Naiya Smith of Central is one of the all-time best kids
Naiya Smith - A Sussex Central track and field star and field hockey player. I’ve been watching Naiya, now a junior, run since she was in seventh grade. We are talking major track talent, the fastest on her team from the 100 through the 1,600. I paused her long enough to get a photo, but she was anxious to get to the 300 hurdles. "Are you running the hurdles?” I asked. “No, I’m holding blocks for my teammate.”
David Warick directed a musical called “True Life,” in which Naiya played singer Aaliyah, saying, “She is one of the all-time best kids.” I figure if you’re going to get blown away in a race, it may as well be to a really nice person.
Missing linksters - Years ago, it was Cape golfer Angela Coverdale who said to me, “It’s golf, Fredman, not gauff.” But I had a half credit in golf from Temple University and never left the basement of a Broad Street building. I’ve played rounds at country clubs with no clubs until the police arrived. I once interviewed John Colpo of Cape who dove at night to the bottom of water hazards and had baskets of balls he wanted to resell. John looked like Martin Sheen in "Apocalypse Now," practicing for his trip up the river. Ironically, in a Cape lip sync contest Colpo performed "Dancing with Myself," taking walking to the beat of a different drummer to the fifth dimension. Actually, covering a golf match in person like a sporting event is tough because really no one wants you there, and professional cameras with motor drives sound like a drone about to land on your head. A high school match allows six golfers, and the top four score. Cape just beat Sussex Academy 213-238, as Matt Zehner of Cape walked the dog on the field to shoot 43. The next best scores were three tied at 57, including Dane Palmer and Reed Jones of Cape and Tom Hudson of Sussex Academy.
Big old ball - Soccer uses a big old ball on a big old field and the mission is to kick or head the ball into the largest net in all of sports. The Cape soccer girls opened the season with a home win over Sussex Academy 1-0 and followed that up the next night with a 1-0 loss at Smyrna. That is 160 minutes of running clock action with a single goal scored played in a sports world where most fans have attention deficit disorder or multi-tasking deficiency. The sport is great to play and the good coaches sound like metaphysicists from the 19th century. The NFL changes rules every year, so why not eliminate offsides from soccer to jazz up the game, make it more crazy and athletic and with less precision? I know the soccer purists are going to hammer me on this, but a goal every once in awhile is just not spectator-friendly, especially on a weeknight.
Relay for Life - The Lance White baton was passed from 1976 to 2016, a chasm of 40 years now that takes a long arm. Cape track won the opening race of the 2016 season, winning the 800 relay, as a team of Jose Ascencio, Augustus Nsiah and Sam Nye handed to anchorman Lance White who ran a 2:10 for 800 meters, which is decent on a cold March afternoon. I asked Lance if he ever heard of the 1970s Cape All-American and he said, "My freshman year people mentioned him. I know it’s a name impossible to live up to.” Lance White only lost one race in Delaware his three years running track and cross country, and that was to teammate Jay Reed in the 1976 cross country state championship meet. It was rainy and muddy that day and Prime Hook Jay was all about the great salt marsh conditions.
Snippets - The Bunny Palooza 5K/10K is this Saturday morning in Bethany Beach. I’ll be there taking photos just because I like saying Bunny Palaooza and seeing people run in bunny ears. But not guys so much. DJ Bump will be there as well. The inaugural Tommy 10-Miler (Tommy Coveleski) and Daffodil Dash 5K is Saturday, April 23, on the Irish Eyes course in Lewes. Check out races2run.com for registration details.
University of Delaware field hockey received the NFHCA Division I National Academic Team Award for a team GPA over 3.0 for the first semester of the 2015-16 academic year. College is so much easier when you go to class. Go on now, git!
