a family vacation is a vacation from your family, not with your family. I know over winter and spring breaks from high school up through college that some families – none are friends of mine – take vacations together. And they take their athletes with them, just up and leaving a team in the middle of the season. The explanation is often that “This has been planned for a long time.” Cape has a policy, last I checked (which was once a long time ago), that any missed games as a result of missing practices because of a family vacation is at the discretion of the head coach. When I coached spring track, I didn’t deal with family vacations. The athletes just disappeared for a week.

Snippets - Ron Dukes, the head coach of girls’ basketball at Sussex Central, passed a milestone by recording his 200th victory. Other downstate milestones for girls’ basketball include Chester Davis with 500 wins at multiple schools and Bill Victory with more than 400 wins at Caesar Rodney. In boys’ basketball, there is B.J. Joseph (Laurel, Milford and Indian River) with 200 wins along with Mike Starkey at Lake Forest and Smyrna. The Cape boys’ indoor track team, under the direction of Ellis Gaulden, has won three invitational meets in a row, so I think I’d better get down to the Worcester County Parks and Rec, and find out just how the heck they are doing it. Go on now, git!