We can take your job anytime we want for whatever reason

“Dave, It’s Friday afternoon in the nation’s capital and as always I read the Gazette on line after my work is done and on your tax dollar. Just read your column and, wow, did the section on “Bring them back home” strike a chord. I have run across more Henlopen Conference track & field athletes as well as cross country runners in the AOR then I can count. And every time I did, I would get addressed as coach Pollock more than by my rank.  Every one of those kids talked about home, school and their teachers.  The knucklehead who was driving you nuts not two years before is now standing post in Iraq and Afghanistan and what they are doing is unbelievable.  I met up with a young army troop on the Iraq/Kuwait border one night at a checkpoint. The young man was from Seaford High School.  I handed him my ID card and the first words out of his mouth were “coach Pollock.” I don’t remember who this kid was but he sure knew me.  At 3 a.m. in the morning in pitch black I shared a cup of coffee with him and we talked about home and his coaches, Rob Perciful and Vince Morris. I know it was Seaford, but that kid represented everything I loved about Cape Henlopen and the Sussex County school systems.  I wish educators could see the outcome of their efforts and how grateful these kids are more often.  Even though I am not in education anymore, I am proud of the work I did when I was.” 

JUST CAUSE - “How come I’m getting fired from my coaching position - just thought I’d ask?”

“Why do you want to know?”

“Just because?”

“Well there is no ‘just cause’ or just because for coaches and no due process. What is known as the supplemental contract only stipulates how much money you are paid, but don’t confuse that with actual job protections. We can take your job anytime we want for whatever reason, and the fun part is we don’t have to give you an explanation. The explanation we like other than ‘you can go away now’ is ‘we decided to go in a different direction.’

Now please, be careful working your team out in this summer heat because if someone goes heat stroke ain’t no joke - you will be the first one to be sued.”

SOME LIKE IT HOT – Thirty-three years ago I went for a five-mile run over steep and hilly Pennsylvania roads at high noon in 100-degree heat, finishing on the driveway of the Haverford State Mental Hospital.

A patient with a time and place disorder and out of body issues had escaped the day room, which meant daytime television, and who in their right mind wouldn’t escape? He looked at me and said, “You haven’t changed much,” an odd greeting from a person you have never met, and followed that with “and they call me crazy.”

Workout people are by nature nuts and don’t observe precautions; they only hydrate to show off. You know the best workouts are when you see spots and your muscles begin to quiver while your body shivers. Sunday I walked two miles on a blacktop trail using a black cane and fighting off black flies. How tough am I?

LISTEN TO THE MUSIC - Many of you know that a beautiful young girl and first-year math teacher jogging through a Philadelphia park was killed two weeks ago when a tree branch broke off and fell on her head from 50 feet above.

She was listening to her iPod, which was still playing when they found her. Big branches snap loudly when they break and make noise hitting other stuff on the way down. You have a chance at evasive action if you can hear but no chance if you can’t.

Last Sunday I saw a rollerblading girl powering along Cape Henlopen Drive toward the state park.

She was stroking to the east and west caught up in her music and I thought “pretty and fit rocking in rhythm and moving in time and incredibly stupid.”

SNIPPETS - Practice for fall sports begins Saturday, Aug. 15.

Bobby Bowden was just asked how his Florida State team is going be to this year.

Bowden replied, “I really don’t know; ask me after game four and I may have a pretty good idea.”

Cape football will scrimmage Seaford at home at 11 a.m., Saturday, Aug. 22.

Respect the late August and September ocean, which gets heavier and waves get bigger and rips stronger. And remember your fat aunt is not a flotation device.