Lessons taken out of context can sound stupid, cruel

Liz Carpenter of Lewes was selected Virginia Tech women’s lacrosse most valuable player at the May 3 Hokies all-sports banquet. Liz was a first-team all-state player for Cape in 2005 and 2007. Chris Diaz, two-time state champion at Caesar Rodney, was named most valuable wrestler for the Hokies. Shippensburg junior Hope Cornell from Sussex Tech was named to the All-PSAC Eastern Division first-team squad. Cornell is Shippensburg’s all-time leader in home runs. Becoming the first-ever No. 8 seed to upset a No. 1 seed in the 10-year history of NESCAC tournament play in any sport, Wesleyan avenged its regular-season finale loss April 30 at Connecticut College by downing the top-seeded Camels on their home turf Sunday, May 2, 6-5, in the opening round of the NESCAC tournament. According to the school website account of the game, “Wesleyan got outstanding defensive play throughout the game, led by Bo Pratt [Cape Henlopen] as he scooped up four ground balls and caused three turnovers with solid stick work.” Bo started all 15 games this season and was credited with 47 ground balls while causing a dozen turnovers, one would guess by running over people or chopping them stick to stick, raking the ball loose.

CLASSLESS CAPE - Twice over the last week, once at a girls lacrosse game at Sussex Tech and later at a boys lacrosse game at Caesar Rodney, I heard a parent yell from the stands late in the game, “Typical classless Cape. Go ahead and run up the score.”

The irony is, it’s almost always notable classless types who are recognized by their own schools as such who are the ones doing the screaming.

I don’t know where that magical moment lies where a coach “calls off the dogs” but if the team behind continues to play hard and celebrate goals, then the game remains on. So much of offense in lacrosse depends on how the other team plays defense.

The only way to fight pressure is to attack; think of breaking a full-court jump trap defense in basketball by running a delay game. I’ve watched Cape football get tenderized and pulverized about eight times a year over the last decade and never considered yelling, “Typical classless front runners.”

Once while coaching I rocked a few doughboy comments at tackles who pancaked a quarterback, then grunted and growled like Aunt Rose at a Waffle House buffet.

GORILLA MONSOON - Eagle’s Nest hits the front pages because of a classroom lesson on servitude that was systematically placed into the media matrix which chewed up the story like Third World mutts on pork rinds. Schools do all kinds of dumb stuff; it is an imperfect world after all, and lessons and comments taken out of context can sound really stupid or even cruel. Back in the data-processing IBM card days, Cape’s student government ran a computer match activity. It cost a dollar to play. I entered a card as Gorilla Monsoon and chose every undesirable trait available to describe my looks and personality. A week later some student government kids delivered results to “players” in my class. An overweight white girl who was crass and uncouth on her good days was wearing a “Hulkamania” T-shirt. She looked at No. 1 on her match list and screamed out loud, “Who the hell is Gorilla Monsoon?” I stifled laughter - the irony and the agony - like a great nephew at a funeral Mass who just kept thinking of funny things. But I never owned up because in a way it was just “so wrong” and mostly it was plain stupid.

BRUUUCE! - Bruce Pitts, who ran on Cape’s state championship indoor track teams for Tim Bamforth in 1992 and 1993 and also an outdoor team in 1993 showed up on the far side of the track at last Wednesday’s lacrosse game at Caesar Rodney coaching up and working out his 12-year-old daughter Asya, a sixth-grade sprinter at Postlethwaite Middle School. Bruce has always been a solid person, very polite and a hard worker. Cape has loyal alumni all over the place.

SNIPPETS - Make sure to check out websites4sports.com for the latest schedules, results and state tournament information.