Only those who don’t work hard should be assigned fictitious names

Two weeks ago there was a picture in People in Sports of my nephew Mike Frederick with Cape’s two starting defensive ends. Mike was the only correctly identified person. Shane Draper, pictured here on the left, had become Shane Abbott. I asked desk jockey - pity the poor horse - Steve Hoenigmann how this could have happened and he said he covered Shane Abbott when he was editor of the Sussex Post so it must have just been a mental slip.

The message to me was that these players worked too hard to be incorrectly identified and I couldn’t agree more . Only those who don’t work hard should be assigned fictitious names. But really, I hate when that happens, but at least I get to play the fool for a week.

VARSITY CLUB - I have gone bongo boy on this drum many times before. Schools need to establish or re-establish varsity clubs for student/athletes. And these athletes should hold each other to the highest of standards and when there is knowledge that members are drinking, drugging or acting the fool, then they should be kicked out. There is a great opportunity to establish leaders through sports and we all are settling for much less.

The Duke Lacrosse case emphasized a lesson I drove home relentlessly when I was busy teaching nothing. I told all students, but in particular athletes, to stay away from trouble brewing because they didn’t belong anywhere in that neighborhood and if they saw an innocent person on the verge of becoming a victim it was their responsibility to step in and protect - or at least take the victim with them on their way out the door.

GO OUT AND HAVE FUN - All athletes know that when a coach or parent says, “Now go out there and have fun,” that it’s code for “don’t let the pressure crush you, don’t back down from anyone, and if you lose my night is going to be ruined.”

I know that the Cape girls volleyball team can be off the radar screen because Cape is the center of the field hockey universe and football rules for better or worse. This year’s Cape volleyball team is stacked with athletic players with great team chemistry and no one has to tell them to have fun because they are smiling and smacking hands after each earned point. When mistakes are made there is a look like, “that was stupid,” and they just get onto the next point.

BIG ON BIG - Preparation for a football game is all about simulation, but if you put out a first team in practice and don’t have enough left over to give them a good look then it’s time to go “big on big” and divide the teams equally so they can get after each other.

Delmar is a small school with a great system running an eclectic Wing-T with precision and quickness. The best players on a football team need to have their clocks cleaned during the week or no one is getting any better. Delmar presents a great challenge for Cape and it’s one they can win. We all know the true measure of a football team is how they play in game two.

I WIN - Pick a school sport that begins in middle school and I have watched more minutes of it than anyone including coaches and former players who read this column and shout, “What is he talking about?”

Last spring I traveled to Seaford on a weekday afternoon to watch a varsity baseball game. There were six Cape fans there. The track athletes compete in front of other track people. Last spring in track conference and state meets I saw no one from the school who made the trip to support the kids. Any nonrelated fan of a school sports team who travels to events and supports community kids and coaches does deserve a certificate.

CHALLENGE SYSTEM - There have to be criteria for starting in any sport. Speed and strength, skills and agility, athletic intelligence and ferocity, and if it is a contact sport, a head-to-head reckoning should all be part of a challenge system. Sometimes who starts or makes varsity is subjective, or worse, influenced by factors beyond observable talent.

I’m hearing rumblings this fall about how certain athletes don’t deserve to start, so why not a challenge in front of the entire team to settle the issue? Today’s athletes and their parents can’t handle a face-to-face, talent-for-talent showdown so the alternative is to just be quiet.

SNIPPETS - The Eagles at the Cowboys on Monday night and the line is Dallas by 7. The following Sunday, Philly will host the Steelers. It’s time to find out who is for real. Eagle fans should use their time wisely to get inside the heads of Dallas zealots like D.J. Hughes, John Lingo and Fred Best.