Coach Bill Collick to hang up headphones

Thirty-five years and three Cape high schools ago, on a warm September Friday night in downtown Lewes, rookie Bill Collick stood on top of a press box made of wood and put on the gigantic football headphones. His first words were to his new friend from Philly: “Come here once, why don’t you?”

The line was a shout out to coach Don Hanley, who had coached so many years on that same field. I was the other new guy. The house lights were up; the place was rocking, lots of fans hanging over the fence, many of them drunk out of their freaking minds. Dover took the field in dark blue uniforms. “These guys look like the New York Giants,” I said to Bill.

The first play from scrimmage, I bent down to pick up a Peppermint Pattie I had dropped. Dover sophomore Mike Meade was in the Cape end zone when I looked back to the field, where white Cape jerseys littered the landscape like spent pins on an alley of green grass. “What is that bowling ball on legs doing in our end zone?” I asked Bill.

“Meade just went 80 yards on a dive play,” Bill said. Cape went on to win the game 7-6 with a Cape roster of guys like Tyrone Gibbs, Purnell Ayers, John Bishop, Vaughn Trammell, Thurman Batson, Mark Steele, Bill Dunning, Quinton Phillips, Angelo Shugart, Jeff Marsh, Donnie Donahue, Jeff Hood and Emory Sumlin, with Gilbert Maull and Rex Dickerson alternating at quarterback. We were beastly good, fast and mean. That was rocking it old school!

Sussex Tech is expected to announce by conference call this Friday morning that Bill Collick is hanging up the head phones, retiring after a 35-year career that took him from Cape to Delaware State and finally to Sussex Tech. I was there at the very beginning, the first moment, and by the time a “fair to everybody” conference call is placed, my paper is on the street, and I am dead in the water, “beat on my beat” on a best-of-friends story. Homey don’t play that! Every regular at Wawa Route 1 South knows Bill will coach the Gold team in this year’s All-Star game before hanging up the phones - unless he wears them at home while watching games on television.

HERE COME THAT COLLICK - Bill Collick was named Cape’s head wrestling coach to replace Dick Lynam, who took early retirement before that was cool.  Bill as wrestling coach and I as head track coach dogged every gym class and every lunch line searching for talent. It was funny as I remember kids would promise Bill anything just so they could move on to a double dose of flying saucers or wiener winks chased by tater tots. Bill regularly won 10 matches a season just because there were athletes in the lineup. I saw a great one-time-only afternoon wrestle-off up in the loft between Slim Ayers and Tommy Gibbs that should have been on pay-for-view. These mountainous men pushed back and forth on each other for three periods; finally Tommy fell backward and Slim landed on top of him. We are talking truck weigh-station numbers. Slim had earned the right to wrestle at Woodbridge that night. I watched and listened as Collick gave Slim a pep talk and told him to be back at school by 6 p.m. Slim just nodded his head, and after coach left I went up to Slim and said, ”You’re not coming back are you?” “No, probably not,” he said, and that was that.

THE HULK - Reggie Snead was a Burton Avenue neighbor to Bill and designated heavyweight wrestler for a while. Reggie did hundreds of arm curls every day and had biceps out of proportion, sort of like Ray Lewis but with better definition. Snead would take to the mat and the crowd would chant, “Hulk! Hulk!” After one long match, Reggie “pint” his man, as the expression went, and the crowd went wild. The ref held up Reggie’s hand, and he broke into the Hulk flex and roar. It was so hilarious, but I looked at Collick, who just dropped his head in one of those moments coaches just don’t see coming.

SNIPPETS - Cape Little League registrations: Tuesday, Feb. 9 and 16, 6-8 p.m. at Grotto Grand Slam, Lewes.  Requirements and forms at eteamz.com/capeleague.

Registration fee is $65. Baseball and softball players ages 13-18; for additional info contact Doug Nichols at 684-4488.

The 11th annual Jeff Fest, where friends of the late Jeff Cannon meet to celebrate his life, will again be held at Que Pasa, Ruddertowne, in Dewey Beach. Denise Allen reports, “We had it last year at this location, and it was great! It is exclusive to our party only and will have a menu for dinner and munchies.

“We also want you to remember it is kid friendly, and motels are cheap this time of year. Several families were in attendance last year, and we want to encourage the next generation to join in.... With most of us having college-age kids, all are invited. Remember, great stories are to be told; whether or not they are true is only known by the ones who were there.

“Bring your best ones!” But seriously and I’m not kidding, see you there.

Don’t worry about weather – too much hype – expect rain.