Seasoned sports fans can hang tough all day long

Hang tough - Parents, players, sportswriters and all connected cousins, uncles and aunts must have hanging endurance if they want to follow specific sports that take all day to play. I was on site for six hours of wrestling Feb. 17 and spent my time photographing and watching wrestling matches. Readers, relate. Can you do the same?  Are you down for a baseball doubleheader in March? How about all-day track or swim championships? A soccer play day or what used to be called a jamboree? I’m good with all that stuff. A sport where I can’t hang is fishing or hiding in a tree stand or duck blind. I’ve covered marathons for seven hours before going home to process 5,000 photos. Banquets can be tough. It’s not a sporting event, but hours of reflecting on a sporting event that happened months earlier.

Player personnel director - The Cape baseball team is coming off a 2023 season record of 16-6, in which they advanced to the state semifinals, where they lost to eventual state champion Delaware Military Academy. There were 18 players on the varsity roster, including five seniors. Brenn Scott, the returning starting catcher, just had meniscus surgery. That opens up six spots. Last year's pitching ace from Saint Mark’s, Brad Marks, is an in-house transfer to Cape. Open spots back to five. There were 16 players on the 2023 JV team that went 6-5-1. That team was split, eight sophomores and eight freshmen. Beacon had seven eighth-graders on last year's team, while Mariner had eight players in eighth grade. There’s an old cheerleader’s chant: “Ain't no competition like the real competition.” Last year, Cape had 63 tryouts for the baseball team; the year before, they had 68. Cape keeps no juniors on the JV team.   

Over the top - Last Sunday night in my everyday life, I flipped channels between the NBA all-star hype and the People's Choice Awards. The hype machine for both was in overdrive, so I settled on a more laid-back weekend summary of news and saw the story of gilded high-tops, gold-colored sneakers with a “T” on the side, for $399. Theguardian.com stated, “The shoes, shiny, gold high-tops with an American flag detail on the back, are being sold as Never Surrender High-Tops for $399 on a new website that also sells Trump-branded Victory47 cologne and perfume for $99 a bottle.” I wore high-top Chucks made by Converse back in my days when I was at Temple and Trump was at Penn. Donald rocking Chuck Taylor All-Stars? Trust me, never happened. He is a more wing-tipped Weejuns kind of guy. 

A relaxing weekend - Men's lacrosse: Delaware beat St. John’s 17-6. Hank D’Ambrogi (Cape) scored his first goal as a Blue Hen. Blue Hens attackman Mike Robinson, a grad student, has 14 goals in two games. Robinson is from Peterborough, Ontario. Flagler beat Florida Tech 14-13. Luke Burton (Cape) had a goal for Flagler. Joe Coveleski had three goals for Florida Tech. Baby Joe C has eight goals in three games. Women’s lacrosse: Virginia Tech beat Mercer 21-8. Ella Rishko (Cape) had five goals and an assist for the Hokies. Ella has six goals and three assists after three games. Rollins College beat Lincoln Memorial 21-4. Molly Mendes (Cape) had a goal for Rollins.

Snippets - So far in this 2023-24 school year, Cape has had four teams in the state finals, including field hockey, beat Smyrna; soccer, lost to Salesianum; football, lost to Salesianum; and most recently Cape wrestling, lost to Sussex Central. Andrew Schaen (Cape) is a freshman 141-pound wrestler on the Ursinus College Bears wrestling team. Schaen was in the Cape starting lineup on two state championship teams in 2021 and 2022. He had a recent win by decision versus McDaniel in a 22-20 Ursinus victory. Gabe Giampietro (Smyrna), now wrestling for Drexel, had a 10-1 major decision win versus Franklin & Marshall but the Dips prevailed 22-16. Justin Griffith (Sanford), wrestling for Drexel at 184, lost his match by major decision 12-2. The Cape girls’ basketball team upset Ursuline in the semifinals of the DIAA state tournament 63-55 back in 2011. The Vikings lost in the state title game 47-41 to Sanford. Cape’s only other state championship appearance was 38 years earlier in 1973, a 33-31 win over Mt. Pleasant. Polytech was the last downstate team to win the state title (2003) behind Tyresa Smith, who later played for the University of  Delaware and in the WNBA, drafted by the Phoenix Mercury. Smith shared the Delaware Sportswriters and Broadcasters Association award as Delaware’s Outstanding Athlete in 2007 with Carrie Lingo. Dover High will host the Henlopen Conference Basketball Championship Saturday, Feb. 24. The Dover girls play Woodbridge at 1 p.m., then the Dover boys play Seaford at 4 p.m. “Clear the gym!” Each game costs $8. Go on now, git!