The absurdities and inequities are beginning to rile me

SHAM I AM - The Bay Ball Classic basketball tournament of 2007, in which Cape signed on as a cosponsor without a check in hand, was then hastily sanctioned by DIAA it seems because neither Cape nor DIAA wanted to be associated with the bad publicity of killing a tournament.

The financial report from the 2006 tournament looked like it came from a workbook in Record Keeping 1, which hasn’t been taught at Cape since the Apple Two computer ran with five-inch floppy discs.

The financial profile of the 2007 tournament could not support the basic economic concepts of equity and solvency and a reasonable plan to pay for services and materials provided.

This comes on the heels of going to extreme and convoluted lengths to declare a Cape player ineligible for two years of games past played because his legal guardian was legal in all facets of the definition except as it applied to a specific DIAA rule. I know I should let this go, but the absurdities of the inequities are beginning to rile me. I am hearing of parents end-running rules and actually paying for two residences so their athlete can be part of a program in another district that doesn’t accept school choice students.

If you are going to be lax down on certain rules then don’t follow with a crackdown on others.

OFF THE RECORD - Let’s say a coach tells me something off the record then I walk outside the game field fence and six fans tell me the same thing and they have no record to be off because they’re fans. My basic rule is off the record is off the record, but if I hear it three other places then it is public.

Randy Johnson, the new softball coach at Caravel, was not at the game Saturday and being as I coached him in track and football when he was in high school, I knew Randy did not take a preplanned vacation to North Carolina as Albert Davis - who I also coached - tried to convince me using a Slaughter Neck excuse going back three generations.

So it seems some sort of game suspension of the coach was in play which put Randy out of play in case anyone besides me was looking for him last Saturday.

SUSPEND ME TOO - Seven football guys from two different schools threw footballs and ran patterns on a Monday night in July back in 1987 and the result was that head coach Rob Schroeder suffered a season-long suspension in 1989.

I later warned members of the Coaches Association, “You know that coach Schroeder is the most honest of all of us so if they can suspend him the rest of you should just quit right now.”

Then I went to the principal of that time, Ron Mead, and asked, ”How come I can’t get suspended? I was an assistant on that team and I was out there and so was my quarterback son. Suspend me and declare him ineligible.”

I was serious but my plea to be declared “persona non grata” was ignored. Now the rules are more lax but so totally confusing they may as well just drop them all.

COACH BAIRD - Coach Ralph Baird is being inducted into the Delaware Basketball Hall of Fame on Tuesday, April 1, at the Coaches Association banquet at Dover Downs. Baird came to Cape in 1972 and coached the Vikings to seven Northern Division titles and two state championships and two runners-up trophies. He also coached P.S. du Pont to a final game appearance and was a two-time all-state player for P.S. du Pont and later starred at American University.

Others in the induction class are Monick Foote, Sanford and Virginia; Bud Townsend, Lord Baltimore and Wesley and 35 years as an official; Jack Baly, former UD captain and longtime official; and Sherman Dillard of De La Warr and Tulsa.

Tickets are available for $25 from Bob Lennon at 302-765-1222. Cape’s 1975 state championship team is considered by many to be the best team in the history of Delaware - that’s right, the university too.

OUTKAST - Sunday flag football it was Outkast of Millsboro getting their G Funk on over Under Armour, the artists formerly known as Nage. What impressed me was that two teams of young men were all flagged up and ready to play at 9:30 a.m. Sunday instead of being caved up somewhere sleeping off Saturday night. These guys all looked fit and focused and these athletes can play the game.

Ryan Limbers of Under Armour is just graduating from Brandywine and will attend Delaware State in the fall as a preferred walk-on, which means he can play his way into a scholarship. Limbers had hamstring problems throughout last season and only played in three games rushing for 200 yards each game and scoring six touchdowns.

Cordae Showell is a Sussex Central graduate, just 21 years old, who played some football and basketball for the Golden Knights. Cordae was making big plays all over the field as was Kevin Maull who returned an interception for a touchdown only to see it called back by the old unnecessary block in the back of Rob Hope, who was dejected then ejected for pointing out the infraction to the official in flowery language unacceptable on a Sunday morning when most alert people are in church or pancake houses.

SNIPPETS - Ryan Reed and Scott Shockley of Cape continue to be in the Delaware baseball lineup. Scott was recently 3-for-3 in a Saturday 6-3 loss to the Tribe of William and Mary, while Ryan had a two-run double in a Sunday 9-4 loss to the same team. The Blue Hens had won three in a row going into the weekend.

Fairfield University freshman Kristina Lingo is leading the Stags in hitting through 21 games with a batting average of .373. Fairfield has doubleheaders scheduled April 2 through 6 with Yale, Sienna and Marist which means one thing to Kenny Lingo. Road trip!

Hey Dad, bring me back a double X Yale T-shirt and I’ll tell more lies than Hillary Clinton. Forget Sienna, I’ll get a shirt from the Toyota dealer.

Hudson Fields last Saturday morning, lacrosse games of all ages, boys and girls all over the place, versus club teams from Kent County, Md.

Hudson Fields is still a happening place - where else can you watch that many games at one time?