TAKE THE BUS, GUS - Kobe Bryant wants out of a Lakers uniform and my advice to him is, “Take the bus, Gus” and go play for the Denver Nuggets with Iverson and Mello. I hear there is great skiing in Colorado, not to mention lots of lodges with nice furniture. And,what is up with 73-year-old Lakers owner Dr. Jerry Buss and his dyed blond hair, and eyebrows and mustache with a young Latin honey on his arm? How attracted to power and nice cars can a young woman be?
I saw the same thing on television last week at one of those outrageous car auctions where old guys pay $100,000 for a restored Chevy with some young babe next to him with Chrome Lust disorder. Dr. Buss has a Ph.D.in chemistry, made tens of millions in real estate before going into sports ownership, owns the Los Angeles Sparks of the WNBA used to own the Los Angeles Kings of the NHL. The Lakers have won eight NBA titles under The Buss, and the Sparks two WNBA titles. Buss has a daughter who posed nude in Playboy and is coach Phil Jackson’s girlfriend, speaking of scary images.
A HAPPENING PLACE - Sports at the Beach belongs to Sussex County and Pete Townsend should always be the guy at the helm because Pete understands that sports should remain fun and everyone should enjoy the moment. Last Wednesday night the place was packed for the two semifinal games of the DIAA state softball tournament featuring Sussex Central, Sussex Tech, Indian River and Caravel.
Asia Brittingham cracked a towering, two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh inning down the left-field line, bringing the Golden Knights close, 3-2. Everyone who didn’t attend or graduate from Central called it foul. The home-plate umpire made the call using a line on the ground and a short flag pole, All I can say is the boy was in the skillet and did what he had to do and just maybe he was right. The Ravens held on for the upset win making it all academic and will face Caravel at 6 p.m. Saturday, June 2, at Sports at the Beach in Georgetown for the state championship.
FOOTBALL OPERATIONS - Delaware State University just hired an assistant athletic director for football operations. All the major universities have “that guy.” The question posed is, how many coaches and trainers and administrative types, strength coaches, video people and sports information people are necessary to put a football team on the field?
Football is the most labor-intensive of all the sports requiring so much planning and preparation that the easiest role is that of being a player, except for all those collisions.
A QUESTION OF BALANCE - Every parent into capturing digital memories of travel ball summers should take their athlete to the Delaware Special Olympics, June 8-9, at the University of Delaware. Perspective and appreciation of natural gifts build character and, although every coach parrots the phrase, “I make them better people and they become better athletes” - how many athletes take the time to reach out and help other? How many of them even notice? Go to the website sode.org for a complete schedule of the Special Olympics time schedule.
A quote from the website reads: “Summer Games is one of the largest annual competitions of Special Olympics Delaware. More than 800 athletes from all corners of the state converge on the University of Delaware and Delcastle Recreation Complex to compete in six sports over two days – aquatics, athletics, bocce, powerlifting, softball and tennis. It is the culmination of at least two months of training for athletes and their 200 coaches. More than 1,000 volunteers work diligently to make this event possible in conjunction with presenting sponsor DuPont and the event’s corporate sponsors.”
SNIPPETS - Gordon College sophomore A.J. Benson of Rehoboth Beach was recently named to the Commonwealth Coast Conference All-Conference team as a defensive long pole. A.J. played his high school lacrosse at Cape Henlopen.
Josh Coveleski was on the field in the final minutes of the NCAA championship lacrosse game as a member of the Blue Devils man up team.
There is a moderate to high degree of probability that former Cape Henlopen head field hockey coach Amanda Jecona will emerge as the next head coach at Sussex Central. Plenty of head coaches in Delaware teach at one school and coach at another. Bob Healy, head coach of Salesianum lacrosse, teaches at Dover. Some years ago, Jerry Peden of Cape stepped down as basketball coach and became a co-head coach with Pat Kelly of Indian River. Amazingly these two successful coaches didn’t win a single game that season under that arrangement. And Cape responded by selecting Peden Teacher of the Year, which may have been deserving but was certainly perplexing.
Most athletic directors I spoke to this spring said their schools don’t allow athletic directors or administrators to be coaches because of the unlikelihood of being able to devote the required time to both jobs.
Sports physicals for fall sports should be gotten now. Football candidates remain the biggest culprits and I believe most of it is planned because certain athletes don’t like to practice in the heat.
One of my sportswriting protégés, Kenny Reidel, has graduated from the University of Delaware and accepted a job as a copy editor with the Delaware State News under the tutelage of former sports writer Gene Bryson. I will be seeing ‘Two Parties” Kenny twice over six days, so how many gifts should I buy?
