Young guns in fighting chairs for state wrestling finals

Smart coaches - Most wrestling coaches rock shirts and ties, perhaps a sports jacket, maybe even a suit for state finals matches. It’s a time-worn tradition like wide-wale corduroy pants. Cape coach Chris Mattioni, a 30-year vet, put Holden Kammerer and Aaron Mattioni in the fighting chairs of the coaching corner for Patrick Donahue's championship match. That is unselfish and also smart. Holden and Aaron work closely “rolling with Rick around the room” every day at practice. Plus, if the 215-pounder jumps into their arms in celebration mode, they have a better chance of catching him. Scooby Pup Mattioni is still having flashbacks from catching Thomas Ott three years in a row.

Perplexing - I’ve had sports people from private schools tell me off the record that they don't play Salesianum because they don’t like the way Sallies does things, which I guess means getting boatloads of quality athletes across the spectrum of sports. Last week, Cape’s boys’ and girls’ basketball teams were eliminated by the Sanford Warriors, a private school in Hockessin that most in Sussex County can’t spell or pronounce, and even with talking GPS, you may get lost and find yourself at the Ferris School. Sanford and other private schools with solid reputations recruit themselves. Parents with awareness who have well-rounded academic/athletics children are walking through the front door and finding out, “What is this advertised $33,000 tuition?” 

Metabolic and Montezuma - I worked for two days at the state wrestling tournament. Plenty of food, all of it free for me, and yet I mostly just drink water. It’s the same if I speak at a banquet. I go in lean and come out hungry. Eating large caches of food makes me want to nap and purr like a calico. I was offered a scrapple sandwich for breakfast, but for a big German guy, that is just asking for trouble. Scrapple is an ethnic food associated with Pennsylvania Dutch, which has German origins.    

Floating the mat - I honestly didn’t know wrestling mats were floated into position and not dragged. At wrestling states, I watched a bunch of young people and a few coaches lift the edges of the mat to allow air to get underneath, and then it was a magical carpet ride to the center of the gym. It’s amazing that in 50 years of watching high school wrestling, no one ever asked me to help them float a mat. What other things are floating at sports venues?   

Snippets - State wrestling championships won by Nick Walker and Patrick Donahue bring the Cape total to 28 champions. Coach Chris Mattioni has coached 19 of those, while 16 titles have been won in the Cape gym. Wrestlers who have won multiple titles are Tyrone Gibbs, Jon Lobiondo, Anthony Caruso, Cory Lawson and Luke Bender each with two, and Thomas Ott with three. Cape football, with the hiring of Chip Knapp to replace Mike Frederick, makes 17 football coaches since 1969, when Frank Coveleski was the newly named head coach. Following Frank were Bill Muehleisen, Jim Alderman, Rob Schroeder, Bob Andrus, Rob Schroeder, Jim Leyh, George Glenn, Brian Donahue, Bill Geppert, Sean Brennan, Dave McDowell, Tom Ott, Bill Collick, JD Maull, Mike Frederick and Chip Knapp. Two of the coaches won state championships with other schools – Bill Muehleisen with Christiana and George Glenn with Salesianum. Jim Alderman was the only Cape coach to win a championship in 1979, while Schroeder in 1984 and Frederick in 2023 reached the state championship game. Each of Cape’s three middle schools offers seven spring sports, including baseball, softball, girls’ soccer, boys’ lacrosse, girls’ lacrosse, boys’ track and girls’ track. There are a total of 41 coaches listed on the website. Keystone College baseball beat Wooster 12-11 last weekend on a walk-off home run from Hunter Rauch (Cape). Chase Boyle (Sussex Central) had two hits and a run scored for Keystone. Rauch had four hits and five RBIs. Keystone was 34-13 last season. Keystone College is located in Lackawanna County in northeastern Pennsylvania. “It’s cold as ice. Are you willing to sacrifice?” - Foreigner. Spring sports at Cape is a 270-degree parabola; certainty it's going to be cold, and if not, plan on some microscopic critters making your sports-spectating life miserable. Spray Skin So Soft on your legs that you expect to be licked by a lab. Enjoy the games, but don’t go to practice. Go on now, git!