A credit to the football players for being soldiers of solidarity
Soldiers of solidarity - I cover high school sports, but I’m not in high school. Whatever culture clash exists outside the fences of a football stadium I consider background noise and colored fairy dust. I’m on the inside watching a game, but also bands, dancers, cheerleaders and all of the other positives that make up the Friday night football variety show. I thought both the Cape and Sussex Tech players showed exemplary sportsmanship and, in fact, when it got to be 35-0 I joked to superintendent Bob Fulton, “This is about the time Fredman the high school player would cheap shot somebody. I just ain’t going down like this; I want to see someone standing around counting change so I can bury him.” The handshake line is always an adventure after a battle is decided; it just takes one rogue land shark to churn still waters into a frenzied froth. But it was totally cool and my brain thought “soldiers of solidarity,” the warriors are showing the way, a credit to both coaching staffs. A Cape person not wishing to be named said to me, "with the performance of their band, dancers and football team, they just may have found a sponsor for their much needed bond bill."
Happy trails mix - Sunday afternoon checking out at Wawa, young cashier Amy took my money and flashed a smile, so I thought I may have known her so I asked, "are you a Cape girl, Amy?” She said, “No, I’m not. Sussex Tech and we won, and we not only won we ...” Amy enough! I get it! I’m just trying to buy some trail mix here.
Playoff games - High school playoff games, also known as the state tournament, begin in the final two weeks of the regular season. If you can’t win big games going in, you're most likely coming out with a loss, which happens to every team except the state champion. Cape hockey has the No. 1 seed locked up and, speaking only for myself as a Cape person, I’d like to see the Henlopen Conference trio of Delmar, Sussex Tech and Polytech on the other side of the bracket. Tower Hill is a dangerous animal with a storied history. Soccer, 14-1, looking for a top 4 seed in a talented pool of teams that includes Appoquinimink, Caesar Rodney, Charter, Caravel and Salesianum. Cape volleyball 11-4 is hovering between the 13th and 16th seed, and will most likely make the tournament, but draw one of the state's best teams. Six teams make the Division I football tournament and if it happened today No. 6 Cape would play at No. 3 Sussex Tech. That may change, though, as Middletown plays at Newark then hosts Salesianum to close out the season.
Cardinals radio - Merle Reese, 72, has been the radio voice of the Philadelphia Eagles for the last 37 years. He has dyed black hair and drives a dark green BMW sports car with Eagles as his vanity tag. I like him and I like Mike Quick his color analyst, but I just can’t take them together on my satellite radio when traveling back from Philly. So there I was passing Lincoln Financial Field heading south driving the Temple Taxi listening to the Cardinals radio feed, which sounded a lot like Burt and Ernie. Dave Pasch does play-by-play and Ron Wolfley, a former special teams player, is the color analyst. “Wolf” went absolutely off when John Brown made a Willie Mays over the shoulder touchdown catch of 75 yards from Carson Palmer with 1:21 to give the Cardinals the game 24-20. Wolf kept saying, “I don’t believe what I just saw. There is mayhem in the Red Sea.” I’m sure Merle Reese was hitting himself in the head with the microphone.
Snippets - Jacki Coveleski is a sports storybook character. That has been her destiny and let's hope it continues. Last Friday night, she tipped in the winning goal as the UD Blue Hens field hockey team beat Northeastern 3-2, no doubt totally annoying her sister Kaci, a Northeastern defender. Uncle Tom Coveleski is a longtime San Francisco Giants fan, so that is pretty good Karma. In the summer of 2012, two days before trade deadline Ruben Amaro, the Phillies general manager, traded off Hunter Pence to the Giants and Shane Victorino to the Red Sox, but at least they got Mike Young and Mike Adams. Go on now, git!
