Indoor track held outside in weather that’s not that bad

Indoor/outdoors - An indoor track meet held outdoors Jan. 22 on Cape’s Legends Stadium track featured visiting Sussex Central at Cape, both boys and girls. There were 14 events contested with the weather described as “not bad for January.” Skyler McVicker and P.J. Stratton, two stalwarts off the Golden Knights’ state championship football team, won the first two open events, with McVicker capturing the 55-meter hurdles in 9.71 seconds and Stratton the 55-meter dash in 6.96. Stratton also won the 200 meters 23:04. Central won nine of 14 events, but the Cape boys showed breadth of depth and won the meet 61-43. Hunter Jones, who’s coming back from illness and injury, won the 1,600 meters in 4:58. David Wootten of Central snapped in the 800 meters, running 2:05 for the win. Tyler Sosnoski of Central was a double winner, capturing the 400 meters in 53.5 and the long jump in 18-feet-11-inches. 

Girls’ side - The Cape track girls rolled over Sussex Central 86-11, mainly because only three athletes got off the Central bus, but I only counted two. Titiana Kelsic won the 55-meter dash in 7.3 seconds and the 200 meters in 27.02. Cape posted first-place times from Aubrie Myers, 55-meter hurdles in 11.3; Katie Kuhlman, 1,600 meters in 5:53 and 3,200 meters in 15:37; Lainey Shockro, 400 meters in 1:07; and Tia Jarvis, 800 meters in 2:34. A listing of expanded results will be found in the running column in Friday’s Cape Gazette.

Hey, Pelican Man - Whose idea was it for the Packers to have a checkdown call, “Pelican! Pelican!” If I were playing defensive back and heard Aaron Rodgers check down to “Pelican,” I’d think it was a nickname for someone on our defense with a long beak and sagging neck. The play was a swing pass to the left, the receiver got blown up and fumbled, the Bucs took over at the Green Bay eight-yard line and scored for a 28-10 lead. I’m sure in the Green Bay postseason coaches’ meeting, some coordinator said, “I don’t care if  Rodgers is brainy and graduated from Berkley, it's time to put the pelican to bed.”  

Highest paid person - A few years back I sat in the Eagles’ press box. To my right was Stephen A. Smith and to my left Doug Williams. We all know Williams was the first Afro American quarterback to lead his team to the Super Bowl, while screaming Stephen is now the highest paid personality at ESPN. And I remember what I said to each of those men. Nothing. It’s easy to remember all of nothing. Because it’s uncool to be anything but a peer in the press box and I gotta be me. If they want to talk, let them start a conversation.   

Destiny’s child - You never control your own destiny. Quite the opposite, your fate is sealed. Tom Brady is destiny’s child and will play in his 10th Super Bowl, so no need to resent Brady for all his gifts. He can’t help it, the forces of the universe are beyond his control. But many people are taking a second look at the genius of Bill Belichick and wondering, “I actually never heard him string together three sentences in a row, not even in a Subway commercial, so just how genius is he?”  

Can you A.J. Feeley me? - Feeley was the Nick Foles of 2002, leading the Eagles to four straight wins and the No. 1 seed in the playoffs after Donavan McNabb and Koy Detmer went down. But what I remember about Feeley was his character, and when it was discovered that he visited children in local Philadelphia hospitals on his Monday day off, he asked everyone to just back off. When you’re the third-team guy, you can visit hospitals all day long and no one pays attention except the kid in the bed:  “What's your name again?” All hospitals and sports teams have human resources departments and they work to put visits together. Obviously, with COVID protocols, not much of that is going on. 

Raging national debate - I read a headline about a raging debate across all sports when it comes to gender identity, in particular crossover athletes who run really fast. Sports is my life and I’ve not run into any in-person gender identity debates. The Williams Institute estimates 1.6 million people in the United State identify as transgender. Part of this is the osmosis-diffusion, back-and-forth phenomenon of physical science; that is, those who go through the process of reassignment only to discover they don’t like life on the other side, so they transition back. This is all heavy-duty psychodrama stuff and beyond my pay grade. I just know if you're slow or can’t jump, no one cares about your gender.  

Snippets - I’ve written before that I can look at a team roster and notice immediately if good people are missing. I can tell you this: If you push a young person to be the very best and they succeed but you keep pushing them to be a better best, that person may frazzle then skedaddle to hide under headphones until you leave them alone. It’s happening out there and we all know it. Go on now, git!