Dave Robinson returns home with a smile on his face

Homecoming - Dr. Dave Robinson, former school superintendent at Caesar Rodney and Cape, and a former principal at CR, never missed a Homecoming during his long career. Dave loves that aspect of public school, the outside-the-lines and along-the-fences socializing where relationships are built and real issues can be discussed informally. On Jan. 31, exactly 100 days since a bike accident broke his neck and changed his life in an instant, Dave rolled down the road a passenger, his new power lift van reflecting the sunlight. Neighbors and colleagues held up signs and cheered. It’s been a long road from emergency surgery to give a swollen spinal cord room to calm down and intense physical therapy at the Magee Rehabilitation Center in North Philadelphia. “The doctors said they see no reason I won’t walk again, and that’s what I intend to do,” Dave said, driving up the new ramp to his house. Dave drove into his house, turned around and came back down the ramp. Expect to see Dave at a Cape game soon. I’m pretty sure I could have talked him into one before he got back into his house a second time.

Coach Charlie Hickox surfaces - Charlie Hickox was head basketball and girls’ track coach at Baker High School in Alabama last year. Charlie came to Cape in fall 1975 as part of the draft that included Bill Collick, Dave Frederick, Alfred Best and Aleta Mason. Charlie is 6-foot-7, and was a Little All-American at Edinboro State. He and wife Wanda have four children and eight grandchildren. The girl in the photo is Destiny Davis, who ran high school track for Charlie and is now at St. John’s. Back in 1977, we were sleeping in a school station wagon on a Friday night in a parking lot across from Villanova, where I had arranged rooms for five athletes who were running at the Penn Relays on Saturday. Voices woke us up. A crowd of about 30 students were walking down Lancaster Pike singing. They were coed and they were naked. Charlie screamed out in his Alabama accent, “Good golly, wait until I tell Wanda about this!” “Snow monkeys,” I said. “Main Line Macaques. It’s a springtime ritual of the affluent, or maybe it’s a Catholic statue thing?”

Compassionate Care - Mariner assistant coach Gerald Windish and school nurse Kathy Shook are shown tending to an injured Mariner wrestler. Kathy is part of a Cape sports trivia question. What brothers and sisters both earned state titles at Cape? Mike Shook and Tom Grogan were soccer lax guys and hell bent for election, as the saying goes; both were on the state championship boys’ teams in lacrosse 2006 to 2008. Their sisters Raelyn Grogan and Lindsay Shook were seniors on Cape’s first state championship girls’ lacrosse team in 2009.     

Snippets - Dean John, longtime assistant with the Sussex Tech boys’ lacrosse team, has been named the new coach of women’s lacrosse, replacing Kathleen Fluharty. He has a daughter, Morgan, on the team. The inside word is he is a great guy and well liked and will no doubt do well. John Parker Jr., Cape assistant football coach who was offensive coordinator last season, will not coach football this fall as he pursues his master’s degree. That makes two Parkers down - dad John retired in January. No word from coach Bill Collick who will take over coordinator duties; obviously, former Milford head coach Mike Tkach, now a Cape driver’s ed teacher, will assume coordinator duties on one side of the ball. Cape varsity wrestlers all waited before hitting the locker room to watch Tyler Lecates wrestle his 220-pound JV bout. Tyler is 6-foot-6, but barely 200 pounds, and he is crazy strong. Tyler did what he does, fought off the bottom a couple of times then caught his guy in a pinning combination you can’t unlock, and that was emphatically that. Tyler is 22-1 on JV this season with 21 pins. Now that is crazy. The Middle School Wrestling Classic is this Saturday at the Milford Central gym. Competition begins at 9 a.m. Championship bouts are usually late Saturday afternoon. The Cape Big House will host the Henlopen Conference basketball championships the last week in February. Patriots are still three-point favorites going into the Super Bowl. I’ll take the Pats and give away the points. Let’s see who shows up. Go on now, git!