Spring sports move out of dead zone and into real play

Stan Iwamoto and Pat Niland never back down on their enthusiasm for coaching young female athletes best described as “raw” and never complain when their hard work is rewarded by having their best players robbed by the varsity during the season. Stan is of Japanese origin and said all his family moved to Hawaii years ago; nevertheless, the devastation in that island country has hit the homeland for Stan. “We have visited Tokyo and the place is just amazing,” Pat said. “Just hard to believe such a thing could happen.”

Freedom of speech - One of the litigants in a First Amendment court case is always the government.  Comedian Gilbert Gottfried lost his job as the voice of the Aflac Insurance duck for tasteless tweets on his Twitter page about the disaster in Japan - “I just split up with my girlfriend, but like the Japanese say, they'll be another one floating by any minute now" - and he has no inherent right to retain his job after embarrassing an employer with lots of clients in Japan. Some fat Fox Business channel panelist described the Japanese as an orderly culture with a low sex drive, averaging one child per household. There was no uproar because no one watches the Fox Business channel except - you guessed it - the low-to-no tedious crowd. Just remember when we all are crushed by endless and stale commentaries during March Madness games that anybody with access to a microphone is one stupid observation away from never working again, and it has nothing to do with freedom of speech but more with freedom to fire.

Fat Tuesday - Finally out of the athletic dead zone of scrimmages and play days (when did that term first show up?) the for real, let’s-keep-score games begin Tuesday,  March 22,  and it is unrelenting sports action through May.  Cape begins the quest for that elusive state title March 22 with baseball and softball at Woodbridge.  Track travels to Woodbridge too, while girls’ soccer hosts Delmar at 7 p.m.  Girls’ lacrosse will travel to Philadelphia to play Episcopal Academy, a team rated in the top 10 nationally. I intend to be at all those events but realize I can’t so I must choose one or two to cover. I’m sure I can get back from Philly in time for a girls’ soccer game.

Kids with class - Do you remember moments as an athlete when you realized you had more class than the person coaching you? I was in seventh grade playing basketball when during a time out we switched from zone to man and a young coach said to me, “You guard the kid with a face like a garbage can.” I heard much worse moving through high school, sometimes from coaches I really respected. It can be funny in a heat of battle sort of way but 50 years later I’m sitting here thinking, “Guard the kid with a face like a garbage can?” That is just so wrong.

Snippets - Lillie Lingo, Cape’s athlete of the year in 2008, is now a junior at the University of North Carolina. She walked onto the lacrosse team in fall 2010 after being recruited to the Tar Heels for field hockey but took a red shirt her freshman season before pursuing lacrosse full time. North Carolina is ranked third in the country for Division One schools. Lingo is practicing hard and working toward getting increased playing time. Lillie earned All-American honors as senior and all-state honors in her junior and senior seasons in lacrosse at Cape. The NCAA wrestling championships are at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia this long weekend Thursday-Saturday, March 17-19.  Check the ESPN multitude of listings for live coverage. Connor McDonald of Rehoboth Beach and Sussex Central High School wrestled for Newberry College at 125 pounds at the March 11-12 NCAA national championships and placed third. My sweet 16 for week one of March Madness includes Ohio State, Kentucky, Syracuse and Washington in the East. I like Duke, Arizona, Connecticut and Temple in the West. I like Kansas, Louisville, Purdue and Notre Dame in the Southwest, and Pitt, Wisconsin, BYU and Florida in the Southeast. Dick Vitale won’t shut up, saying “Parity means mediocrity” over and over, but he’s probably talking about all the mediocre parodies fans do of him. I like the guy, I just can’t stand him. Go on now, git!