Odie Davis, 62, is coaching girls’ basketball in Beaufort, S.C.

Flash forward - Coach George Pepper and I ran a resource room together back in 1980 under the banner of special education. We had fun, and so did our students. One of them, Odie Davis, was on coach Pepper’s cross country team and on coach Fred’s track team. One day, Odie was called to the guidance office and they apologized for misplacing Odie in our program but they had fixed his schedule so Odie could tread water in the mainstream of the curriculum canal. Odie objected and said ours was the best class he ever had, and he had never been so successful. We juxtaposed stuff around and made Odie a teacher's aide at Shields School, then he’d come back to us for a period of decompression. I contacted Odie last week – he’s 62 and living in Beaufort, S.C., and has been the head girls’ basketball coach at Bridges Preparatory School the last four years. He joined the Marines after graduation from Cape and works at a Marine base in Beaufort as a mechanic. It gets better. Odie asked, “How is your wife doing? Tell her I said hello,” which I did. And Susan remembered, “You know that bookcase in the garage we've been toting around for 44 years? Well, Odie made that in shop class.” Moral of the story: “Good kids often go on to a life as good people.”    

Christian Rivera - A 13-year-old soccer player inside the Woodbridge School District. His dad Moiber is a friend of mine, a Dreamer who became a U.S. citizen. Christian plays for the Delaware Futbol Academy in Federica. He has been to England and Spain to play soccer, and every Friday, he practices at the Philadelphia Union Academy. “He's my everyday Inspiration,” Moiber said. “My goal for him is to join the Philadelphia Union Academy. Right now, he is on the B team.” 

Bust a move - Watching the gathering of athletes from around the globe competing under home country banners in the Olympics, it's apparent that we are a species that is constantly on the move, mixing the three words of migration, immigration and colonization. Studio host Mike Tirico is half Italian, and I have a great great-nephew whose mom is from Ghana. We are all doodles and may as well embrace it. Diversify the human gene pool to run faster, jump higher and, along the way, perhaps get smarter.

Crowd size - The second annual memorial 5K for PFC Joseph “Dimps” Marquez, held Aug. 11, attracted just 46 runners. Proceeds go to the Woody Williams Foundation in support of a Gold Star Family memorial monument for the Delaware Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Millsboro. I had thought about taking a day off from race photography, but then I saw the purpose of the race, and if taking photos is my contribution, then I am all about it. The morning was beautiful. The backdrop of the Junction & Breakwater Trail contrasted with the colors worn by runners, making people in the photos look vibrant. Not one runner said, “I wish there were more people here.” People helping people is bigger and better than a projected crowd-size number.  

Homespun humbleness - Phillies color analyst John Kruk plays the role of the simple man who tells stories and doesn’t understand big words, and perhaps that is true. It’s also true that his net worth is $25 million, which takes him out of the homespun humbleness category. The Phillies led the Braves and Mets by seven-and-a-half games with 49 games left to play. They have been hard to watch and even harder to listen to. 

Snippets - Cape football held a scrimmage Saturday morning at Delaware Military Academy that also included William Penn. The first scrimmage of the preseason is formatted – you run 10 plays, we run 10 plays. There is no kicking game, and the quarterbacks are mostly protected unless they are running RPOs and keeping the football. Coach Mike Frederick described the scrimmage as: “Not the best. We have a long, long way to go. A lot of new faces are playing varsity football for the first time.” Cape will scrimmage Caravel at Legends Stadium at 6 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 17. Caravel was 13-0 last season on the way to the Division II state championship. Cape field hockey will host an 18-team field day Aug. 17, beginning at 8:30 a.m. In the top of the eighth inning Sunday, the Braves led the Rockies 8-2. The Atlanta win probability was 99.2%. The Rockies scored seven in the top of the ninth to win 9-8. The rally started on a two-run home run by former Phillie Jake Cave. The Phillies, Braves and Mets are all tanking at the same time. May as well call the National League East the Panzer Division. Go on now, git!