The relaxation of rules should benefit athletes by giving more flexibility

The rules of engagement have been relaxed for coach contacts with athletes in the summer and it’s not all good because there is a downside. I’m not a rule kind of guy, more of a protect individual rights person, which can put the individual smack dab in the middle of establishment rules which are murky and always changing like smoke on the water. The relaxation of rules is supposed to benefit athletes and give them more flexibility and choices in the summer to pursue sports they are passionate about. The problem arises when two- or three-sport athletes elect to pursue passion No. 1 if placed in a forced choice situation - you can’t be two places at once - and risk losing position and coaches’ favor in the other sports. There are athletes of summer right now feeling the heat getting the word that if they expect to play certain sports they had better start showing up at the elective open activities that by rule they don’t have to show up for. Are you confused? All travel team stuff aside, the No. 1 predictor of athletic performance is DNA; there are athletes who can rock your world on game day so keep nagging and alienating and making these gamers feel guilty over nothing and you have a chance of chasing them to a sport that is actually enjoyable. Have fun out there!

WHAT’S MY NAME? - “You don’t have to call me darling, darling, but you never even call me by my name.” - Steve Goodman.

Sitting at my sports desk with 100-pound Darby Dog across my insteps I ignore most emails sent to multiple media sources and I ignore correspondences from the “What have you done for me lately” contingent who can’t bring themselves to even write my name, and we all know what that means. It means you are a no-count person whose job it is to facilitate the interests of others. The flip side is wonderful people like Manager Ukie Johnson of the Cape Junior League All-Stars who sends me information on his team and invites me to his games then thanks me on behalf of his players for actually showing up and doing my job.I’m telling you, folks, it’s crazy good and crazy bad out there on the sports beat and if forced to make a choice, I’m choosing a place where I am addressed by my name and get personal attention.

DRUDGE REPORT - How many times in your life have you been talked into doing something you didn’t want to do or talked out of doing something you really wanted to do? I’m talking sports, from participation as an athlete to making a coaching commitment when you would rather go fishing. It is really hard to fly in the face of not doing what others think you should do.

An athlete or coach makes a well-thought-out decision not to continue doing something they are good at and everyone asks them, “Why are you quitting?” We all know quitters never win, except surfers whose sole mission in life is to catch a tube. Surfers never quit but they sometimes bail.

STATE PEN - “We are...State Pen!” Would you hire a person as a drug and alcohol counselor who earned a college degree in prison having served time for possession and distribution? Right, only if he gets certified. A press release from Dover Downs reads, “Amir ‘Hardcore’ Mansour has not officially raised a gloved fist in the ring since he disappeared from the bout sheets in 2001 – with a perfect 9-0 record. “Nobody can match my speed, my size,” said Mansour. “No one is faster, stronger, hits harder than me.” Two months after his last fight in June 2001, Mansour was incarcerated on a drug possession charge, where he will remain until officially released from his sentence at 6 a.m., Friday, Aug. 27.

Mansour will be part of the fight card that night at the Rollins Center at Dover Downs. “God is on my side.” Mansour, raised in Penns Grove, N.J, will reside with his family in Newark, Del., following his release from a halfway house on Aug. 27. God has some straight-up cool friends.

SNIPPETS - A one-man cover band was entertaining a sparse crowd on the upper deck of the Lewes Yacht Club last Sunday and sang a Johnny Cash song. I met Johnny Cash at the same club before it went mansion. He was friends with John Rollins of Lewes. Rollins is in the Delaware Sports Hall of Fame - I am not - for his efforts in bringing NASCAR to Dover Downs twice a year. When I reached my hand out to Cash I said, “It’s an honor. They call me Fredman.” And he said, ”Pleased to meet you, Fredman, I’m Johnny Cash.”