He was simply the best, better than all the rest

Last Sunday at Cape Henlopen High School was the 15th running of the Bill Degnan 5K. Bill was the beloved teacher and track coach at Woodbridge and Cape, an eternally ripped and fit athlete who was taken out of the game early at age 43 by a virus that attacked the lining of his heart. Acute pericarditis dropped Bill in his prime and ripped the heart out of family and friends and we will never get over it. Words are cheap, so I defer to the poetic songstress Tina Turner, “Bill was simply the best, better than all the rest.” I’d sometimes bust on him, “Hey, a minute ago we were two guys talking, then some weak, never score a point in a track meet unless you sneak in a nerf shot put athlete walks up and I’m invisible. What happened to my quasi-interesting, half-finished story?” Bill was just a “kid first” person; he couldn’t help himself. Any day since Bill passed that I briefly lost my mind and thought anything about this journey was primarily about me I’d think of Bill and how I got extra time; he didn’t and how he’d love to be surrounded by young student athletes doing whatever he could to help them negotiate the storm and stresses of their young lives.

Paul Ecker, 21, a Cape graduate and distance runner at DeSales University in Allentown, Pa., took the Degnan race from start to finish in a time of 17:01. I know Paul and know that he lost his father at a young age, know he played the hot corner for Cape baseball, pole vaulted and ran middle distance often tripling in meets while also vaulting. Ecker is Degnan’s kind of athlete because he has overcome head-high fast balls and curves in his life and emerged as an athlete and great kid who sees others first just like coach Bill Degnan.

World stage - The United States soccer team went exit stage left - the direction back home - after losing to Ghana last Saturday 2-1 in extra time, which means for 120 minutes of a free-flowing game played by great athletes, the best the Americans could manage was a penalty shot goal. So don’t cry now; the time to start crying and trying is when the whistle blows the first time. Urgency starts at the beginning; push everyone up, and let the goalie worry about his own victimization and living a long adultlife as a scapegoat loser. Seriously, I believe any team in the final 16 has a chance to play through; these games turn suddenly and strangely, the referees being the only people out of billions on the planet who miss goals or take them away. I think the interest in soccer across this country last Saturday was in large part pent-up patriotism and an excuse to drink and yell in the middle of the day. In that sense it was very much like American football.

Nicely done! - Soccer is a great game to play but a long game to watch, which is why fans of the international game get costumed up, dance back and forth, blow on vuvuzelas for 90 minutes and make disparaging ethnic and racial remarks. Remember that games are played by countries that have bombed each other or been colonized by the other and it’s just plain weird. I’d like to see a high school game with bands, vuvuzelas, cowbells, kazoos and costumes, and if anything is banned it should be genteel people who clap and say “Nicely done! We’re winning most of the 50/50 balls.” Snap! Crackle! Pop! I know Cape has crazy good people and that’s the way to play to win, good and slightly crazy. Now I’m nicely done!

Snippets - Turf field two is prepped and ready to be rolled. Bleachers! Bleachers! Stop by Cape this week and see Carrie Lingo’s field hockey camp, just remember not to hang around too long. A parent described field hockey to me as “lacrosse with rednecks thrown in.” Sounded funny, not sure what it means, perhaps some of you do? Mark Codi, general manager of Baywood Greens, presented Mike and Mikey DeStasio with lifetime memberships. Mark is a straight-up great guy; he just can’t help himself and the entire crew at Baywood showed me something but not arranging a photo opportunity; they just want to help. Read the book “Caddie for Life” by John Feinstein and it will change your life for the better. Mike DeStasio is staring down ALS every day. Contributions to the family can be made out to Iron Mike DeStasio 50/500 ALS Club at any County Bank or find me anyplace where games are played.