Share: 

Milford heat blankets Gold football; scrimmage shortened for safety

57th DRFC Blue-Gold All-Star game to be played Saturday, June 23, at Delaware Stadium
June 24, 2012

The weather was Sure Crop hot in Milford Wednesday night for the Gold scrimmage against “its ownself” at Briggs Stadium played in front of a panting crowd of relatives. The temperature inside a helmet was hotter than a Grotto's pizza oven which carries a warning, "Don't stick your head inside here!"

The Gold cheerleaders were also in the house, but it really wasn't a very cheerio kind of crowd. A record was set for the most open umbrellas ever seen downstate on a clear day outside of the Laurel Flea Market in August.

Precautions were taken by the medical staff led by Dr. Michelle Fintron as big old linemen hydrated sloppily, more or less finding their mouths, and doused their domes with cold water. And there was plenty of Gatorade on the sideline for electrolyte replacement if you didn't mind drinking from a bucket.

The scrimmage started with a 20-minute 7 on 7 drill, which was marginally amusing, as players wore practice scrimmage jerseys with lineman numbers mostly the same colors and helmets were plastered with more stickers than a Delmar race car. Linemen just crashed into each other until the full-contact scrimmage began.

Sammy Mohr is the Cape representative, but his teammate Jerome Johnson elected at the last minute not to play to safeguard his knee, which was scoped during the middle of lacrosse season.

The 57th DRFC Blue-Gold All-Star game will be played Saturday, June 23, at Delaware Stadium. General admission is $10 for adults, including ones wearing their Gold jerseys from 40 years ago.

Frank Moffit of Hodgson Vo Tech is coach of the Blue team while Mike Hyde of Saint Andrews coaches the Gold squad. Frank Moffitt's brother David played in the 1993 game, and Hyde played in the 1987 game, and his dad played in the 1959 game and later coached the Blue, and here we go with the web of connections.

Chuck Hudson is on the Gold staff; he is the son of former Sussex Central coach Charlie Hudson, who is married to the sister of the Cannon brothers, while Chuck is married to Mike Hyde's sister.

There are cheerleaders and ambassadors along with band members from each school, and most importantly the hand-in-hand buddy program, which is showcased 10 minutes before kickoff as buddies charge the field from each end zone to meet their players accompanied by the music, “Reach Out and Touch Somebody's Hand.” It is the best 10 minutes of the year in Delaware sports.

 

 

Subscribe to the CapeGazette.com Daily Newsletter