Head coaches for Cape’s 59 state championships mostly non-locals

Sussex County rocks a local bias more than most places. It could have something to do with tourists and sharing the ecosystem. There are always discussions about who is more local. On the Cape side of the county, the blue bloods are Beebe babies, not to be confused with Beanie Babies.  

Inside the consolidated Cape school district, there has always been a pressure to hire Cape graduates as teachers and coaches. After all, they are “our kids.” But what is the proper balance of homegrowns for a healthy school district while maintaining top-of-the-line teachers and coaches of athletic teams? 

Cape has won 59 team state championships since consolidation 51 years ago. How many of those teams had a Cape graduate at the helm serving as the head coach?

The answer is 15 out of 59 team champions had a Cape graduate as the head coach. And those were distributed among just six people, with George Pepper leading the way with eight titles, Tim Bamforth with three and Jack Lingo, Ben Evick and Dan Cook with one apiece. Ruth Skoglund, who coached the 1995 state championship field hockey team, graduated from Rehoboth High. 

And of that list, only Pepper and Cook are Beebe babies. 

Running a parallel track, Cape district graduates who did not coach at Cape have also been head coaches of 17 state championships teams. Robin Adair led Tower Hill to 10 field hockey titles, John Coveleski (Rehoboth) had three titles in boys’ lacrosse at Caesar Rodney,  Randy Johnson coached Caravel to two state titles in softball and Nancy Steen Tribbitt coached Sussex Tech to two state titles in field hockey. 

Cape's incredible championship success has been achieved by 75 percent of head coaches who have graduated from some school other than Cape. 

There are 20 scholastic sports over three seasons played at Cape. Cape graduates who are head coaches this 2019-20 season include JD Maull, football; Pat Woods, girls’ basketball; Shemik Thompson, boys’ basketball; Ben Evick, baseball; and Tim Bamforth, girls’ track. That is 25 percent of the coaching workforce.  

Postscript: Cape state championship head coaches who are not card-carrying locals include: Jim Alderman (1), Dave Frederick (5), Pat Pollock (4), Carolyn Ivins (1), Nicole Catanzaro Hughes (1), Kate Windett Austin (7), Bob Cassady (1), Ralph Baird (2), Bill Degnan (1), Steve Aubrey (1), Mark D’Ambrogi (5), P.J. Kesmodel (8), Lindsey Eichner Underwood (3), and Tom Hickman (4).