Fruchtman joins a list of all-state ballers at Cape
Bad Company - Amalia Fructman, a Cape junior, was named first-team all-state for basketball. She joins “Bad Company,” which in this case means awesome athletes who can play the game. The first Cape girl to make first-team all-state was Vicki Hazzard, who was on the first team ever picked by the Philadelphia Inquirer based on a mail survey of coaches in 1976. Since the Delaware Sports Writers and Broadcasters Association took over the role in 1980, the following Cape players have also made first-team all-state: Lisa Jefferson, 1984; Zelda Sheppard, 1988; Maggie Widdoes, 1997; Katie DelCampo, 1997; Jonesha Warren, 2011; and Aaliyah Davis, 2012. Cape players making the second team were Adele Mears, 1980; Sheppard, 1987; Chaundra White, 1990; DelCampo, 1995 and 1996; Wilma Coursey, 1996; Toni Jones, 2002; Brittany Reed, 2004; Tia Felton, 2006; Warren, 2010; Abbey Hearn, 2019; Dania Cannon, 2020; and Mehkia Applewhite, 2021 and 2022. Information provided by Chuck Durante, president of DSBA.
Goofy Remington - My race through space journey is at the speed of light aboard a starship going through an asteroid belt with my head out the window. Just tiny bits of information crashing into one other and my head before scattering into a kaleidoscope of new yet seeming unrelated stories. I saw a floppy-eared dog at Sunday's Shamrock Shuffle. The dog was good-sized, either an emerging puppy or an older dog collapsing from the outside like we humans do. The dog had Marmaduke qualities but most resembled the Disney dog Goofy. I asked his handler, “What is the dog's name?” She responded, “Remington. This is his first race. He’s a Great Dane, 5 months old.” Then, as handlers without handles say at the dog park, “I stepped in it.” “He reminds me of the Disney dog Goofy.” I quickly realized that Goofy was not a dog but an anthropomorphized character with mostly human qualities along with a melding of other creatures as well. As 12-year-old Chris Chambers said in the movie "Stand By Me” as the boys discussed whether Mighty Mouse could beat up Superman, “And what the hell is Goofy?” But I worried that my laying the label Goofy on the floppy-eared head of a stranger's puppy could be considered offensive. It wasn’t taken that way by nurse practitioner Nicole Moore, who I’m sure deals with space cowboys every day. Nicole and her son Seth, 13, ran in the coed relay for 10 miles and placed second. The name of their team - Worst Pace Scenario.
Bracket shmacket - We live in an era of science deniers, so I wonder how many of the 20 million who fill out an NCAA basketball bracket use a system based on any form of logic. I start with the top two seeds in each of the four regions and move them to the Elite 8, then go back and look for posers seeded three through seven and sink some of them just for fun. Suffice it to say I’ve never won a local pool, which reflects badly on my career as a sports columnist. The biggest challenge for me is finding my bracket online after I fill it out. Ferris Bueller: “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” Trust me, I’ll be looking.
Play days - We live in a sports culture that focuses on the chase, with young athletes speeding through the here and now toward bigger goals. Adults tell teenagers to “keep grinding.” They wouldn't know a grinding wheel if it rolled over their heads. How many times have you heard a coach or athlete in a post-game interview say, “I’m going to spend tonight enjoying this victory before getting back to work tomorrow.” A culture dominated by split allegiance syndrome – athletes on school sports teams and also on a travel team during the same season. In the words of Aretha Franklin, “Who’s zoomin’ who?” In the future, it will be all astro projection, cosmic connections; no one will be showing up in person.
Snippets - Social media is now filled with fake stories about professional sports teams and athletes. I do know there is a cadre of so-called fans who hate on certain players and want them gone. Sports is a distraction designed to make fans happy. If your sports team makes you enraged, go rescue some Goofy dog and teach it to snuggle and cuddle with you through the late innings of a scoreless game. Go on now, git!
