Barrett and Coveleski inducted into Delaware Afro-American Sports Hall of Fame

Memory bank - I don’t know exactly what “Modern Maturity Center” means, but anytime I’ve been there it involved old people and rubber chicken. I was there Saturday night for the 20th annual Delaware Afro-American Sports Hall of Fame banquet. I was there to support any of the inductees who’ve ever heard of me.  Bruce Barrett, Cape class of ’79 and University of New Haven, was inducted. I was Bruce’s high school track coach. John Coveleski, a Rehoboth High guy and coach of multiple sports in Delaware for 43 years, was honored, and so was the Cape basketball team of 1975, which was recognized from the dais by Gerald Allen. The room was packed; I almost couldn’t talk my way through the door because I wasn’t on the paid list, even though I was invited as media man by scores of people – everybody knows Fredman – but evidently not. It took President Charles Laws to escort me to a table where most chairs had wheels, but I escaped to the 1975 Cape table. Back in 1977, the crew of Tim Timmons, Bruce Barrett, Charlie Ball and Jay Maull, with me as a getaway driver, staged a fake robbery of Sussex Trust on Second Street the middle of a 95-degree day. We were working for the city of Lewes. I was getting aluminum paint for a fence job at Franklin Hardware, and my crew went into the bank to get a drink of water. A teller panicked and started throwing money into a trashcan. I came out of the hardware store and a woman standing on the top steps of the bank started screaming at me. “I know who you are, Dave Frederick, some Kotter comedian from Philly who thinks everything is a joke. Well, bank robbery is no joke!” I got into my three-door 1970 khaki-colored Suburban and drove to the electric substation on Cape Henlopen Drive where a rusty fence awaited. My guys – all in high school at the time – were upset. “Just because we’re big and black we gotta be bank robbers,” Timmy said. “And the fact you’re wearing do-rags with eyes cut out to protect you from airborne paint may have something to do with it too,” I said. Timmons told that long story to a crowd of people after the banquet. We all laughed, and by the end of our story, our paint crew were the only ones paying attention. 

Marathon man - Is it safe? Movie flashback. I arrived in Rehoboth at 6 a.m., on my mission to photograph the Coastal Delaware Running Festival – a marathon, half marathon and 9K. The sunrise wasn’t in my social contract. Rehoboth is an accommodating town for special events and, of course, special peoples. The two-day breakdown of runners included a Saturday 5K in Dewey with 821; then Sunday, the marathon had 570, the half marathon had 1,282, and the 9K saw 784. The operation was slick, results instantaneous or even quicker – you could track bibs on your phones with mile pace readout. The 5K winners male and female were Evan Fallor in 16:21 and Michelle Poppiti in 19:41; 9K winners were Will Rehrig in 29:50 and Holly Smith in 35:59. Half-marathon winners were Brandon Dombrowski in 1:24:23 and Katie Tomlinson in 1:27:14, and marathon winners were Ben Ludovici in 2:35:02 and Katie Demers in 3:01:23. Many of the runners who did the 5K on Saturday picked one of the three distances to run on Sunday.

Snippets - The Phillies’ record through April 22 stands at 14-7, a pleasant surprise. The unpleasant surprises are the Nationals at 10-12 and Orioles at 6-16. The Phillies will entertain the Diamondbacks (15-6) starting Tuesday. There’s a big lacrosse game at Champions Stadium at 4:30 p.m., Tuesday, April 24, as Cape (8-0) will host South River (9-1) from Annapolis. “We need this game and are looking forward to it,” said coach Lindsey Eichner. “It should be a great game.” Devin Miller, a former Cape player and now a senior offensive lineman at Wesley College, has been named one of the captains for the 2018 Wolverines football team. Cape softball has methodically moved to a 6-4 record with eight games to play. Last year, the team was 8-10, but this season the Vikings are looking like a tournament team. Coaches Shannon Timmons and Mike Tkach have done a great job turning Cape into a winning team. The JV program was cancelled. The Caravel Buccaneers softball team has Randy Johnson back in the head coaching position. Caravel is unbeaten at 9-0 and will host unbeaten Appoquinimink, 8-0, at 7 p.m., Thursday, April 26. In his senior year at Cape, Randy had six varsity letters, including individual state titles in pole vault and wrestling just three days apart. Randy is the quintessential sports knick-knacker; he ain’t afraid of big moments, just loves the game. Go on now, git!