Each coach and player are central figures in Friday night football

The best of us - The brightest light shined down on the darkest day for the family of Freds on a drizzly October morning back in 2017: the sending-home mass for No. 5 Cape quarterback Tom Frederick. The village turned out, tightening the circle that makes our community short-story surreal – a place like no other place. Juan Saez was given the task of organizing teammates to escort Tom from the church. The Cape football team wore yellow laces the rest of the season, and an autographed helmet was presented to our family. The field hockey team showed up in uniform, members of the running community, the gay community, wheelchaired friends, same-day surgery patients up from anesthesia. Buddies from NA meetings filed in, and Tom’s treatment team drove down from Wilmington. Cliffvon Howell gave the eulogy about focusing on kids growing up together in a small town. My nephew Mike, who always called us the Beach Freds, said to me after the service, “I didn’t know places like this still existed in the world. What a beautiful community.” Mike later applied for the open Cape football job. Freds stayed out of the way; he was on his own. Before he accepted the position, like something out of a “Godfather” movie, he came to the house to ask permission from his aunt and uncle, Susan and Fredman. "Your family has an amazing thing going on here. I don't want to drop in and mess it up,” Mike said. Every coach and kid under a helmet Friday night is the central figure of an amazing journey here at Sesame Street by the Sea. It is always about “us.” There is a safety net that catches us when we fall, muppets lift us up and dust us off and pass no judgements. The heat is on and the fire trucks are idling. 

Hype before happening - Let’s face it, I have been a Cape-connected person since the 1975 football season, serving as a coach, dad, grandad, sports writer of game stories, columnist and photographer. I am cautious   with my caring and enthusiasm. I’m that way for self-protection because sports can chew you up like dry cat food or send you bonkers like a tabby on a  catnip mouse. Speaking of cats, if you watch the stealthy approach of a cat stalking prey, the last thing needed is a cheerleader. Cape football goes into the championship game against Salesianum as a bigger underdog than a hundred-pound dachshund. Salesiaumn last won the title in football in 2013. The Sals won the championship six times, but lost in the title game seven times. On Friday night, it's supposed to rain cats and dogs. Wet games are best watched livestream on a screen, not inside a stadium that prohibits umbrellas.  

Before Hudl - Hudl is a digital sharing program used by coaches. I was standing along the football fence at Cape in 1979 next to Seaford coach Ron Dickerson, who was old-school scouting with a clipboard and no tape recorder. He was watching Cape shut down the Caesar Rodney Wing T offense. “You see the way Cape plays those three linebackers in that 5-3 defense,” Captain Dick said. “You can’t align like that, it is fundamentally unsound. They are often too tight or too wide. Honestly, I don’t know what they are doing, but it doesn’t matter.” He paused. “Because when you have those three athletic kids, they can  line up anywhere they want  and just run down the ball carrier.” Dickerson was talking about middle linebacker Vincent Daniels, flanked by Hertford Gibbs and Noland Hazzard, along with a disruptive nose guard in Timmy Gray.  

Snippets - Luke Bender (Cape), wrestling at 149 pounds for Division I Franklin and Marshall, lost to the No. 25 wrestler in the country, Cody Bond of App State, 10-0 in the Keystone Classic at the Penn Palestra. Bond advanced to the quarterfinals to meet and beat Jackson Dean (Caesar Rodney) of Penn 19-4. Bender came back to beat a wrestler from Duke in the consolation round. The Cape wrestling team is taking a full squad to the Southern Slam this weekend at Eastside High School in South Carolina. The Vikings begin the dual-meet season Wednesday, Dec. 13 at Milford. I will be the oldest person in Schellville after dark Monday, Dec. 4, as the emcee who works for free of the 2023 state championship field hockey banquet. Sussex Tech opened the wrestling season with an 80-0 shutout of Sussex Academy. The Seahawks forfeited seven of 14 matches. The Ravens, coached by Scott Layfield, have 43 grapplers out for the team this year and a coaching staff of six, including Eston Ennis, LJ Thomas, Jim Hudson, Kevin Gardner and Jamie Schirmer. The 10-1 Philadelphia Eagles are two-point dogs in their own house this Sunday against the 8-3 San Francisco 49ers. If it's raining Friday night for the state championship football game at Delaware Stadium, expect the Cape visitors' side to look like a Ducks Unlimited outdoor convention. Bad weather always favors the team that wins. Go on now, git!