Bradshaw's reluctant roll into end zone was oddly ironic

The rule is clear - The Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association rule governing non- school competition on outside teams is written here. All discussions about what athletes should be able to do should reference this rule:  6.6 Non-School Competition in which Participants are Competing Unattached and are Not Representing Their Schools. 6.6.1 A student may participate on a non-school team or in a non-school individual event both during and out of the designated sport season. However, the student owes his/her primary loyalty and allegiance to the school team of which he/she is a member. A school shall have the authority to require attendance at practices and contests and students not in compliance shall be subject to disciplinary action as determined by the school.

Beagle, like the dog - I spoke with Sammy Mohr Feb. 8 after the Laurel wrestling match in which he received a forfeit. Sammy is Cape's electric three-sport athlete, excelling in football, wrestling and lacrosse. He is a student success story of bountiful proportions.  Last week, news spread that he was accepted at Bloomsburg University.  He did not go into the pile labeled “How can we get this guy past admissions?” He has solid grades and SAT scores over 1,100,  thanks to lots of teachers and coaches who believed in Sam and waited for him to “calm down" and harness his gifts of personality and intelligence into classroom performance. Mentor Chris Beagle has been working with Sammy over the last two years and has done a great job helping him to negotiate school and sports and get ready for college. "Chris,my mentor, helped me a lot,” Sam said to me after the match. “Chris who?" I asked, to which Sam replied, ”Beagle, like the dog.”

Oddly ironic - The New York football Giants used a 2010 video of high school cross country runner Holland Reynolds, the fifth runner on her team, crawling in exhaustion across the finish line in the Division V California state championship race to secure the title for her University High School team. Reynolds, not a star, was her team's No. 3 runner for most of the season.  She was inspired by her coach, Jim Tracy, who was and is battling ALS, Lou Gehrig's disease. The Giants' coach, Tom Coughlin, got hold of the video and used it as a theme for his team:  Just finish.  Oddly, the Giants clinched the Super Bowl by having Ahmad Bradshaw reluctantly roll into the end zone for the winning touchdown in the final minute of the game. My buddy Mike DeStasio, who has ALS, turned me on to this story. Tom Coughlin mentioned the theme "Just finish" at the New York parade. But lost in all the inspirational feel-good stuff was coach Jim Tracy, the source of it all. One mention of ALS by Coughlin would have inspired awareness and perhaps lots of money to the cause and search for a cure. It was just an opportunity missed. Coach Tracy, diagnosed in 2010, said after his ninth state title, "The way I see it, if someone is going to win, it might as well be us."

Iron Mike - A quick update on my dog Mike DeStasio - he calls the two of us the New York-Philly Express - now three years down the road with ALS:  On Feb. 8 at Millsboro Lanes Mike bowled 191, 177, 135, 194 and 171 before twitching in his right shoulder forced him to stop. Mike is the reigning national champion in the A Division of the American Wheelchair Bowling Association. At the end of March he will drive himself to a weekend tournament in Virginia Beach. Last week in Wawa, some wanker stepped in front of Mike's wheelchair, crowding him in line. Words were exchanged. Mike stood up, and the guy backed it way down, and so would I. The Iron Mike DeStasio Fund is alive and well at all County Bank locations.

Snippets - Big weekend for high school sports with Henlopen Conference Championships in swimming at Lake Forest and the Delaware State Championships of Indoor Track and Field at the University of Delaware. Cape boys' basketball, 10-7, is at Tatnall in a crucial contest with state tournament implications; the same goes for the wrestling team at Salesianum. Willie Vann, Cape's first state champion wrestler in 1973 at 123 pounds, passed away at 11 p.m., Feb. 8. Willie - Shooby or Chucky to his family and friends - was part of the extended Brittingham clan, and I know every time I ran into him I always called him Champ. Go on now, git!