BoBo to Boone, N.C.: Jeff Savage done with dome cones
Dome cones - Jeff Savage, Dover High School athletic director, is done as of Nov. 14 with dome cones and other phys. ed. paraphernalia. He is packing up his traveling bag for Appalachian State, so look out, Boone, here comes BoBo. Jeff and his wife Cindy, whose grandparent names are BoBo and Nana, are moving to be near their daughter Janice, the newly named softball coach at Appalachian, and their two grandchildren, 7-year-old Jada and 3-year-old Colton. Jeff retired the trophy for Huggy Bear Coach and Athletic Director; he just refused to show his friendship by a simple handshake. Just last week, D.J. Hughes said of Savage, “He was the best baseball coach Cape ever had, and they were stupid letting him go.” Jeff, who jokingly refers to himself as the “Untenured Pig” after Cape let him go after three years, surfaced at Caesar Rodney, became basketball coach and led the Riders to the state finals in 1994 behind Laron Profit. Profit’s senior year Cape eliminated CR from the tournament when Tommy "Boo Boo” Rushin hit a three-point bomb at the buzzer (my first Bo Bo and Boo Boo story). Jeff was softball coach at Delaware State before being named Dover athletic director, which seems like a great job until you deal nonstop with all the wack jobs inside the sports world who just may ask you “Do you have any dome cones?” “No, I don’t, go fish!”
Cold night, Hot Country - The Salesianum at Sussex Tech Friday night football game traffic jam and culture clash will be broadcast on Hot Country 107.7 and on your computer at SportsONDelmarva.com. It’s better than being there unless you’re watching from the heated cab of a pickup truck. I was asked to assess the game because I’m a sports guy; admittedly I haven’t broken down film and don’t know Salesianum’s personnel, but we all know Sallies plays a balanced defense; their players are smart and disciplined - not to mention big - and understand assignments, adjustments and responsibilities. The counterbalance for the Henlopen Conference Northern Division Champion Ravens is they are uncharacteristically conservative for a downstate team and won’t rock the Pop Warner playbook and beat themselves. Line play, special teams and the K Train – Kani Kane – will determine the outcome.
Repressed sports memories - Championships almost gotten are more painful than opening-round losses, according to some coaches. Cape basketball lost in the finals two consecutive years in 1979 to Concord 68-65 and 1980 to Indian River 66-65 as well as 1996 to Howard 67-63 in overtime. Cape girls’ basketball lost in the final to Sanford 47-41 in 2011. Cape’s Lamont Hazzard played on the 1996 team and was head coach of the 2011 girls’ team. Polytech won the girls’ state championship in basketball in 1997 beating Seaford. Cape's 1973 and Poly's 2003 are the only downstate girls’ teams to win basketball titles in the 40-year history of the tournament.
Snippets - St. Georges Tech, coached by J. D. Maull of Lewes, finished the football season 10-0 and will open the Division II tournament at 2 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 15, at home versus Tower Hill. Locals Kai Maull and Ronnie Burton are also on the Hawks’ staff. Hodgson will play Friday night, Nov. 14, at 10-0 Lake Forest. Bill Muehleisen, former Cape coach, is on the Silver Eagles’ staff. Bill is into his 70s and has somewhere close to 50 years of coaching. Muehleisen is one of the best I’ve ever known; he not only knows it but can teach it.
My granddaughter Anna was 10, playing on a Y basketball team for a championship. As a sportswriting grandfather, I refused to go for two reasons. First, there were too many parents who needed to be tranquilized with pneumatically powered darts, and second, I refused to hope a 10-year-old on another team blew a wide-open layup. I still don’t like high-stakes championships when I have blood in the game. But it’s hard to live in a world of perspective and not drink at all. Maybe online gambling is for me?
Watching Mark Sanchez on Monday night quarterback the Eagles, I honestly thought Joey Cahill, the flag football quarterback and lacrosse player, is just as good. Fans will see Sunday as the Eagles go to Green Bay. The best thing about this Sunday - high school field hockey is over. Go on now, git!
