Wawa to Walmart - highway to the sports history channel

Wawa and Walmart - Both stores are clearinghouses where you walk in and out, get what you want, and if you’re lucky you’ll have a “stop and chat” with someone you know and share history with, be it recent or a long time ago. And for me an iPhone camera means I can do a quick snap followed by a snippy biography and I have a column item and a Facebook upload before my truck leaves the parking lot. Last week on the same day within 20 minutes, I picked off 20-year-old Austin Brooks making a virtual sandwich on the Wawa touchscreen then down to Walmart to find Peter Cox on the far side of 50, father of 14 and grandfather of 16, posing as a greeter in the entryway to Walmart. Ironically, I called Austin the “Walmart greeter” when he played basketball at Cape because he was always the first guy up to greet players coming out of the game. Austin has dropped 35 pounds over the last three months, I’m guessing by throttling back from classic to shortie subs and white to whole wheat rolls, plus he works out at Every1 Fitness most days. Peter is one of Cape’s best-ever 300-meter hurdlers who holds an unbreakable school record of running 400 meters in 53 seconds with a sawed-off broom sweeping puddles off the track. He had a bag of salted somethings he was working on but not sharing, something you learn when you hit planet Earth inside a big family and create one five times bigger. Peter and his wife Miss Bee and all the children and grandchildren plan to attend the upcoming Lake Forest basketball game Friday, Jan. 20.  

Bench players - Give athletes opportunity and they usually meet the moment, but each week and at every level across the pantheon of sports there are practice players who never or rarely see live action on game day. “Bench player” is an oxymoron because you can’t be both in spite of the phrase “keep your head in the game” and your butt on the bench. “Right, coach, I don’t play but I should ‘keep my head in the game,’ just in case, because you never know, but listen, my grandma is sleeping sitting up - it’s a good thing she stayed home” - get it? I could “bang on” about this because nothing builds character more than clapping for others.

Clemson or conformation - Would you rather watch political history unfold or sports history unfolded? Easy choice for me, I’ve watched the Clemson dramatic win over Alabama four times in the middle of the afternoon this week. Knowing the ending doesn’t spoil it for me. I knew the rub route was coming - the entire Alabama staff knew it was coming – on a pass from Deshaun Watson to Hunter Renfrow, but they refused to junkyard dog the defense because football guys are intractable personality types -  “we don’t rep it, we don’t run it.” It reminded me of the closing minutes of a Cape at Sussex Central game years ago. The Golden Knights were trailing, Mark Petitgout was at quarterback and pro-size wide receiver Brian Polk was split wide to the right. I whispered in coach Brian Donahue’s ear: “Walk a linebacker out there to help Carl Floyd and jam Polk because you can bet your blue and gold Napa hat they are going home run ball to Polk.” Coach D buried me in soliloquy: “We don’t rep it, we don’t run it. We don’t draw plays in the dirt, we don’t go into the Pop Warner playbook, that’s what they did before we got here and you see what that got them?” I’m a junkyard type of coach, if I find a Napa hat on the ground, I turn it upside down looking for the rabbit. Petitgout hit Polk in stride for the game winner - that’s just the way the game plan crumbles sometimes. Ask the venerated Nick Saban about it, then run away.   

Snippets - Report from coach Patrick Irelan: “Beacon big man Lucas Ruppert has worked hard on wrestling opponents that can often be up to 40 pounds heavier than him. Jan. 11, the seventh-grader stepped onto the mat with his team trailing by two points and pinned a much-larger Selbyville wrestler in the the third period in the 250-pound class, giving Beacon the win 44-40.” Meredith Lockwood won the open 800 meters at Bayside League Jan. 11 at the Worcester County Rec Center in 2:36. Ce’yra Middleton of Cape won the shot put with a throw of 34-feet-10-inches. The Henlopen Conference Championships are Thursday, Jan. 26, at Worcester, and the state championships are Saturday, Feb. 4, at Prince George’s Sports Complex. Delaware has no place indoors to host big track meets ever since the University of Delaware laid down turf in the field house to help the football team. Go on now, git!