COOL RUNNINGS - Shemik Thompson, former Cape superstar, scored a career-high 15 points as the host Central Connecticut State Blue Devils ran visiting Delaware out of the barn Sunday, Dec. 16, by the score of 81-48. The halftime score was 50-19. Fans can only wonder why Delaware didn’t recruit Thompson, and I’m sure there is some logical reason like “lame judge of talent.”
HOLD THE PHONE - Brycen Davis, a freshman sprinter on scholarship at Delaware State University running a 48-second indoor 400 meters and two-event state champion his senior year at Cape, came back to visit his alma mater Wednesday, Dec. 19. I was visiting as well and came around the corner just in time to see Brycen have his cell phone - it rang and it was his mother - confiscated by a teacher who told him he could get it back at the office.
“I don’t go to school here,” Brycen told her. But she snagged the phone anyway and began to stare at my Buddy Walk hat and I was praying it would be taken also because I was afoul of the dress code. Just because I’m an old white guy they shouldn’t exclude me from the game.
TOWERING TYKEE - Tykee Perry is a short and smallish athlete used to being underestimated on the athletic field and in the classroom. He was placed in the nonacademic track going back to middle school and, to be honest, some of those classes can get kind of crazy, and I know Tykee’s home community got kind of crazy as well. But I remember him as a student just sitting and observing as classmates did “dumb stuff” or anything other than complete work.
Tykee would smile, pass no judgments, just enjoy people for who they were, but he always got his work done and as a student he was as good as the teacher - always a person who wanted to learn. Last May Tykee graduated from Wesley College and saw significant time at running back for the Wolverines, a national semifinalist in Division III. He is a freakishly good running back and, like all the great ones, never takes a solid hit. Tykee now works creating programs at the Hospital for the Chronically Ill in Dover. Tykee is one of my hometown heroes.
SPEAKING OF STEROIDS - HGH, the human growth hormone, how does it really work and would I take it for that slight edge in my workouts or to help heal my lower back so I could do a better job for my team?
I no longer take my dogs for a walk, I take them for a limp. They run and gallop and I limp along admiring how they change direction and stop on a dirt bomb. I don’t know the chemistry behind the compounds of steroids and hormones - am I an exercise paleontologist - actually that’s a physiologist? I don’t take LSD, Ecstasy, crystal meth or antipsychotic medicine either. I don’t take them, not because they are illegal, but rather I’m too scared to be so stupid.
SNIPPETS - Cape graduate Kyle White is averaging about 15 minutes a game for the Delaware State Hornet basketball team that recently dropped road games to national powerhouses Southern California and Arizona State. White was a two time All-State selection in high school and led Cape to a pair of Henlopen Conference championships.
Derek Savage, now a senior, is co-captain for the 6-1 Goldey Beacon Lightning and is the team’s leading scorer, rebounder and shot blocker. Derek recently went over 1,000 points for his college career. Derek is Cape Henlopen’s all-time Doctor of the Dunk.
Toni Jones played at Cape and Sussex Tech and is first cousin to Cape’s Tracy Jones. She is the co-captain and leading scorer for the Goldey Beacon girls team, currently 3-4 on the season. Toni had 29 points and seven steals in a recent 59-56 loss to St. Michael’s College of Vermont. Toni has twice been named Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference Player of the Week.
There is an open house at the New Firm on Rehoboth Avenue extended all day Saturday, Dec. 29. There will be discounted new memberships offered that day only. And they have a brand new Pilates Reformer machine which cuts down on rug burns at home.
I was at Sam’s Club last Tuesday at 7 a.m getting new shoes for my 4Runner that has 175,000 miles. I had the store almost to myself so I surveyed it, aisle by aisle, item by item. I began to consider a doctor’s scale that measured body fat and hydration percentages and gave a digital readout of weight in pounds and kilograms just by analyzing a pair of feet. If you’re looking for a gift for the self-obsessed, log-keeping athlete that is it, along with a blood pressure cuff and set of highlighters. Perhaps there is some HGH in the pharmacy as a stocking stuffer.
