Always expecting the Cape boys basketball team to win

I have to be honest - actually no one does - but every time the Cape boys’ basketball team walks onto the court, I expect them to win. That’s a learned behavior that goes back 34 years of seeing almost every game. In the last stretch of 10 games including the end of last season, Cape has won only one game - that one by beating this year’s Milford team with a 29-point fourth quarter in a crazy comeback. And that is the only game Milford has lost. Last week Cape surged, then faded in the fourth quarter like a distance runner with no finishing kick and lost to Sussex Tech and Sussex Central, a pair of teams that previously hadn’t won a game. And last year Cape lost its final game in double overtime to a Sussex Tech team that had started the season 0-10. Then Cape lost in the state tournament to an A.I. DuPont team that couldn’t hold court in Rehoboth on a summer Saturday morning. Things are not OK at the Cape Corral. Sometimes opponents are just better, but some of the losses make no sense. It’s hard for good players to lose to lesser ones. It happens every day but not to the same team. Call me crazy, but I still believe the Cape boys can beat anyone on their schedule, but don’t ask me how; that’s between a man and his dog.

Big Daddy Graham – I was a sophomore starting right guard on a Temple football team that opened the season 0-4. I graded out at 85 over four games, which is really good, but all underclassmen starters were replaced by seniors in the hopes that leadership and experience would translate into victories. Tommy Bazis, a 5-foot-5, 170-lb. linebacker out of West Catholic, was given my position. I beat on Bazis every chance I got, forearming him to the face with an airbag dummy shield, attacking him with a 100-pound heavy bag - I didn’t care. Bazis was a co-captain and made a speech before game five at UConn, which was interrupted by the anti-leader Eddie Pine, who said, “Shut up, you little weasel.” A few years ago, during the Sean Brennan era of Cape football, there was a comedy fundraiser at Fisherman’s Wharf that I emceed, an event headlined by Big Daddy Graham, a regular on WIP sports radio. I told a Tommy Bazis story and Big Daddy was going nuts, finally telling me that Tom Bazis was his ex-brother-in-law. It’s a small world after all.

Cosmic connection - How to do a fundraiser without annoying all those people who tolerate your playing in a world of their own problems is not easy. I decided I wanted to help Iron Mike DeStasio and Wendy deal with all the extraneous expenses associated with Mike’s diagnosis of ALS. I started a fund, told people they could donate at County Bank and didn’t have to walk, run, swim or bake cookies. It worked OK, still needs funds, but who doesn’t? I met the DeStasios for real last June, then did a story on Mike. Wendy and kids Allie and Mikey sat around the kitchen table for a family of four interview. Mike is the ripped, fit, blue-collar Italian New Yorker, a Mets and Jets guy who hustled handball games for money, bowls, golfs and coached youth baseball. Allie played on the Cape softball team and is a dancer and bowler, and Mikey plays travel baseball, golfs with his dad and smiles all the time. Wendy is the Cabbage Patch pharmacist at SuperFresh; if you know her, enough said. Anyway, thanks to Mike and family for welcoming me into their world and thanks to all who continue to help them. And thanks to all of you who help anyone for any reason. It’s an awakening moment when one realizes “Hey, it’s not about me!”

Snippets - This just in - Cape head soccer coach Jay Hayes submitted his letter of resignation to athletic director Bob Cilento on Dec. 23. Hayes will remain in his position as a special education teacher at the high school.

There were 22 junior varsity bouts, each with three one-minute periods before last Wednesday’s Cape varsity match against Sussex Central. Large numbers of Cape students continue to support all home contests at the Cape Corral, my new name for the gym. The New Little Big House isn’t making it, not after heavy diesel, Mad Max-looking machines huffed and puffed and tore the Little Big House down. Lake Forest wrestling beat Sussex Tech 40-39, getting the deciding team point on the ninth tiebreaker, which is, “The team having the greater number of points for near falls shall be declared the winner.” I’ll bet that went over like Ravens coach Scott Layfield in a high jump competition. Lake held the match at 1 p.m.; students bounced from class to check it out as both teams together raised $1,000 for the Delaware Food Bank.

Good stuff, good job, go on now, git!