Judson Wall is a top-notch student/athlete at Beacon Middle
JUDSON WALL - Judson was an Athlete of the Week in the Dec. 28 edition of the paper for his wrestling pin at 130 pounds as Beacon Middle School shocked Sussex Central Middle School, which doesn’t happen often. Judson was also the starting catcher last summer on the Lewes Little League All-Star baseball team.
My son, Dave, is the vice principal at Beacon and when I mentioned Judson’s name he got enthusiastic. “What a great kid! I talk to him every day. He is perfect for an Athlete of the Week.”
I know everyone in Judson’s family from his parents and grandparents to all aunts and uncles once to three times removed. I was surprised to learn 10 days after Judson’s being honored in the Athletes of the Week feature - by the way there’s been 3,200 of them since I started doing it 15 years ago - that I had insulted Judson’s academic accomplishments. And I learned it from Wendy, his mother, who was not outraged, just confused, which happens to a lot of my readers.
I had received text from head coach Patrick Irelan, an East Carolina photojournalism graduate with a minor in water park maintenance whom I mentored when he was in high school. The first sentence read “Judson is a second-year, seventh grader.”
I knew Patrick meant “a second-year wrestler in the seventh grade, so I simply clarified - athletics not academics - it was my little joke on Patrick whom I’m willing to make fun of all day long because he is a grown man but not very tall.
A confused editor didn’t understand my joke and changed the sentence to make grammatical sense, but also dramatically buried the joke and changed the meaning, I guess, willing to believe that Fredman would insult a seventh-grader who was nothing short of the greatest kid on the planet.
I occasionally throw a dagger at the skull of an adult if I feel it is justified. I absolutely never do anything but pump positive prose in the direction of young athletes. Judson Wall is a top-notch student/athlete, which is more than I can say for myself at any age. I thank his family who remain my friends, I think, because they know I am slightly senile, even though I didn’t do it!
FACEBOOK - ‘Face” used to be a basketball playground expression, as in after raining down a long-range jumper with a lopsided Super K rubber ball that found the bottom of the chain link net. You would simply say “face” and ask the defender if he wanted Noxzema to quiet down his third- degree facial burns, or perhaps a pair of flame retardant sunglasses, or perhaps he was a retardant himself. Now Facebook is all the stuff on the internet and I am out there but don’t know how to get back.
“Chatting it up” online is great for sports fans, and I have recently put together an interactive fitness group of which I’m the least fit. I raise questions of diet and training and goal setting and the virtues of shutting up about all that stuff.
REJECTED THEN ACCEPTED - How is a great athlete publicly rejected many times for inclusion into a Hall of Fame supposed to feel when after seven or eight years he finally makes it in? And how is he supposed to feel if he doesn’t? No one can be a great athlete without some inner confidence approaching arrogance.
Goose Gossage, fireballing relief pitcher, finally made the cut, but I’m disappointed this arrogant maniac is acting like someone just made him bishop.
And I’m really disappointed that Andre “The Hawk” Dawson, a classy guy and great player, was passed over again, which is just way wrong. Dawson was an eight-time all-star with eight gold gloves, one of six players to hit 300 home runs and steal 300 bases. Dawson hit 438 career homeruns and was MVP in the National League for the last-place Cubs in 1987. Dawson was often described as having clubhouse charisma and being the ultimate class act.
How does any sportswriter vote no on Andre Dawson?
BACKWARDS GLANCE - I am listing some All-State basketball players of local interest and the year they were honored in my never-ending quest to keep the legends alive.
I do not say “former All-State” because once honored it’s a forever thing. Carlton Bailey, Lewes, 1952; James Shinn, Rehoboth, 1955; Bud Townsend, Lord Baltimore, 1957; Ben Sirman, Laurel, 1958; Len Maull and John Morris, Lewes, 1959-60; Costen Shockley, Sussex Central, 1959-60; Charles Maull, Lewes, 1960; Ralph Baird, P.S. du Pont, 1961; Wayne Mitchell, Rehoboth, 1963; Vic Orth, P.S. du Pont, 1964; Bill Cordrey, Milton, 1965-66; Harry Thayer, Milford, 1969; Andy Raymond, Rehoboth, 1969; Jimmy Allen, Cape, 1974-75; Purnell Ayers, Cape, 1975-76; John Bishop, Cape 1976; Wes Townsend, Indian River, 1977-78; Edgar Maull, Cape, 1979; Bruce Barrett, Cape, 1979; James Frazier, Cape, 1980; Eric Gooch, Cape, 1981; Matt Spence, Indian River, 1981; William Jones, Cape, 1982; Tracy Jones, Cape, 1983, Deroin Pritchett, Sussex Central, 1983-84; Lamont Hazzard, Cape, 1996; Terry Hazzard, Cape, 1997; and Brian Polk, Sussex Tech, 1999.
I’ll be back next week for the new millennium All-Staters.
SNIPPETS - Dom Thomas, Max Coveleski and Isaiah Brisco have all been selected to play for the Gold squad for this June’s Blue-Gold High School All-Star football game. Maybe Cape and its new field turf self can get the midweek, intersquad Gold scrimmage. Zac Wood is at the top of the list of alternates and has a good chance of making the team and, anyway, he belongs there.
Cape football will stay with the spread offense for next season, according to head coach Dave McDowell. “There is no reason to change. We feel with the athletes we have the spread gives us the best chance of winning,” McDowell said.
There is a breakfast this Saturday morning, Jan. 12, 8-10 a.m. at Applebee’s Restaurant for a mere $5 to benefit the Cape football team.
Thirty-four years ago I was a head football coach at a private school and wore a tie on game night. I found a picture and I’m courageous enough to scan it for inclusion into this column although I know it will only bring me grief as in, “What happened to you?”
The answer: “The same thing that happens to us all.”
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Sports Editor Emeritus
Email Fredman at fredman@capegazette.com
