Sydney Ostroski: A forever champion before a national championship

Sydney Ostroski - Sydney Ostroski was on four state championship field hockey teams at Cape (2012-15), and her brother Jackson was on Cape’s only state championship baseball team in 2018. On Sunday, Sydney was a senior and tri-captain playing defense for the Purple and Gold Rams of West Chester University, who won the Division II National Championship with a 2-1 win over St. Anselm. Sydney played offense at Cape and was quickly moved to defense when she arrived in West Chester, a deeply talented team with a rich tradition in field hockey. Syd played less than 100 total minutes her first two years, but was still named to the NFHCA All-Academic team. Focus and perspective, never a starter, but her senior year a regular player on a national championship team. She was in the game in the fourth quarter with the Rams protecting a 2-1 lead with a national title as the prize. Her parents and the Cape program set the foundation, and her inner toughness kept Sydney going. The national championship is forever, but she was an established forever champion before she stepped on the field Sunday.  

Kelly girl - Sophomore Kelly Bragg is an enthusiastic athlete with an easy smile who can play any sport. She’s named after her Aunt Kelly Widdoes (one of Boz Widdoes’ daughters), a beautiful girl who fouled out of most basketball games she played. Her brother Will Bragg was a middie on Cape’s 2019 state championship boys’ lacrosse team. Kelly was a freshman on the 2019 girls’ state championship team. Cape is filled with family stories over several generations. Kelly elected not to play field hockey this fall, instead choosing a new sport, volleyball. She was on a JV team that finished 10-5. Last winter, Kelly was one of seven girls on the JV basketball team that went undefeated at 17-0. She is not playing basketball this winter so she can concentrate on lacrosse, her absolute favorite sport. Now that is a lot of athletic track laid down and decisions made in the first year-and-a-half of high school. I really admire her for choosing her own path and doing it with a smile on her face. 

Catch and release - Photos are called captures by some and I take tens of thousands, but if someone points a cell at me, I dive for deep water like a white marlin in a billfish tournament. On Saturday, Susan and I rode the elevator to the upper room at Irish Eyes to offer congratulations to Dave and Linda Robinson, who were celebrating 50 years of marriage. Dave’s sister snapped a photo of Susan and me with Dave and Linda. We were married 50 years last May. I like the quote: “You can judge the character of a person by the company they keep.” And like a Garth Brooks song, “I have friends in low places.” I always have, but some pretty high-character people have also become my friends. It’s a bit of a mystery to me, but I try to level up as a way of thanking them. 

Boomer backlash - The phrase “OK, Boomer” is a pejorative putdown to dismiss or mock narrow-minded, negatively judgmental attitudes of older people. #OKBoomer on TikTok has been viewed more than 44.6 million times. The halftime protest about climate change at the Harvard at Yale football game Nov. 23 was joined by another 500 before some boomer bashing began. My generation understands youthful protest, but these students need to fall back a generation and target travel ball parents. No, really, I’m a boomer and I don’t know what I’m talking about. 

Snippets - Michael Wright, a wrestler out of Sussex Central, is a freshman for the Millersville Marauders and in the starting lineup at 184 pounds. Mike is 0-3 this young season, but the transition from high school to college is so tough, which is why so few are able to make it. Tyre Maull (Cape), a starting offensive linemen, completed his playing career at Stevenson University. Sam Young is a redshirt senior at the University of Virginia, where he owns a personal best in the pole vault of 17 feet. Sam has gone higher every year since touching the pole (he is fearless), so the 18-foot height seems within his talent reach. Happy Thanksgiving. If you see a floating flock of wild turkeys, just leave them be. Jeff Young, a runner with dual citizenship (Philly and Rehoboth), ran a personal best of 2:39:13 Nov. 24 in the Philadelphia Marathon. Go on now, git!