DECEPTION AND MISDIRECTION - Caesar Rodney football always ran a close second to executing the Delaware Wing-T almost as well as the University of Delaware. The offense is classic and pretty to watch, but not if you’re playing defense and trying to stop it. And no scout team can approximate the look, and those who follow the ball are condemned not to find it. Every play is designed to look like every other play; there are counters and waggles and the dreaded fullback in the flat and guard trap.
Cape plays at Caesar Rodney Friday night, waddling in as a huge underdog, the proverbial 600-pound dachshund in the middle of the room.
College teams, including Delaware, no longer run the Wing-T for the same reason why you don’t throw a head fake on a bad defender in basketball - they are just too stupid to go for it. College defenses just blow up the line of scrimmage then tackle everyone with a low number.
This CR team is led by long-time coach and first-year head coach Mike Shoenwolf, who is also the school’s athletic director and teaches morning classes. The Riders have beaten William Penn 43-13 and Salesianum 14-6, while losing to Middletown 22-12 and Concord 33-21. The Riders have averaged 22 points a game while giving up 17 against the state’s best competition. The Vikings (1-3) are giving up 40 points a game while scoring an average of 25 against four opponents with a combined record of 13-3, including Indian River and Delmar, both 4-0, who play each other Friday night.
The Rider running attack features Jeremy Millner and Duran Harmon, two guys who often each rush for 100 in the same game, and quarterback John Sclesky, which rhymes nicely with Coveleski. Look for Cape’s Isaiah Brisco to get more touches and carries and more yardage this Friday night. Athlete on athlete, the Cape defense has a chance to blow up some things. Just remember, the quarterback count is for the offense.
POSITION STATEMENT - Cape Henlopen has filed a position statement with the State Board of Education and will present that position verbally Monday, Oct. 15, concerning the forfeiture of basketball games over the last two seasons, the result of using an “ineligible by technicality” player. The basic issue here is what documentation constitutes legal guardianship and was the punishment excessive when there was no intent to deceive anyone or run around a rule. The oddity with this proceeding is that, by definition, an appeal cannot introduce any new information and there is a special-interest group who were affected by this ruling who feel they were never afforded an opportunity to speak in the first place. There will be no decision on this appeal given on Oct. 15, as all interested parties must wait several weeks. Otherwise, it will look as if deliberation took only minutes.
LET’S TALK ABOUT ME - I have spent my life teaching and coaching and writing about other people and their children, but trust me when it comes to sports and sports history, I am a player. A few years back I brought a box of personal sports memorabilia into class for a “Let’s Talk About Me” lesson.
“Nobody cares about your old sports stories.”
I passed around two trophies that were missing the mounted figure on top and a plaque where some of the lettering had worn away. I was right in the middle of playing in the Penn Palestra for Bishop Egan against Cardinal Dougherty in front of 9,600 for the Catholic championship of Philadelphia. While describing the deafening roar as jumper after long range jumper tickled the twine, the boys in class were squirming and girls were either doing math or beautifying themselves with elaborate makeup kits. Finally, a kid got it!
“Fredman, this is a joke right? I mean cool and all that for what you did, but you know we don’t care and that is why you’re doing it, right?”
“Absolutely right,” I said, throwing all my garbage from the past back into a cardboard box.
Remember that next time you embark on a monologue about yourself because as grandmom Rose told me during my early teen conceited period, “This life you are living ain’t about you!”
Try chewing on that nugget when you’re 14 years old.
SNIPPETS - Cape has four players listed on the roster for the Wesley College field hockey team. They include Brooke Bennett, Amy Shockley, Erin Bailey and Katelyn Buchwald. The Wolverines lost to the nationally ranked Salisbury Seagulls last Wednesday 5-3 after Salisbury jumped to a 3-0 lead then were outshot in the second half 18-1. The Gulls improved to 11-1 while Wesley dropped to 6-3.
Phillies-Smillies! Utley and Howard went into the tank in game one; please forward all their fan mail to the Camden Aquarium.
Anyone who has lost a step or an entire staircase can empathize with Donovan McNabb as injuries and his mother’s recessive genes begin to take over his chunky and slower body, not the same one who ran around the Carrier Dome at Syracuse. Remember when Randall was running for his life? That was fun to watch because Cunningham was graceful and the word “escapability” was invented to describe a man who could throw the ball 60 yards on the dead run going to his left. Trade Philly’s McNabb to Chicago straight up for middle linebacker Urlacher right now because Donovan looks like he was born to be a Bear and Urlacher could be the heir to the Bednarik and Bergey legacy.
Roger Maris set the home run single season record of 61 and for 37 years the record stood until it was chased down by the Steroid Boys McQuire, Bonds and Sosa. Maris was a three time All-Star, twice MVP of the American League and once Major League Player of the Year. Maris was with the Cardinals in 1967 and 1968 helping them to two pennants and a World Series title. Maris and Dale Murphy are the only two-time MVPs who are not in the Baseball Hall of Fame. If any of the Steroid Boys, and there are lots of them still out there, go into the Hall of Fame and Maris stays out - then what, Fredman?
