It seems to me like riff-raff is driving the policy

Sussex Tech has a “side out” policy at home football games. If you want to visit the other side of the field you have to leave the stadium and pay again to get to the far side. Certain Cape kids were disappointed they didn’t get to freely commingle with their Ravens buddies and weren’t willing to pay for the privilege.

I can see the sense of this setup, but it does seem like riff-raff is driving the policy and, trust me, riff-raff does come out at night but “they” don’t like day games.

BROUGHT A TEAR TO MY EYE - I was doing a little online research on Upper Dublin High School, Cape’s field hockey opponent last Saturday, and discovered that former Olympic runner Kim Gallagher was a 1982 Upper Dublin graduate. Gallagher was on the 1984 and 1988 Olympic teams. She died in 2002 at the age of 38 after a battle with stomach cancer.

Gallagher won 12 PIAA championships and two Championship of America races at the Penn Relays. She is a Philadelphia legend of track and field. She won a silver medal in the 800 meters in 1:58. She is the former national high school record holder in the 800 meters at 2:00.7

HEY THERE’S SUZY KOLBER - Sideline football reporter and ESPN2 anchor Suzy Kolber is also a 1982 Upper Dublin graduate. A few years back I got my brother a credential to a Ravens game and afterwards in the media interview room he kept saying “There’s Suzy Kolber.”

I never saw him like that before; it reminded me of Joe Namath back in 2003 who was drunk on the sideline of a game and told Suzy on national television, “I could care less if the team is struggling; I just want to kiss you.”

Hey, Joe! Rule No. 1 is “at least try to fool somebody.”

SOUTH CENTRAL - The Sussex Central field hockey team is 0-6-1 on the season having been outscored 30-1 and I have to ask myself, “What in the name of coach Debbie Wyndett is going on?”

It seems like yesterday - when you’ve passed a lot of days they all seem like yesterday - that Cape and Central were always battling for the Henlopen Conference Northern Division. I view this as “no fault” athletics - no need to place blame, but you have to wonder what the heck happened?

The Indian River field hockey team is 1-6-1 having been outscored 25-5. I don’t know any of the athletes on Indian River but my expectation is that most are not playing a lot of field hockey in the off season.

WHOSE KID IS IT ANYWAY? - Anthony Joseph of WGMD asked me at halftime of the Cape at Sussex Tech game if I could imagine how good Milford football would be if Desmond Sivels, who lives in that district, went to school there. I went off on my riff that once a kid matriculates and wears the uniform of a school he becomes their kid and that all Ravens were Ravens - something I learned in my master’s program.

School choice – better known as sports choice - has slowed because of the sit out a year rule if the transfer occurs after ninth grade. What about the top teams in the state in football, Salesianum, and field hockey, Tower Hill? Whose kids are on their rosters? Some suggest a smattering of southeast Pennsylvania all-stars but I honestly don’t know or care all that much. It’s a bit of a rigged game - just like life - all people are created equal until their parents pick them up from the hospital. So play the hand you are dealt.

MANDATORY ATTENDENCE - I always thought my free will superceded any ironclad rule that I be a mandatory member of an audience. Some athletes feel the same way about practice - just ask Alan Iverson. High school coaches go all the way freaky if a stellar athlete misses a practice and offers an excuse like “surf was up” saying “once the froth gets in my nostrils” I lose all track of my mandatory appearance schedule.

Cape was a beach school back in the day before the rat race to the north caught up with the laid-back culture to the south. Now if a kid skips school he needs a note from the pope or a probation officer to get back into the mainstream of matriculation. Attendance policies are often enacted to dog people who are smart enough to only show up at venues they deem worthy. There are always people who can skip classes and still get As so the system is built in part to trap those individuals.

A few years ago Cape running back Mitch Whitman missed the entire preseason of practice but by game two he was cleared and snapped for 175 yards and a pair of touchdowns and nobody caught that white boy from behind or stood in front of him he was just that “freaky great player” who snapped on game night.

SNIPPETS - The Beacon football team (3-0) plays at undefeated Phillis Wheatley (3-0) (Bridegville-Woodbridge) Thursday, Oct. 8. Phillis Wheatley (1753-84), who came to America aboard the slave ship Phillis, was America’s first black poet. Her poetry is awesome and a big part of American history and I hope every Beacon player will be read one of her poems before they get on the bus to Bridgeville.

“Hey diddle, diddle let’s run up the middle.”