Patrick Donahue pins way to War on Shore title

Pins and tech falls - Wrestlers from 43 teams competed in 14 weight classes across eight mats over two days during the War on the Shore Tournament at the Ocean City Civic Center. The event was hosted by Stephen Decatur High School. Cape’s Patrick Donahue (215) was the only weight-class champion from Delaware, as he collected five pins before winning by tech fall (17-1) in the finals against undefeated Nate McDaniel. “Patrick is wrestling at the next level right now,” said Cape coach Chris Mattioni. Archbishop Spalding of Maryland won the team championship with 225.5 points. Sussex Central was the top Delaware placer, finishing sixth with 145 points. Cape followed in seventh with 134.5 points and and Caesar Rodney finished 12th with 111.5. Cape will wrestle at Sussex Central Wednesday, Jan. 8, weather and weights permitting. 

Fit as a female - The overall winner in a 5K race is usually male, but that is not a 100% certainty, or, as the late Richie Ashburn would say, “a lead-pipe cinch.” The first female in a race gets to also run through the finish-line banner because that is the protocol. Masters and grandmasters are not afforded that honor because otherwise it would be like a Food Lion MVP card; everyone can’t get special treatment. The banner brigade has to get ready for “first female,” which means picking her out of a crowd of fit-and-fast runners escaping the peloton. Some long-haired, lean young male may look like a female from 50 meters away, which creates some awkward moments at the finish, as is the case with all miss identifications: “Miss, would you like a senior citizen discount on your dozen doughnuts?” “That would be great, but I’m only 35.” I could prattle on, but you get the point. 

Attention deficit - The new “paying rapt attention” is 20 seconds long, and that goes for the non-medicated adults, many of whom talk too much themselves. The sports reporter camera guy hears lots of short stories that bleed into other stories and that’s good; active listening is an opportunity for learning. Just hold back your own stories, because ain't nobody tryin’ to hear them.

Avatars - Hold all Sigourney Weaver jokes and Charlie Weaver jokes as well. This ain’t “Hollywood Squares.” The best way to watch a wrestling tournament is on trackwrestling.com, following little red and green avatars. The War of the Shore tournament at the Ocean City Civic Center had 12 mats going Friday, then knocked back to eight Saturday. You can follow championship and consolation brackets along with team scores. The only downside is that sometimes the inputting person takes a hot dog break and hands the controls to a color-blind person, which prompts a 360 spin in your office swivel chair while exclaiming, “What the heck is going on?”  

Wintertime outdoor lacrosse - College lacrosse practice begins in January while actual games start in early February. Mikey Frederick (Cape), now a junior at Mercer University in Macon, Ga., has four games in February and eight games to be played by the end of March. The Cape boys’ lacrosse team’s first game is March 25. Cape has at least 10 recent players currently playing college lacrosse. I will track them this spring, as well as other local athletes playing a sport in college.

Get off the phones - The final minutes of a game are still up for grabs (pick your sport), so how impactful is a good coach, perhaps the better coach, toward a positive outcome? Or have the athletes become so crazy good yet undisciplined? Like jazz musicians, they can go off on riffs for reasons not known by anyone, especially them. The final minute's biggest coaching decision may be who do you want on the bench, who is the wild card on your own team, who can go spontaneously stupid in an instant like freeze-dried coffee?

Snippets - American culture is all about reasons to fatten up, from weddings and funerals to tailgating before football games, not to mention carb-loading while tracking a snow event. Every home should have a wrestling room with music where you work to failure every day before stepping on the scale on the way out the door. If you’re still over, you run two miles wearing a Glad lawn and leaf bag or challenge someone fatter than you to a wrestle-off. The field hockey banquet brunch at Baywood Greens celebrated the 14th state title for Cape hockey and No. 11 for coach Kate Austin. Varsity players and all coaches were gifted blue-and-white Nike sneakers from the boosters club. Go on now, git!