Three walls and a stall at Penn's Franklin Field
Track meets take a long time to complete, like the April 19 triangular meet of boys and girls involving Cape, Dover and Smyrna. It is really a double-dual-meet-times-three as each team gets scored against the other using dual-meet rather than tri-meet tabulations. I know, who cares, but I’m just informing like the good journalist I mostly am not. I like track meets because there is the purity of the competition in running, jumping and throwing, and the socializing aspects either inside or outside the fence. For instance, I looked and saw Wanda Jones, a former student of mine and mother of Toni Jones, former high school 1,000-point basketball scorer whose father, Tony Miller, was a track athlete of mine in a senior class that never lost a dual meet in three years. I had to ask Wanda why she was at a track meet, then learned that Aunt Wanda is a Weatherly on her mom’s side, so she was there to watch freshman Tyra. Tyra’s mom, Latoya, was also there. By the way, I am Uncle Fred on the Miller side and don’t even try to figure that one out. Tyra was reluctant to pose for a picture, but the promise of Carvel ice cream had her all smiles. Also at the meet was a distinguished and fit gentleman raking the pit and wearing a Penn Relays Official red hat. I asked his name because he had that track guy look about him. He is Jose Orlena, and, in fact, hands out awards at Penn Relays and has been an AAU athletic chairman and longtime coach in the Philadelphia area. I asked Jose why he was raking a pit in Lewes, Delaware, and he said, “I drove the Dover bus.”
Should we care? - Gas is pushing $3.80 a gallon and the NFL has released its schedule of games for the upcoming 2011-12 season. And we just passed the BP busted pipe and lingering tar balls anniversary, and with all the democratization of countries in the Middle East, how did we get left with the bill on this? You know it’s not the free market supply and demand and price at play but rather speculators getting rich while we get ripped off. The same goes for the NFL - please stay at your labor impasse - we can all save a lot of time and money and, to be honest, the majority of NFL games are complete dogs and you know that’s right.
Markisha Wise - There is a fundraiser at 5 p.m., Saturday, May 7, to benefit Markisha Wise, who is currently battling leukemia. Markisha is a former 1,000-point scorer at Sussex Central who also was an assistant coach at Cape for a couple seasons. Markisha and back court running mate Jen Coursey led a Charlie Hudson-coached basketball team to the state finals in 1995, where they lost to Ursuline 50-41. Markisha was a straight-A student and is a college graduate and just a great person. There will be a Cape versus Sussex Central boys' alumni game at 5 p.m. followed by a girls' game at 7 p.m. Tickets are $5.
Snippets - Cybersports is a different world from what it was in the day when I used to call Joe Marvel at the News Journal’s Georgetown office and read him results over the phone, which would appear in the next day’s paper. Now there are statewide sites like websites4sports.com, and the home coaches are responsible for entering results. Most do, but some don’t, especially when they lose, and that is just lame. Sports fans go to those sites to check results, and kids who hit home runs and score goals in games like seeing their names there, and like the fact that everyone else can see them. It never fails; if I leave a game early, it often just vanishes from the planet. The Cape boys' lacrosse team plays Cold Spring Harbor of Long Island, N.Y., at 9 a.m., Saturday, April 23, at Penn’s Franklin Field. Sixty thousand seats are still available and one giant bathroom, which is three walls and one stall. Totally gross! Go on now, git!
