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A world interconnected by sports and other stuff

Cellphones will let you know what’s hot
August 13, 2021

Interconnected sports world - Joe Franchella is a grandfather and football guy like me by way of the Philadelphia Catholic League. I met him last spring at a girls’ lacrosse game at Sussex Academy. His granddaughters Emma and Rilyn Lehman play field hockey and lacrosse for the Seahawks. Emma is a rising senior, while Rilyn is entering ninth grade. Franchella coached high school football with the legendary Dick Bedesem at Archbishop Wood. Bedesem was my high school school coach at Bishop Egan. And so along the fence we talked some football and some field hockey, and exchanged granddaughter stories. Rilyn Lehman participated in the U14 field hockey AAU Junior Olympics in Houston, Texas, last week. Players were selected from the USA Field Hockey Nexus Championship held in Virginia Beach in July. Rilyn is a member of the Shore Byrds travel field hockey program under the direction of Jodi Hollamon and Juli Bradford. Practice for high school field hockey begins Monday, Aug. 16. Sussex Academy and Cape do not play each other this season; it's one of those Henlopen Conference weird schedule quirks.  

Henlopen Conference - Fall football schedules under the current statewide power structure have nothing to do with conference affiliations. Field hockey has enough teams for a Northern and Southern Division slate of games, so scheduling outside your division is optional, although there will be a conference championship game, like it or not. The same happened in boys’ lacrosse, where Southern Division champion Sussex Academy was mismatched against Cape Henlopen. Girls’ lacrosse doesn’t have enough teams to stay North and South, so all conference members by rule must play each other in the regular season. You know when the explanation requires more words than the actual game that something is messed up. 

Football big, wrestling too big - Lucas Ruppert placed second in the state wrestling championships last winter in the heavyweight division, losing to Kevin Hudson of CR in the finals. Lucas helped Cape win its first team state championship (Division I) in wrestling in 50 years. This summer, Lucas and Ryan Betins are looking like twin box trucks along Cape’s offensive line. A Philly friend of mine once aptly described Temple lineman Dave Kraftchek (size 9 helmet) as looking like a row house with a head on it. I always forget that the wrestling weight class rules changed and heavyweight is actually 285 pounds maximum. “I have to lose 20 pounds by wrestling season,” Lucas told me before a summer practice. I warned Lucas, “Coach Scott Kammerer working with a dietitian who is not a graduate of Subway’s Hoagie College is targeting the 220 weight class for the upcoming season.” Lucas said, “Oh no, he’ll be too quick for me and I also have to deal with coach [Matt] Graviet. If you hear any noise, it’s just me and the big boys getting down.” 

Parley partner - Wednesday afternoon at 4 p.m. was “too hot to be anywhere,” to quote Bob Dylan, who became a folk singer to avoid August football practices and boys-to-men speeches. I saw a funny repartee between player Keishawn Mansfield and coach Ahmad Smith outside the locker room. Kei showed Ahmad his phone, where the outside temperature read 107 degrees. The parley went something like, “Coach, you know we shouldn’t be out here; look at this,” and Ahmad laughing and telling the other coaches, “You see, I’m the players’ coach, the one they come to with safety concerns.” But everyone saddled up and like a cattle drive steered to the far field. But seriously – oh no, here comes the life lesson – the high heat of August can be dangerous, and there is no acclimatization without a spell checker. 

Don’t mask don’t tell - I am fully vaccinated and vasectomized, pretty much safe at any speed. What’s about to happen in my sports world, I have no idea. I just know what I like, which is games being played by unmasked athletes who are not afraid to slobber on each other. I once heard a comedian joke: “I felt like a Christian Scientist with an appendicitis attack.” I relate that too: “If you have no faith in science, stay away from hospitals which operate on the scientific method and discovery, analysis and prescription for treatment.” Sports is what I do, but saving lives and curing the sick is what happens in hospitals. Just had a wellness physical with Kelly Yudt, PA-C, and she mentioned “You're due for a pneumonia booster.” I said, “Let’s do it,” because I know it’s a vaccine that protects me from 23 types of pneumococcal bacteria, but I don’t know much about viruses or fungi; I just trust the science. Let the games go on! 

Snippets - We have a joke inside my family: The day Fredman leaves the planet, make sure no one misses any games. Other families have their own rules which may include, “Family vacation means just that – no one misses vacation time for practices and games. It’s our quality time together.” Coaches across all the sports deal with absent athletes in their programs for a variety of reasons. I have found no universal policy at any school. I played a high school basketball game in the Palestra on a Thursday night my senior year. We won and were scheduled to play in the championship Saturday. At Friday shoot-around, coach John Clark stepped out of the gym. When he came back I was sitting in a chair, just exhausted. “What are you doing in that damn chair?” Clark asked. “I’m on vacation,” I said. “Get up or you’ll be on vacation tomorrow night,” Clark cracked. He was surprised I even knew the word vacation, and so was I. Go on now, git!

 

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