Share: 

Run with a Santa state of mind

December 13, 2022

Run with Santa - Skinny Santas run 5K races; fat Santas deadlift crates of Chistmas oranges looking for a gift of salami and blocks of gouda cheese covered in wax. There were many inspirational stories at Sunday's Run with Santa 5K at Cape Henlopen State Park, including Martin Rodriguez offering his victory as a prayer for the late Mike Richardson, “Survivor Strider” Debbie Rementer back on attack with her hair growing back, and high school lacrosse/field hockey athletes Carrie Clausius and Lindsay D’Ambrogi coming off back-to-back shutdown seasons due to injuries just looking forward to being in the mix master of competition with their teammates. 

Mo’ Better Blues - A 1990 musical comedy featuring Denzel Washington, Wesley Snipes and Spike Lee. I know in the sports world if your quest is solely to be Mo Better than someone else or to always be the best, you will often sing the blues from the front porch of your dream world. The “my competitive nature” model never relents, and it's not as much fun as simply doing your best while enjoying the ride and letting the ruffled chips fall where they may. Actually, it was a good friend in the newspaper business, Dennis Forney, who told the adult version of myself, “Just go out there and give people the absolute best version of Fredman, and don’t worry about what anyone else is doing. Trust me, that will be good enough.”    

Word up! The Football Championship Subdivision, previously known as Division IAA, had its quarterfinal games last weekend with the Cardinals of Incarnate Word upsetting the Sacramento State Hornets 66-63 in the highest-scoring playoff game in the history of the FCS playoffs. Cardinals quarterback Lindsey Scott Jr. threw four touchdown passes, giving him an incomprehensible 59 touchdown passes on the season. Sacramento State had 738 yards of offense ... and lost the game. UIW will play No. 3 seed North Dakota State this weekend at the Fargo Dome. North Dakota State beat Samford of the Southern Conference 27-9 to reach the semifinals. A storyline from ESPN.com on quarterback Lindsey Scott caught my attention. “Scott is in his seventh season of college football with five teams.” Google at your leisure. The Jackrabbits of South Dakota State beat Holy Cross  42-21 and will face Montana State in the other semifinal. Montana State beat the Tribe of William and Mary 55-7 to reach the semifinals. All this is pretty darn close to being interesting, and I only focus on it here through the tinted goggles of Delaware football and asking the questions, “Word up? What up?” Incarnate Word is the largest Catholic university in Texas. Incarnation is the Christian doctrine that God assumed human nature and became a man in the form of Jesus Christ. There is a lot to learn researching these universities. It makes you scratch your head and ask, “How do they get all these great players?”

Moving on from Milstead - Delaware State University head football coach Ron Milstead was relieved of his coaching duties after a five-year record of 17-33. Milstead was an offensive lineman for the Hornets from 1988-91 and later played on the 1995 49ers team that won the Super Bowl. The Hornets have begun a national search with Jeff Braxton named interim coach. Braxton is a veteran coach who played at Salesianum for coach George Glenn. Give Mike Judy of Smyrna an interview, because what he has done with that program is incredible. Cape lost to Smyrna 40-13 in the last game of the regular season. That was the Eagles’ lowest point production over its last nine games including the playoffs. Smyrna secured a 52-7 win over Dover in the state title game. I would ask all coaches on Smyrna’s schedule about how they game plan the week leading up to the game. I reside somewhere between miffed and baffled that Smyrna got so far ahead of the competition.

Hump Day headhunting - Caesar Rodney wrestling under new head coach Trey Mitchell will grapple at Cape Wednesday night in what promises to be a top-to-bottom competitive match. The Riders are coming off a team win at the Milford Invitational with 458 points. DMA placed second with 406. Cape was not at the Milford tournament. 

Snippets - Cape boys’ basketball will host Sussex Central at the Big House Tuesday night in the home opener for both squads. Varsity game time is 6 p.m. There is no JV game. The Cape girls will play at Sussex Central; the JV game starts at 5 p.m., with varsity at 6:30. Religion and World Cup semifinals - Argentina versus Croatia, both are predominantly Catholic countries. France is Catholic versus Morocco, which is 99% Sunni Muslim and a few shoulder-shrugging agnostics kicking soccer balls around Marrakech. Go on now, git!    

Subscribe to the CapeGazette.com Daily Newsletter