Gold's veterans gather at sprawling and sparkling Club Fitness

I am the sports guy who interchanges siblings in sports stories. Only a couple of years ago, I had Dan Cleary stealing home for Cape baseball at the age of 27, and I brought David Steele back at 25 to replace his high school brother Daniel - and I kept making that mistake. Dan Cleary’s younger brother Matt, who had actually stolen the base, was so bewildered he transferred to Sussex Central, where he’s affectionately known as “that Cleary boy from Cape.” Last Saturday morning I bounced into the new Club Fitness off the Rehoboth Mall and yes, it is sprawling and sparkling and user friendly. I did see several older couples walking about sharing a look like, “This is the strangest Peebles store I was ever in; where are the Dockers?” We older veterans who joined Gold’s Rehoboth 13 years ago all seemed to gather in the same quadrant looking for familiar faces and equipment. I saw my serious lifter buddy Brock Townsend - we are related through golden retrievers - and those sweet Quigley twins, Lisa and Heather, whom I remember since they were in Savannah Road Elementary School. Lisa and Heather turn 40 next month, which they both thought was funny. Fitness only works if you keep after it. Google “saropenia,” which is a loss of lean body mass, muscle and bone, then realize you may lose your butt from bad investments, but if you lift weights and do leg curls, you will never need suspenders.

Life’s a pitch - Cape Henlopen has interviewed, hired and approved Gary Montalto as the new head coach of boys’ soccer at Cape Henlopen High School. Coach Montalto was the head varsity boys’ soccer coach at Arlington High School in Lagrandeville, N.Y., for 31 seasons and had a career record of 542-83-43, including 20 league titles, 12 sectional titles and five appearances in the state championship game. Montalto also has a record of 126-48-21 and five league titles as a head coach of the varsity girls’ program. He was inducted into the New York Soccer Hall of Fame in 2009. If you are thinking, “This is an old guy looking to retire at the beach,” I suggest you stop thinking about me and think about soccer. Montalto also has a master’s degree in elementary education, which will serve him well in dealing with the radical sect of red card parents. Enough jokes already, I am told by a slew of people I respect who have met coach Gary Montalto while he was substituting in the Cape district that we should all be thrilled to have him as Cape’s soccer coach; they say Montalto projects an awesome presence and leadership style. His Arlington High teams were honored three times by the New York state soccer officials with a sportsmanship award. He was also voted the 2006 National High School Soccer Coach of the Year by the NSCAA.

Snippets - A middle school home track meet is the best of times and worst of times any way you slice it. But it is a great meet-and-greet venue; there are a hundred stories on both sides of the fence. I call it community continuity: every kid giving his or her best is related to someone who is better today than they ever were in their day. I like Champions Stadium for Cape’s turf field two and I suggested that to Dr. Dave Robinson as we were both freezing at Saturday’s baseball game. He quickly countered with “Why not just Vikings Stadium?” Personally, I always thought the Vikings mascot was a hastily chosen cliché. I really like Dogfish Field. It’s fun and unique with a local flavor - they are actual fish - and has nothing to do with the brewery in Milton - that’s just a refracted bonus. You know, a Milton thing. Joe Conklin, renowned sports impressionist and WIP radio personality and former paperboy for Bill Jackson of Lewes when he lived in row house Philly, will be the emcee Thursday night at the 62nd Annual Delaware Sportswriters and Broadcasters Association banquet at Dover Downs. The banquet begins at 6:30 p.m. and includes the honoring of fall and winter high school all-state athletes. I am proud to say I nominated Sussex Tech field hockey coach Nancy Tribbett for Coach of the Year, but she lost out to K.C. Keeler, football coach of Delaware, and that’s the way that goes and the way this goes is “Go on now, git!”