They don’t need some remote perspective draped over their accomplishments

Are you serious? - Jacqui Ritter was the honorary starter for last Friday’s Autism Awareness Day, with a one-lap walk and later a run I dubbed the Microwave Mile because of a three-wave start of slow, medium and fast runners. “Jacqui is just the best and everybody loves and appreciates her,” said endless summer teacher David Cerney as all those nearby shook their heads up and down in the affirmative.

Ritter is one of those impact employees who transformed a cafeteria job into a team mother and wellness center approach by treating everyone with respect through the gift of humor. I commented that she had a name with unusual spelling before that was cool and she said, “Oh no, I changed it. It was just too boring.”

The first race went off at 10:30 and the second started at noon clear across the pond. I told Jacqui, “You have to walk around to the other side.” Her response: “Are you serious?” was priceless because she was wearing a crown of balloons. Am I serious?

YOU’VE BEEN SERVED - A caller to the Gazette thought I could have served my readers better in last Tuesday’s edition by putting the times of Cape’s winning girls teams at the Penn Relays in the bigger context rather than celebrating their gold medal performances for winning their section races - the first of nine teams on the track in the 4x100 and the first of 15 in the 4x400.  

The fact that races were won with faster times later in the day does not diminish in any way what these athletes accomplished. I believe all celebrations of talent are dampened by reaching for too much perspective. Athletes and coaches know who they are and what they did and don’t need some remote perspective draped over their accomplishments.

MR. BEAN - Did I mention that I’m no longer in high school? Last Tuesday, somewhere in the text transmission field between the baseball and softball fields, I heard a rumor that Cape’s Mike Soyka would be the target of a brush-back pitch in the hardball game. And then he got plucked by a freshman pitcher with “control issues” and the rumor seemed substantiated, or is it just unwise to crowd the plate on a pitcher who sometimes can’t find it?

Whatever, I really don’t care, I went back to watch the final innings of a game where Cape scored nine runs and still lost by eight by a score of 17-9 as Sussex Tech’s Chad Sturgeon parked a Brent McDowell fastball over the left-field fence for a three-run homer in the top of the seventh. Cape’s Jared Boothman went yard stroking a two-run dinger in the bottom of the sixth. After the game everyone shook hands although the smart ones don their batting helmets.

KLITSCHKO AND KNARR - Wladimir Klitschko, the reigning heavyweight champion of the world, will fight David Haye this June 20 in Germany’s Veltins-Arena, a soccer venue that holds 60,000. Thirty thousand tickets were sold the first day they were offered.

Local physical therapist John Knarr will be leaving for Germany this Mother’s Day as JK is part of the champ’s training staff. The Knaar business that includes John and his wife, Amelia, is located in the Stein building off the Rehoboth Boardwalk. Amelia and the Steins will join John in Germany the week preceding the fight. Sounds like lobbying for a ticket, but I’ve seen enough heavyweight Germans at my family reunions.

RUN VENEZUELA - “Matilda, she take me money and run Venezuela.” The United States women’s wrestling team won the team freestyle Pan American games last April 24 and I know you’re saying: “So what does that have to do with local sports?”

Jenna Pavlik of Lewes – yes, there are eight Pavlik children, go write it down - was a member of that team and placed second in her weight class to win a silver medal at 72 kilograms, or 158 pounds if you can’t handle math or religious conversions. Everyone knows that Jenna wrestled for Cape, graduating in 2001, although many Henlopen grapplers have repressed that memory.  Anyway, Jenna is another Cape internationalist who has taken sport to the highest level. Just amazing, and did I mention she also has a master’s degree?

KILO GRAMPS - Poppy Fred, a big-bellied somebody from my childhood, I sometimes called Kilo Gramps which my German grandmother, Rose, thought was hilarious. Where have all the great nicknames gone?

I mentored Drew Ostrowki in journalism 25 years ago and I remember Drew calling some big-headed athlete Carrier Dome, which showed athletic cleverness, but I warned him that Carrier Dome’s mother may be Astro Dome and his daddy a helipad so better back it down. A generation later Shane Jenson, Cape football player and another good writer, answered to Dome when his Dome rang. Ring! Ring! “Hello. Dome home?”

“Just a minute - Dome, you home, pick up the phone?”

SNIPPETS - Flag – that’s right, flag football playoffs in Rehoboth will be this Sunday on the field out by the highway. A game not to miss - hear that quarterback Joey Cahill - is Lantz (Arena’s) vs. Natural Disaster at 2:30 p.m.; a matchup of Seaford Champs vs. YMCA Champs.

Some Cape athletes have chosen where they are going to school. They include Vincent Vazquez, Moravian; Josh Trout, Salisbury; and Derrick Fanto, Muhlenberg.