Coaches often magnetize the marginalized

Coach in the building - Let’s just go back through 50 years of Cape high school sports and realize the importance of having the head coach and all coaches in the building. It is not a necessity; there are 18 total state championship boys’ and girls’ lacrosse teams, and the head coach has never been in the building. There are also state championship teams like boys’ basketball 1975-76 and football 1979. If coaches Ralph Baird and Jim Alderman hadn’t been in the building, it wouldn’t have happened. I can say the same for the championship teams I coached, because I know I kept several high-risk, disappearing-from-practice athletes on the planet and off the suspension list. An unforeseen version of “coach in the building” has popped this fall, and that is “kids out of the building.” There are athletes who need that everyday contact the cadre of coaches provide. It is a culture inside a fully functional high school. Coaches magnetize the marginalized. Last year I dropped in at Cape to visit Athletic Director Bob Cilento and ran into my grandson Mikey four times. Each time he was talking to a different coach across several sports, the last being field hockey’s Kate Austin just because there is a sports simpatico. Kids aren’t falling through the cracks; they are disappearing into fissures.  

Power of the pony - In November 2006, Cape field hockey beat Wilmington Christian 1-0 on a goal from Amanda Deloy to go 15-0 on the season. “Power of the pony!” screamed Cape student Taylor Vandiver, her face painted blue and gold, after Deloy whacked an air cannon shot off the body of a Warrior defender. “Oh my gosh,” Vandiver said. “There is some power in that pony.” “Vandiver and Billy Wright turned the ponytail into a symbol of power,” Deloy said after the game. “The higher the pony, the greater the power.” Those pony-powered teams from 2004, 2005 and 2006 were coached by Amanda Jacona, who had a three-year record of 50-5-1, which included an appearance in the state finals and two regular undefeated seasons.

Double uncool - Baseball analyst Tim Kurkjian on a Tuesday broadcast mentioned, “I thought Lynyrd Skynyrd was a person; only later did I find out it was a band.” The booth guys all laughed. In real life, Leonard Skinner – band name later changed to Lynyrd Skynyrd – was the name of a high school coach who sent Ronnie Van Zant and Gary Rossington to the principal's office at Lee High School in Jacksonville for having hair beyond the dress code. Those two decided to name their band after the coach. Coach Leonard Skinner died from Alzheimer’s a few years ago. The baseball booth guys were circling the bases of a cool story, but they remained clueless. 

Beau Gooch - Everybody in the village knows Beau. On Aug. 31, the retired Lewes police chief had serious spinal surgery to assess and assist with herniated disks (C3 and C4) by placing two rods in his neck. He has been in McGee Rehabilitation in Philly for the last month and will continue to rehab and progress there until he comes home in November. Once he is home he will receive at-home physical therapy and eventually move on to outpatient PT. If you go to gofundme.com then type Beau Gooch in the search window, it will take you to his page where daughter Hailee provides updates on his progress. Beau was named Delaware’s Sixth Man of the Year coming off the bench for the 1974 Cape basketball team, and he remained that guy. Insert Beau into the mix and he elevates everyone’s game. He would often ask me, “Fredman, when am I going to be Athlete of the Week?” and I would answer, “Next time I see you walking with the ball so I can whistle you for traveling!”  

Snippets - The mask waiver was something I didn’t see coming as parents petitioned that a child who cleared a physical but has an underlying medical condition should be able to compete without a mask because said cleared athlete needs all the oxygen they can get to fully function. There is legitimacy to many of these claims. Inside the Cape district, the Black athlete is disappearing from sports rosters, and you don’t have to be a census taker to realize why. Just use the internet or drive around the district and talk to the houses like I do: “Who are you people?” I’m waiting on a definitive word on guidelines governing how high school wrestling, which I think of more as hugging with headlocks, will work.  Go on now, git!