Legends Stadium will induct four new members Oct. 28
Cape Henlopen School District will induct four new members into the Legends Stadium Ring of Honor Friday, Oct. 28, at 6:45 p.m prior to the start of the football game versus Appoquinimink.
Coaches Bill Collick, P.J. Kesmodel, Janet Maull-Martin and George Pepper will have their plaques unveiled and lag bolted onto the brick wall of the fieldhouse.
These four coaches join original members Frank Coveleski, Tony Georgiana, Don Hanley and Bob Edgerton, whose images appear on the granite block on the way into the stadium.
Previous Legends added for their service to local sports include Tom Hickman, Dave Frederick, Dan Cook, Janet Nowakowski, Ruth Skoglund and Carolyn Ivins.
Here’s a biographical look at the four new honorees.
Bill Collick
Bill played for Cape, graduating in 1970. He played in and was voted Outstanding Lineman in the Blue-Gold game. He played at Wesley (1970-71), then graduated Delaware and came back to Cape in 1975 as a health teacher and assistant coach for football and track. That began a 40-year journey that included coaching football at Delaware State University 1985-96, compiling a record of 81-48, where he was also athletic director (1996-2000).
He then had a stint at Sussex Tech (2000-09) before returning to Cape (2010-17). Collick also coached wrestling at Cape and Delaware State. His Hornets football teams won MEAC titles in 1985, 1987, 1988, 1989 and 1991. Collick was voted MEAC Coach of the Year in 1985. Collick is in the Delaware Sports Hall of Fame and Delaware Afro American Sports Hall of Fame, MEAC Hall of Fame and Wesley College Hall of Fame, and he currently serves as a member of the Cape Henlopen school board.
P.J. Kesmodel
The zen master of Cape girls’ lacrosse, Kesmodel coached the Vikings to eight consecutive state championships (2009-16) while building his winning streak against in-state opponents to 99 games. Kesmodel retired on his 73rd birthday after a 16-4 state championship victory over Tower Hill. In nine years as Cape’s head coach of girls’ lacrosse, coach P.J. amassed a record of 143-17-1. Kesmodel’s calls for Spread Red, Yellow and Green were known by parents in the stands, as were freelance and avatar.
P.J. won a boys’ state title at Mount Hebron in Maryland in 1983. His Mount Hebron girls’ teams won four consecutive state titles (1992-95). P.J. also coached Baltimore City College, an inner-city school, to the City Championship of Baltimore.
Kesmodel founded the Hero's Lacrosse Club, and helped develop the Eastern Shore Lacrosse Club and Atlantic Lacrosse.
Kesmodel is in numerous halls of fame for lacrosse, including the Delaware Lacrosse Hall of Fame and the Baltimore Lacrosse Hall of Fame.
Janet Maull-Martin
Janet is a Cape kid from her days at Lewes High School, then graduating from Cape Henlopen. She was Cape Teacher of the Year in 1985. Janet started coaching softball in 1975 at Milton Junior High, then went on to coach field hockey and basketball before going to the high school to serve as assistant basketball coach under Bob Cassady in 1984. Later, Janet became head coach – the first Afro American female to be named head coach at Cape. Other firsts include being the first Afro American female to play varsity sports at Lewes High School as a freshman in 1968.
She was a member of the first Cape Henlopen graduating class in 1970. In 1994, Janet was coach of the boys’ JV basketball team. Janet was head coach for girls’ basketball from 1986 to 1990. She was Henlopen Conference Coach of the Year for girls’ basketball in 1988. Her teams reached three straight state semifinals and won back-to-back Henlopen Conference titles in 1987 and 1988. Stellar all-state and all-conference-level basketball players coached by Janet Maull include Tonya McDowell, Zelda Sheppard, Sonja Friend, Charmin Jacobs, Carla Cannon, Chaundra White, Sharon Clifton and Lisa Hazzard.
George Pepper
Coach Pep put up some staggering stats during his 40 years (1979-2019) as the head girls’ track coach at Cape. The Cape girls won six state outdoor titles: 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2011 and 2012. The Cape girls were also the state runners-up nine times.
Those teams produced 45 individual state champions and 16 relay state champions, and were section champions at the Penn Relays an astounding seven times.
Coach Pepper also directed the boys’ cross country teams in 1979 and 1982 to state championships.
Individual cross country state champions who ran for George Pepper include Tony Sheppard, Danny Harmon, Taiwan Savage twice and Cindy Price.
Just factoring in statewide honors, Pepper was Girls’ Outdoor State Coach of the Year in 2004, 2005 and 2011.
Pep was Henlopen Conference Cross Country Coach of the Year for girls in 1986, 1988 and 2008, and for boys in 1982 and 2005.
George Pepper graduated from Cape in 1971 and was a hurdler on the state championship team coached by Tom Hickman. Pepper continued to run hurdles at the University of Delaware.
