Cape hosts play day scrimmages for 20 teams
Play day Saturday was serious business Aug. 20 on the campus of Cape Henlopen, as 20 teams rotated across four fields for 25-minute running-clock scrimmages.
“We tried to keep the Henlopen Conference schools from playing each other as much as possible because next month we’ll be playing games that count, but that’s not always possible,” said Cape assistant coach Debbie Windett.
Cape played games against Madison of Virginia, and Maryland teams St. Mary’s, Queen Anne’s and Kent Island.
The Vikings also played seven-on-seven contests of 15 minutes to close out the day versus Charter and Padua.
Other teams at the play day included Appoquinimink, Caesar Rodney, Delmar, Delaware Military Academy, Indian River, Lake Forest, Milford, MOT Charter, Polytech, Sussex Central, Sussex Tech and Wilmington Christian.
There were also nine junior varsity teams moving through the rotation.
“We lost 10 seniors to graduation and only have four seniors on this year's team, so we are extremely young,” said Windett. “We are working on building depth, and we’ll get there.”
Cape has won 10 state titles since 2011, including the last five in Division I since hockey split into two divisions in 2017.
Delmar, locked and loaded, and led by national women’s team senior Josie Hollamon, has won six straight state titles, and it will take a Lionel train to knock the Wildcats off the track this season.
Corner Chatter - Some coaches’ thoughts on a Saturday play day after five days of practice.
Coach Jodi Hollamon of Delmar: “The goal is to start connecting on the field, finding the right place for each player to make the biggest impact and to progress toward full game-day shape! We are allowed to have fun occasionally,” she added jokingly.
Coach Andrea McPike of Milford: “As for my girls right now and after last week heading into play day, our focus is really on getting our passing and possession game more consistent. Last year, we were either hot or cold and lost discipline at the end of games.
“Girls improved each game at the play day and increased their level of play each game. Our focus points were on our transition game – getting numbers up above the play on attack and dropping below the play on defense. We also were focused on stretching the field, which in turn increases our passing game. And the girls really saw the benefits of this as each game went on.The girls are buying in and working hard. When we are connecting and have our core players on the field, we will make some noise for sure. We won four [at the play day] and tied one.”
Coach Torrie Huk of Polytech: “We enjoy participating in the play day at Cape because it always falls during the first week of preseason, which lets us zone in on areas that we need to fine-tune before the regular season starts. There are different components of the game that we have not covered in the first week of preseason, so it’s fun to see some creativity come from the players and some light bulbs go off in the areas that we have focused on. We are a young team that is developing, and these opportunities to play give us time to reflect for future growth.”
Cape will host a smaller play day Friday, Aug. 26, followed by an all-day scrimmage play day Saturday, Aug. 27, at DE Turf .
