The best social groups are the ones thrown together around a table

I don’t mean to be negative, but it’s in my blood. I am universal donor guy so I am frequently called by the Blood Bank and always agree to come and most of the time I show up. Last Wednesday late afternoon at the senior center at Nassau I sat beyond my release time eating cookies and drinking Pepsi, playing crossword and arguing who knew more about how to talk Philly.

Two women told me a “Box Party” was a funeral; I told them they may be right but it was unlikely as I had never heard of the expression. The best social groups are the ones thrown together randomly around the table. We talked Athletics, Phillies, even Orioles and old stadiums and neighborhoods and all we had in common was a bond of blood.

CORONARY TIME BOMBS - The CNN website had a headline. “Obese Kids Are Coronary Time Bombs,” and my reaction was, “just shut up about fat kids already!” We’ve always had them since I was a child living across the street from a rather rotund rhombus everyone called “Mooney” because, with his close-cut crew cut, fair skin and blondish body hair, he quite frankly looked like the man in the moon.

We didn’t expect him to blow up, although I did consider that fat Aunt Rose may go New Jersey Hindenburg Blimp while straddling the inflated brontosaurus in the above-ground backyard pool on a 90-degree August day. All right, enough insensitivity from me. Just stop talking about childhood obesity unless you’re willing to charge the parents with a crime. Psychology, heath and lawn casting for grass shrimp should be interdisciplinary subjects taught in all schools and may I add by teachers who are marginally fit and well adjusted.

SUICIDE BY TRAIN - Stepping in front of an express train is a fast way to the afterlife. Definitely not a cry for help! The country of Germany was stunned after national team soccer goalie Robert Enke ended his life on purpose. His wife said he battled depression for years.

Lutheran Bishop Margot Kaessmann said from a national church service, “The death of this athlete shows that soccer is not everything in our life. Behind popularity and success there could be profound loneliness and desperation.”

Clinical depression is considered chemical not situational and, in fact, depression is seen as a motivator to change behavior which is why chronic use of feel-good drugs is bad. Athletes and celebrities are over-represented for percentages of those suffering from depression and saying, “you are handsome, famous and rich” doesn’t help, although for those of us who are none of those things it seems like it should.

FIELD HOCKEY FACTOIDS – The state tournament is 35 years old and Tower Hill has won 16 state titles in the last 28 years. The Hillers have also lost in the finals six times. Coach Robin Adair was on the 1982 Cape team that lost to Tower Hill 3-2 then later as head coach of Tower Hill lost in the 94-95-96 state finals. Robin finally prevailed in 1997 and has since won 10 state titles, but you won’t find her in any team photos because she is emphatic that it is not about her.

The most goals ever scored by a losing team in a state final is two. Amazingly, the most goals scored by a winning team is 3. Cape, coached by Carolyn Ivins, won the state title in 1979 with a 2-0 win over Laurel and the legendary coach Bonnie Bryan. Coach Ruth Skoglund’s 1995 team beat Tower Hill 3-2 in eight overtimes on a penalty shot from Shelly Sentman.

Cape lost in the state finals in 1978 2-1 to Concord, the same fall that the football team lost in the finals to St. Mark’s. Cape lost to Tower Hill in the 2000 final game and in 2004 to Caesar Rodney coached by Debbie Wyndett, whose daughter Kate is now an assistant at Tower Hill.

SIGN-UP SHEETS - The name of the game is recruitment in college and high school. I have run into more head coaches recently who view the sign-up sheet posted on a wall as the first sign of commitment and character. What is this, some middle-class values orientation?

If there is a kid you want, it may be a good idea to go talk to him or her and while you’re at it talk to every kid even if they don’t look the part because talent comes in all kinds of packages. I learned how to recruit at Cape from coach Tom Hickman.

Bill Collick, when he was wrestling coach, would tell you the same thing.  “I have a sign hanging in my home office - Just Say No To Everything - but when I’m called to speak at a banquet I always say yes, even though I don’t get paid, and most likely the person they really wanted said no.”

Winter sports practices begin Nov. 13, so if you didn’t sign up then you can’t go out unless you can dunk two-handed behind your head while wearing street shoes.

SNIPPETS - Bloomsburg goes for its fourth straight Division II NCAA field hockey championship this weekend.

The No. 20 Maryland Terrapin women’s soccer team (12-5-2, 4-4-2 ACC) earned the No. 4 seed in the North Carolina bracket and will serve as a host school for the first and second rounds of the 2009 NCAA Tournament. The Terps will take on Monmouth at 5 p.m., Friday, Nov. 13, at Ludwig Field. There are 64 teams in the total tournament.

Nick Kmetz, Colby College quarterback and former Indian River star, was awarded the Gold Helmet award by the Gridiron Club of Greater Boston last Wednesday.

Last Saturday Skipper’s Electric won the Sussex Family YMCA Fall Softball Co-Ed League championship. The Electric Company entered the day as the No. 3 seed, and beat the No. 2 (Rehoboth Ale House) 10-8 in the semis and the No. 1 (Dewey Beach Lions Club) 9-7 in the finals. Members of the Skipper Squad included Shawn Skipper, Justin Skipper, Shane Jensen (DOME), Melony Thompson, Michael Pfaffenhauser, Matthew Pfaffenhauser, Esau Medrano, Marcus Dukes, Daryl Trotman, Ian Moore, Brandon Kohler and Karl Kreppen.

Gramps is amped!