Cape’s Young nearing school record for wrestling wins

The Frisco Flyers will be heading out of Philly and Baltimore this Thursday, Jan. 6, having booked passage for the Friday night championship game between Delaware and Eastern Washington at Pizza Hut Park in Frisco, Texas. And as is always the case when you decide not to go somewhere, people have come up and asked me, ”Is the Gazette sending you guys to Texas?” and I have answered, “We decided not to go,” which has elicited the response “Not go?” Currently I am the injured quad guy. I’m sure the airlines wouldn’t give me a first-class seat so I could stretch out my leg and I can barely get into a car and I don’t drink anymore - so to me it sounds more like a trip behind enemy lines. There was just one casino in Vegas giving odds on the game, and it has Delaware as an eight-point underdog. I’ll take that action, but I don’t trust online transactions ever since I ordered a stuffed snow leopard, got charged for three, and received none. It’s like the Bobby Bowden Discover card commercial: “I ain’t too old to find you, son.”

C’mon, man! Practice?
Dan Cook and I have been covering home games for the Eagles for at least the last 13 years. We were there for the last NFC championship game at the Vet - a loss to Tampa Bay - and for the first at The Linc - a loss to the Carolina Panthers. I always see my association with the NFL as being the same as a player. You just never know when things will turn. We used to cover the Redskins and Ravens but without warning, our credentials were yanked because we were small-market chum; therefore many of you are in the same bucket. The Eagles want to see me at practice this week to pick up my parking pass and were wondering why they never see me at practice. I’ve been missing practice for the last 13 years, which has to be a record. “Practice? We talkin’ practice, man? C’mon man, practice?”

Rastling results
The Wetzel Holiday Classic wrestling tournament held Dec. 29-30, at Hatboro-Horsham High School found Cape knocking down a seventh-place finish. Malvern Prep, the school that once fired former Flyer Dave Schultz as its ice hockey coach, was the team champion at the 22-team event. Six of the 12 wrestlers competing for Cape placed in the top five at the tournament. Chris Young, Sammy Mohr and Tadeo Gonzalez led the way with third-place finishes. Young finished 4-1, earning his 100th career win during the first match of the tournament. He now has 103 career victories and is chasing the school record of 117 wins held by coach Kyle Hopkins. Sammy Mohr and Tadeo Gonzales both finished 4-1 as well.

Garrett Smith finished fourth, losing to the tournament’s outstanding wrestler, Matt Harkins. Smith finished 3-2. Freshmen Justin Lopez and Aaron Dennis both finished in fifth place. Justin finished 4-1 and Aaron finished 6-2.

“Because of injuries we had five freshmen in the starting lineup,” said coach Chris Mattioni, whose Vikings grapple at Caesar Rodney Wednesday, Jan. 5.

Snippets
The Cape girls’ basketball team (5-2) will host Caesar Rodney (5-3) at 7:15 p.m., Tuesday, Jan. 4. Johnesha Warren needs 16 points to reach the 1,000-point mark. All former 1,000-point scorers are urged to attend for post-game photo opportunities. A check of the stats reveals that the Cape boys’ basketball team (1-5) has been scoring 65 points a game but giving up 73. The Vikings are at Caesar Rodney Jan. 4, then host Dover Thursday, Jan. 6. Fans can make this fun by treating their team like a giant-killing underdog and getting behind them. I still believe Cape can beat any team left on the schedule and except for three fourth-quarter fade-aways would be 4-2.

Several locally connected road runners racing mostly in the Seven Sisters and Seashore Striders events completed 100 races for the calendar year, which is about two grand in entry fees, which is chump change compared to a major player’s bar tab. Darby Dog spends about $400 a year on Wawa doughnuts.