Sports are driven by instantaneous results, unlike medicine

Results driven - The medical system is overburdened; that’s why annoying active advocacy is the only way to ensure that a test you need isn’t scheduled four months into the future or three months beyond when it would do you any good. I hear lots of stories prior to athletes' weekend running. The irony is that after 300 people of all ages and abilities finish a five-mile race, they expect their results instantaneously, not four days or four months into the future. Each year before the Lee Masser 5-Miler, now in its 31st year, Tim Bamforth uses the word “memorial” to remember all the runners who used to be regulars but have since achieved exit velocity from Planet Earth. He uses my uncanny memory to help him with this list that no one wants to be on. I gave him an added name 30 seconds before the moment of silence where Tim talks. He asked me, “How did you think of that?” “Because I thought I just saw him, then realized he died three years ago," I answered. 

Pushing the pace - Dylan Smiley ran fast from the front, leaving all followers in his trail like honkers over the Great Marsh. On a stagnant, sultry Sunday morning, May 26, the 26-year-old Rehoboth Beach resident set a new record for the five-mile course of 24:50, which is 4:58 mile pace for five miles. Olivia Montini, 19, was the overall women’s winner in 32:46, which is 6:33 pace per mile. Magic Jack Noel, 85, beat a baby in a buggy by five-hundredths of a second. 

Permission slip - I asked the head boys’ lacrosse official before Saturday's Cape game versus Saint Mark’s if I could perch in a certain corner because if he was going to kick me out, let's just get it over with before it happens. A nice young man, he said, “I know you’ve been doing this a long time. I just don’t want to see you get hurt.” I said, “How do you know I’ve been doing it a long time? And if I get dropped by a rubber lacrosse ball at 110 mph, there are guys up the stands who will laugh like they’re watching a Three Stooges movie.” 

Softball final four - Cape softball in the semis the same year the girls’ lacrosse team wins the state championship is a first. The Wednesday, May 29 final four featuring Cape vs. Central and Laurel vs. Caravel is intriguing. Two teams, Central and Cape, are coached by football guys, John Wells and Mike Tkach. Randy Johnson is the Caravel coach. He is a Cape kid from the 1970s, a School Lane guy. Laurel’s coach is Sara Whaley. The Bulldogs beat Sussex Central in the regular season 1-0 and lost to Caravel 3-1. Cape lost at Sussex Central April 23 by a score of 5-4. Cape has never won a state championship in softball.

Lexi Nowakowski - A two-sport athlete in field hockey and lacrosse, Lexi is heading to Vanderbilt in the fall where she will play lacrosse in the spring. Lexi injured her shoulder (labrum) training for lacrosse season. She came back with the season in progress and subsequently injured her knee (MCL and ACL), quickly got the surgery and stayed on the sideline supported by crutches and teammates the rest of the season. The smile never left her face, and she was as happy as anyone when Cape won the state title that slipped away from them (10-9) in 2023. In that game, Lexi was Cape’s leading scorer with four goals. Carrie Clausius, who missed the 2022 season because of an ACL injury, had three goals in that game. I grabbed Lexi’s photo after Cape's state championship victory. Someone suggested, "Want me to hold her crutches?" and I said, "No, that is part of the story at this moment.” Carrie gave me a hug after the game just for being part of her journey. A lesson to learn: Know your athletes, see the total person, know they are adaptable and can handle adversity, learn from them. In a way, it's an upside-down peer education.

Snippets - The Phillies lost two in Colorado to the lowly Rockies, which sounds contradictory but when you live at Schuylkill sea level, the altitude affects the attitude when you play baseball a mile high up in the sky. I could see those losses coming a mile away. Which trophy requires the most grit to capture, the NBA title or the Stanley Cup? I’m saying Stanley Cup. Middlebury beat Salisbury 16-5 to win the NCAA Division III title in women's lacrosse. Middlebury College is in Vermont. It is academically selective and has won 33 national championships in various sports since 1994. The lacrosse athletes are mostly from New England regional private schools. Most have never said, “Go on now, git!”