Soul searching – a photographic memory keeps images alive

Soul searching - I move about in a world of fit people pursuing healthy lifestyles. In 2016, I was taking race photos of the Run for the GOAT in Milford on a Friday evening. A man on a bike, smoking a cigarette, meshed with the runners. He rode past my camera, providing contrast to the sameness of it all. It was incongruous. I snapped his photo, making him a muppet in the montage. I knew he had a story to tell — we all do — but he was quickly gone. I have a photographic memory (I remember photos I took), so I reposted the photo on my Facebook page Aug. 19. I have a social media footprint that is size 14 triple E. I learned the man’s name is Billy Allen, a Vietnam veteran and a Woodbridge Blue Raider, and he passed away in 2023 at age 70. His daughter Rahnice Parker responded, “That's my dad! Vietnam vet! He had an amazing story to tell, one of healing and redemption.” Trina Brown-Hicks is his sister-in-law. Shenika Parker posted back to Trina, “OMG Auntie I balled like a baby. I wish he could see this.” I call it soul searching, because I am always interested in who people are, and the family and friends who surround them. 

Athletics and Academic Challenge - Last Tuesday, rising freshman and sophomores left early-morning hockey practice to ride the big yellow taxi to Delaware Tech to take classes in English and math. The JV players who were “children left behind” suddenly faced a logistical challenge. A second bus arrived to cover the confusion, but then many players had to attend their first day of “college classes” dressed as hockey players. I was on a 2:15 p.m. pickup for Meredith Fred, two buses of kids on the field house side of the school. My son Jack, a football coach, suggested, “Don’t ask Meredith about the bus mixup. I don't think she was too happy about it.” Meredith threw her stick and two bags into the back seat, climbed aboard the Japanese Fred-frigate 4Runner and first thing she said was, “The bus left without us,” then I got a firsthand account from a 14-year-old that was priceless. 

Tripping in place - The scene was Cape indoor track, 1977, the Colonial Relays at William & Mary College. Sprinter Glenn Smith placed third in the finals of the 600. Glenn ran most of the turns wide because he was stubborn and always thought he knew best, and in some cases he did know better than me. I sat down next to him after his race and explained that to run wider is to run farther. He looked at me and said, "Fredman, how many 600s did you ever run?” Coaches learn, “You don’t have to look the part to play the part of coach.” But life advice is another matter entirely. And if a coach doesn’t represent the healthy lifestyle they are selling, the athletes will pay no attention, and trust me, everybody knows what’s up.   

Macy waves goodbye - Cape graduate and two-sport athlete Macy Steinwedel came by field hockey practice on Wednesday to say "hi and goodbye” to trainers, coaches and teammates before heading off to Old Dominion, where she will play lacrosse. I asked Macy if she knew the Adele Mears connection to ODU, and she knew nothing from my Cape storehouse of dusty memories. I wrote the following in a column from 2012: Adele - No, I’m not talking about some fat blues singer “rolling in the deep.” Locally, Adele means one of Cape’s greatest athletes of all time, Adele Mears. Adele played all high school sports at the highest level, then went on to Old Dominion, where she was on two national championship field hockey teams and was a 1983 first-team college All-American. The Lady Monarchs won titles in 1982-83-84 with a combined record of 67-1.

Backstory - I walked behind the cage at Wednesday’s field hockey practice and saw Rylie Myers kick away a shot. It was the junior’s second day playing the position. I figured coming from a large family of siblings and their friends, she was used to kicking toys from underfoot. Rylie was cut during tryouts but had come to a practice to see if the team needed her help in other ways. And then backup goalie Maya Smith left the team for personal reasons, and Rylie didn’t hesitate to don the lunar gravity goalie garb. I asked her, “Is it scary knowing you're an Izzy hamstring cramp away from protecting the house of the defending state champions?” She smiled and said yes, but if this athlete were a scaredy cat, she wouldn’t have come back out and agreed to be a goalie. 

Snippets - I’m a Phillies fan, and yet if I have a choice between McCarthy and Kruk versus the broadcast team they are playing, I’m getting out of town. So much of that is personal preference. The Phillies postgame live telecast after a win is unbearable. I find gloating to be bad karma. Merrill Reese, the iconic play-by-play radio announcer for the Philadelphia Eagles, has signed a multiyear contract extension with SportsRadio 94WIP, ensuring he will continue as the voice of the Eagles into his 49th season and beyond. Reese is 82 years old and a Temple guy. His voice is inimitable. Go on now, git!