Don’t lose your marbles on championship game day

Championship Saturday - I woke up early on state championship Saturday, and I was in game-day mode. Cape field hockey was scheduled to play Smyrna at 4 p.m. for all the marbles, and no one has played marbles in 40 years. The Fred family starting with Coach Grandpa Fred and including the Rishko cousins could fill an Easter basket with 50 state championship medals – or marbles if we stick with that metaphor. But you never get used to the run-up to the game on championship day; how to fill the hours so you don’t become a basket case and lose your 50 marbles before you get to the game where half the people there will be absolutely insane. I chose to photograph the Nicola Pizza 5K. A herd of 225 harriers leaving a pizza parking lot, hustling across Savannah Road protected by DelDOT workers armed with stop and go signs. I’d say surrealism is an overused word by athletes who have never passed a philosophy class. The surreal is real in my sports world.  Andy Gorlich, 39, a young man who never stops smiling, won the race in 18:39. The overall female winner,  just 10 years old, was Cameron Hastings from Randolph, N.J., in 22:42. Her dad, Collin Hastings, 48, was right behind her in 22:52. I thought of the major difference between hockey dads and running dads: hockey dads never played the sport but nonetheless are pretty vocal on game day. 

Rainbow Connection - Stop with the muppets, Fredman. Who are you, Kermit the Frog? Cape field hockey won a state title by a 2-1 score on goals by Emily Wells and Teagan Baker. I know their grandfathers, Alfred Best and Dave Baker, and saw them at the game Saturday night, and they saw me back. “So why are there so many songs about rainbows? And what’s on the other side?” 

“Ricky, Don’t Lose That Number” - I photographed the Blue-Gold field hockey senior all-star game Nov. 10 at Milford at the request of coach Andrea Fleming McPike. Each team in the state could send just one player, and they all did. There were no numbers, and the thing about facial recognition is most faces are only known to the families in the stands, which were packed (tells you all you need to know about church attendance). I got a photo of Laela Brown of Delmar and Katie Hanich of Saint Mark’s, winners of the Delaware Field Hockey Association Scholarship. And a prized photo of childhood friends Lina Frederick of Cape and Bailey Masten of Milford, who said they have been friends since second grade. I asked if they squabbled in first grade then put it behind them. 

Stick and kick saves - Granddaughters Anna and Lizzie after state championship wins in field hockey their senior years tossed their sticks into the front porch basket and never picked them up again. Katie also tossed hers but picked it up again when she became president of the University of Delaware field hockey team. Jackie Cannon of Cape was a teammate and they had a great time – I called them DI club players in case anyone ever asked me, and no one did. 

Just cause - The Indian River school board at its last meeting chose not to rehire Sean Hopkins as boys’ head basketball at Sussex Central High School. Coaches are considered part time and mostly not covered by just-cause protections;  rather, just cause we can is the overriding rule. There is social media buzz about it and never was heard a negative word about Sean; quite the contrary, everyone appears to love the guy and that has always been the case. Perception often mimics reality and the Afro American community is looking at this entire process very skeptically. Way back in the day, my brother Tom (Mike’s dad) was let go as football coach by the superintendent of the Bensalem (Pa.) school district. One afternoon, hundreds of students walked out and marched a mile down the road asking to see the superintendent, who called Tom Fred and asked him to fix it. Coach Tom Fred said, “You started it, fix it anyway you want.” The next year, Tom was the football coach and the forget-his-name super was last seen heading north on the Alaskan Highway.   

Snippets - The Stockton University women’s volleyball team (20-7) defeated Neumann University led by Rileigh Wilson’s (Milton/Cape Henlopen) nine kills. Stockton then rallied to defeat Salisbury 3-2, with Wilson having 20 kills in that game. Ry can fly.  When she was at Cape, I suggested she become a part-time high jumper, but my idea got less traction than a Jeep with bald tires stuck in the wet sand flats of the Cape Henlopen Point. Go on now, git!