Molly Dolan - Molly is a graduating senior lacrosse player for Wilmington Friends. She has scored more than 200 career goals to go with 100 assists, and she takes the draw and is a two-way middle. She caught my attention during the game versus Cape because of the joyous way she approached the game and was obviously unselfish. Two hundred career goal scorers rarely pass out of a free-position opportunity one goal shy of a hat trick in the final game of her senior season, but she did. I grabbed her photo after the game just to share my observation and she graciously smiled. She will be at Boston College next year where she will join Lydia Colasante out of Tatnall on the roster. The Rishkos and some Frederick lacrosse players are Dolans, but I didn’t go down that road, assuming all Dolans are related and may know each other. 

Owen Parsons Project - Owen Parsons, 18, lives in West Chester, Pa., and is a graduating senior and distance runner at Archmere Academy. He occasionally races at Sesame Street by the Sea. He won the 33rd annual Masser 5-Miler May 24, in a time of 28:30. Two weeks ago in the DIAA State Championships, he ran a 4:38 in the 1,600 and 9:51 in the 3,200. Owen will attend Boston University in the fall. “I will likely run club. Not sure I’m good enough to run for them, they are really good," he said. That was coming from a runner who had just beaten 235 people in a five-mile race. Last year, Owen placed second in the Masser 5-Miler to Mike Wardian and in 2024 placed third behind Dylan Smiley and Joey Andrisani. Owen was also third in 2023 behind Wardian and Austen Cave. By the way, Wardian's next endurance challenge will be to row across the Atlantic.

Barking at Pop Pops - Going back 50 years, relatives of head coaches and officials, mostly a football thing, were advised to stay out of the home stands because they may not like hearing loud commentaries about how a person they love is an absolute freaking idiot. It’s actually one of the few things that is not as bad as it used to be. When someone talks loudly bashing a person in my family or even a close friend who is coaching, I tend to get mad, and because I'm a newspaper guy, I offer them a chance to go on the record. Tim Holton moved to Millville from Brooklyn, N.Y., possibly the first person to even do that. He officiates girls' lacrosse, the most tightly regulated of all games involving a ball and a net. No other sport issues a yellow card for dangerous propelling that doesn’t involve an outboard motor. I caught a photo of Tim with his daughter and two granddaughters after the Friends game. Those cute kids love their grandpop and hopefully they never have to hear a fan barking, “Hey, what was that? You are terrible.”

Durante and Duffy - Chuck Durante, educated at Tower Hill and Haverford College, is a lawyer by profession who has also written sports in Delaware for the last 55 years. His passions are track and basketball. Cape won both the 4-by-100 and 4-by-200 relays at the Meet of Champions. Afterwards, Chuck spoke with Navin Duffy. Chuck called me to say how much Navin reminded him of Henry White. I said, "Yes, Navin gets your attention because you have his. He is a gracious and straight-up stalwart individual, just like Henry." And a few months ago, he got to meet Henry White (1974) and his brother Lance (1978) who were given a tour of the Cape campus by Navin, Jason Baker and Liam Ramsey. 

Snippets - Fred Thomas Middle School is 20-0 in baseball after opening two years ago. Coaches are Ben Ashby, Zach Dale and Mark Mayer. The Fred Thomas lacrosse boys finished 11-0 and didn’t  have a close game. The boys' track team was 8-0. Field hockey finished 12-0. Cross Country was 9-0. Courtside tickets for NBA conference finals games easily coast $100,000 and above. Do famous celebrities actually pay? I’m guessing many don’t. The first two rows would make a good book. Go on now, git!