Reading stadium signs and plaques and making connections

Centrowitz connections - Matt Centrowitz won an Olympic gold medal in the 1,500 meters at the 2016 Olympics in Rio. He is an alumnus of Broadneck High School in Maryland. Twenty-six years ago, he ran the JJ 5K in Rehoboth and placed second to Evan Mock in the U9 category. His dad Matt is a two-time Olympian. His mother is from Guyana. I have two great-great-nephews who are of Fred-Guyanan combinations living in State College, Pa. (I’m wrong. Susan, my wife and editor, discovered Ghana and Guyana are two different places. That’s what I get for buying her a globe for Christmas.) I wonder if visitors to Sesame Street by the Sea ever stop on the way into Legends Stadium and read the names and make connections.

“Deadpool” - It’s a 2016 American superhero film, but click the bookmark on my computer and my 2025 NCAA men's basketball bracket pops up. It should be kept inside the trash can icon stuck to the bottom. Writing this in real time on Monday morning, all I know is all four No. 1 seeds made the Final Four, and I picked them all. So let's see where that placed me. I’m in eighth place in a pool of 35 people. Thad McIllvaine is the leader. Notably, Daisy Hughes, a Mariner eighth-grader, is in third. Thad picked Duke to win it all, while Daisy picked Houston.  

Too cool for school - Back in 1964, my saintly mother was able to attend a basketball game. It was her first time seeing me play, and I was a senior. Did I leave the lay-up line to go give her a hug? The thought never crossed my mind. On March 28, I brought my camera to DE Turf to watch the Milford boys play Sussex Tech. My grandson Will is a sophomore on the Milford team. He left warmups to come and give me a hug. Will is not too cool for school. I felt guilty and not deserving on both ends of the story. The game was great. Milford won 12-9, and I got a lot of great photos to share with families of both teams as a sort of cyber group hug. 

Duke derangement - What is it about Duke basketball that sends a percentage of moderate fans off the cliff? The Blue Devils have had more than 60 first-round picks since Dick Groat was chosen No. 3 overall in 1952. Is it Christian Laettner 1992, Grant Hill 1994, JJ Recick 2006, or Kyrie Irving 2011? Now in 2025, it's Cooper Flagg all day long. Maybe it's all the championships or the Cameron Indoor Arena and the Cameron Crazies, and students camped outside for tickets in an area known as Krzyzewskiville. I don’t know what games are played in the admissions office at Duke. I don’t know how many basketball players go to class and earn Duke degrees. But the players they recruit always seem to belong in a Blue Devil uniform. Duke’s acceptance rate is 5%, and it costs about $70,000 per year to go there. 

Snippets - Mason Fluharty (Cape, Liberty University) got the call March 29. The next day, late in the game, he was warming up in the bullpen for the Toronto Blue Jays. Sunday was also his father Lynn's birthday. Mason goes all the way back to the Bagel Bombers. Zack Gelof (Oakland A’s) begins the season on the injured list with a fracture of the hamate bone in the right wrist after getting hit by a pitch. There is no specific timeline for Zack’s return. Patrick Donahue, 220 pounds, lost 4-2 in the finals of the NHSCA tournament held last weekend in Virginia Beach, giving up a takedown in the final 22 seconds. “Rick” will wrestle for VMI next season. Saint Leo’s men's lacrosse beat Lynn University last weekend 12-8 to go 8-2 on the season. Mike Gunther (Cape) had a goal and an assist for St Leo’s. It was Mike’s first collegiate goal. Teammate and fellow freshman Anderson Smith (Cape) has four goals on the season. Mike Frederick (Cape) had four goals and two assists as Mercer University beat visiting Queens University of North Carolina 12-11. Junior Hank D’Ambrogi (Cape, Fairfield) had two goals and two assists as Delaware lacrosse lost to Hofstra 17-10. Joe Coveleski (Cape) has 15 goals and six assists on the season for Florida Tech. Luke Burton (Cape) has 15 goals and six assists for the 10-1 Flagler College Saints. It’s notable that all these Cape laxers were attackers and shared the lacrosse field together a couple of seasons. April showers are arriving. The downside of turf fields and all-weather tracks is that they are always playable, which translates into contested competitions under miserable conditions. Go on now, git!