TDOGS ARE LOOSE - The dogs are barking outside the fences and sidelines of Cape sports except when someone looks at them. Sports are about the quest for success which usually includes struggle and adversity and a realization that desired outcomes are sometimes not attained. Adults who downgrade and downtown coaches are more detrimental to the healthy development of young athletes than any loss, no matter how disheartening or lopsided.
I have lived the life of an athlete, coach, sportswriter and sports parent. I’ve been dunked on, run over and left behind. I’ve had my shining and proud moments as well, but I’d have to chain a bar patron to a stool to get a chance to tell those stories.
It’s like the parents who blame a high school when their kid gets a D in a college class. Do they have any idea how lame a rationalization that is? Scholastic coaches are teachers on their day jobs and most parents of athletes have no idea how many accommodations and how much preparation goes into building a team and preparing it for battle. Try supporting teams when the going is tough and maybe your athletes will do the same.
ADVERSITY TRAINING - Sports psychologists getting paid for their expertise usually tell athletes to envision themselves in successful moments and not to anticipate failure. But adversity looms like a large aunt at a backyard barbeque for every season Hook
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and game. I always thought the greater the uninterrupted period of success the more dramatic the crushing weight of the eventual adversity.
Back in the fall of 1987, I was defensive coordinator for a Cape team that started the season 3-0 having outscored opponents 105-0. Mike Geyhardt, Ricardo Reid, Tyson Merrill, Ed Gaines, Bill Lewis, Arnell Benson, Damian Berl, Marscus Hall, Eddie Braswell, Andy Simpler and Vada Sample were some of the people on that defense. I organized an adversity therapy session on the Wednesday prior to game four. I had the junior varsity in practice scoring touchdowns in every way imaginable and then talking much noise and barking like dogs. They were spiking balls and doing end zone dances; it was all the way hilarious. And then when Milford scored a touchdown it was no big deal, we just kept playing.
TRANIMAL - I coached Vaughn Trammel of Cape back in 1975 and introduced him to the Universal weight machine which made a lot more sense than dividing fractions. Vaughn was a man child in football and track and somewhat emotional, but I was always there on his side to help him negotiate his way through high school and sports with a positive experience. Last Friday night “down to Delmar,” Vaughn proudly introduced me to his son, Justin Thomas, No. 33 in your program, who scored a pair of touchdowns and ran wild for yardage. “This is my coach,” Vaughn told Justin. “Everything I am I owe to Coach Fred.”
“Hey don’t blame that on me,” I joked, and we all laughed. Justin is an upright, talented young man of high character. Never give up on a kid, teach them the same values you teach your own, is my message because they may become your lifetime friend.
JUICE NEWTON - The O.J. who is my athletic contemporary is now a Fig Newton of my nighttime imagination. I thought I saw him last night going into the attic above my garage to retrieve a Bills painting of him I purchased at a Beebe Hospital art auction in 1992, two years before the murder and trial. How whack is The Juice? I saw the footage of him in cuffs and he looked happy just to be on camera. He needs to be interviewed by real hoodlums who should then write a book because none of the rest of us has any idea how to describe this guy.
SNIPPETS - Delmar got out the broom last week sweeping Cape in football, field hockey and soccer. And don’t let anyone sell that Little Delmar idea because the Wildcats have got it going. They even have a Super Wawa, a sure sign they are no longer off the beaten stock car track. The soccer team lost 4-2 down to Delmar with a pair of late goals coming from David Mesquita. Volleyball has won two straight with wins over Polytech and Campus Community - whoever the heck they are. The Cape junior varsity volleyball team beat Polytech 27 -25 and 26-24 for its first victory of the season. Statistical highlights include sophomores - Tricia Conlon, 1 ace, 1 kill, 2 assists; Michelle Norton, 2 aces, 2 kills; Andrea Wells, 1 kill; freshmen - Johnesha Warren: 1 ace, 1 kill, 3 assists; Danielle Marsico, 3 aces; Caitlin Wood, 1 kill, 1 ace; Jackie Warner, 1 solo block.
Monday, Oct. 15 is the date set for the state school board to read and rule on the appeal for redress and alleviation of the forfeiture penalty handed down to Cape encompassing two years of basketball games for using an ineligible player.
A committee of way too many people, including administrators, parents and a couple Cape school board members, will soon begin to interview applicants for the position of Cape athletic director. I once sent in an application and joke resumé for Supervisor of Buildings and Grounds and Transportation. No one has owned more broken-down cars and trucks and push mowers than me - and I finished second.
The late Jim Pizzadilli was a former transportation supervisor at a chicken plant before becoming athletic director. Jim once called me into his office, raised his right eyebrow and called me irresponsible - which was undeniable - for ordering 5,000 pair of track shoes.
I informed Jim that 5,000 spikes were the little things that screwed into the bottom of the shoe as his left eyebrow went up signaling, “OK. Well, that makes sense.”
The Delaware field hockey team with Nickii Rhodes in goal and Amanda Warrington at midfield lost its first game of the season 2-1 to Saint Joe’s after seven straight wins.
I saw the University of Maryland women’s volleyball team at the baggage claim last Saturday night at BWI. Perhaps if Dover Air Force base is turned into a commercial airport it could be DWI. Speaking of genetic selectivity, all these girls were about 6-foot-3 and had just returned from the ACC opener at Boston College where they lost in five games 17-30, 27-30, 30-23, 32-30, 20-18.
My son Tom came in from Jackson, Wyoming through the hub of Denver and four passengers besides him had their bags lost and all were from Sussex County.
