Acclimation project - Cape’s red devil track was unrelentingly pizza-oven hot Tuesday afternoon. We all adjust differently depending on age, weight, coloring and clothing choices. I was parched like a Dead Sea scroll. Pre-meet recognition showcased more seniors than a Bob Evans early-bird special. A triangular meet featured host Cape and visiting Dover and Smyrna. These are technically double dual meets featuring both boys’ and girls’ teams scoring against each other. There is also a unified competition embedded. There were so many heats of the 100 meters I was thinking of jumping into one of them. The distance events are also crowded because there are no lane assignments and you get a popsicle stick but no popsicle when you finish. Cape won both meets based on dominance, but I have no idea on team scores, which were not posted.  

Undercard - I take photos of Cape JV girls’ lacrosse games and did when there were no Fred girls on the team. I don’t believe in waiting to come late, except for medical appointments. To open the 2025 season, the JV girls lost their first two games – 5-4 at Queen Anne’s and 15-2 at Broadneck. They finished 12-2, including a win over Queen Anne’s 9-4 in a rematch. Last Saturday, a very talented Cape team trailed Broadneck 5-3 in the second half before running off nine unanswered to win 12-5. Goal scorers for Cape were Annabell Bonk win five, Meredith Frederick with three and single goals from Blair Chubb, Harper Derrick, Tegan Paczek and Mackenzie Kupa. Dylan Peck had eight saves in goal. Frederick, Linley Draper, Derrick and Bonk have fathers who were all-state lacrosse players for Cape. Taking a quick look at other JV programs, the baseball team is 3-0 and has just beaten Dover 38-1, softball is 2-1, boys’ lacrosse is 1-0 and girls’ soccer is 2-0. 

Breaking bad - The Cape girls’ lacrosse team went into spring break with a 16-0 win at Dover April 1. Scoring points for Cape were Claire Lopez with five goals and three assists, Amara Fruchtman with two goals and an assist, Ally Diehl and Mikaela Gordon with two goals each, Mackenzie Todd with a goal and two assists, and Kemper Cox, Regan Best, Avary Miller and Cora Conway with one goal apiece. Haley Gamuciello also had an assist. The Vikings next play Kent Island and Marriotts Ridge at the Shore Break tournament April 10-11 at Kent Island High School followed by a home game versus Queen Anne’s Monday, April 13. 

Human touch - A young Afro American wide receiver I coached when he was a 15-year-old freshman at the Haverford-based Mitchell School in 1974 just turned 66. I am going to meet Steve Whiting this Friday at his invitation on his birthday. He just wants to thank me for being his coach when it mattered. If you're an old coach and this absolutely has never happened to you, possibly you were on disconnect in your prime years. In education, it's called "the affect" (dealing with emotions, feelings and moods). Can you be effective without being affective? Yes, you can, but 50 years later, no one comes looking for you. I coined an expression, “I can tell it but I can’t sell it,” which is often applied to issues of playing time. Muppets tell me stuff because I’m the sports person with conferred wisdom. Otherwise, how did I get so old? Here’s a general coach's suggestion: Run the roster at your opponents. If you lose a game because you gave a kid a chance, what did you really lose? 

Did you know? If someone out in the wild asks, “Did you know,” followed by a name, just assume they either died or were incarcerated. 

I root for Duke - I don’t know why, but when any Duke team from the array of sports is playing a game, I want them to win. And it makes no sense. I saw the UConn comeback win on Sunday coming from a thousand miles away. I was in the Spectrum in 1992 when Christian Laettner hit the winning shot against Kentucky. I like their football team. Duke men’s lacrosse: they can play, but we all learned there’s an underlying resentment toward privilege in sports. But if NIL monies and coaches making $5 million a season is not about privilege, what is it about? Looking at the NCAA men’s tournament, which is still ongoing, provokes a twofold question: Who would you like to lose and who would you most enjoy seeing win the national championship?

Snippets - Unwritten rules of sportsmanship as they pertain to final scores or running up scores are always incumbent on the better and winning team. And yet there are gross mismatches – yes, in marriage as well – and some games don’t need to be played, or send your JV to play a hapless varsity team, instructing them to run it up then coast home. But in reality, these are irreconcilable situations and I’m seeing a lot of them this spring. Go on now, git!