DELAWARE SPORTS |
|
Bits and Pieces with Marshal Manlove |
Another championship weekend has passed us by and left us with
more memories to cherish for some time to come.
I was torn between personally covering the girls swimming championships and the boys
individual wrestling championships. Its sad that both have to be held at the same time,
but after some inner struggle I headed to Newark.
I was secretly rooting for one particular person to do well in these swimming
championships. Two years ago, while on a visit to my local YMCA to practice some doggy
paddling, the young lady checking identification cards at the door let me know that she
liked my television show. Her name is Katie McGillan, and I naturally began to follow her
progress with her Spartan team. (After all, I am a fan of any of our fans.) So it was with
pride that I was able to witness Miss McGillan help her Spartan 400 relay team to a new
state record. And I was just as excited when she asked if her relay team could do a
"Watch Delaware Sports" cheer on tape after receiving their trophy.
Prior radio show guests of mine and some individuals that Ive had the opportunity to speak
with either here online, or in person, are also fun to follow. Newarks Cassie Connell
broke two state records last year and made her first ever on air appearance with me on the
Brandywine Sports Corner. She was excited to be a winner and be on the air and was one of
my favorite guests to date. She was feeling sick at this years meet but still won the 200
freestyle championship and, of course, gets another opportunity to be on the show.
The Brandywine swim team fell a little off their blistering seasons pace in the finals
finishing sixth overall. Their radio show appearance the week before in honor of their
Blue Hen Conference championship was a classic 45 minutes on the show. New head coach
Sandy Wood clearly worked wonders with this team and the smiles on the girls faces were
evidence of that along with their years performance.
Since Hodgson Vo-Techs wrestling coaches Jerry Lamey and Dee Meyer are part of the
Delaware Sports television team, I have a special desire to follow their powerful team
throughout the year. Jordan Sianni, Mike Welch, Ryan Smith, and Derek Davis were the four
state champions that I didnt get to personally witness win titles this past weekend, but
Meyers phone call shortly after kept me up to date.
Two other Silver Eagles also reached the finals helping Hodgson to unofficially win the
team scoring title. Coupled with the Blue Hen Conference team title a week prior, the
Silver Eagles end the season ranked as the number one team in the state.
Other stuff......
As with this past Falls volleyball tournament, the girls basketball tournament is seeded
poorly near the top of the brackets. The point system used to handicap all the teams
varsity seasons isnt working very well.
The Caesar Rodney Riders are the #2 seed and the Seaford Blue Jays are the #4 seed.
Unfortunately, neither of these teams, depite their fine regular season records, will
stand a serious chance of beating many of the lower seeded teams from the northern part of
the state. An earlier regular season matchup between St Marks and Caesar Rodney was an
ugly mismatch that could have been a 100 point game if it werent for the fact that teams
routinely practice good sportsmanship in our state. An earlier matchup between #3 Carvel
and Seaford ended in much the same way with Caravel emerging looking like a powerhouse
team.
Sadly, this creates at least one second round matchup that would best be served later in
the tournament: #7 Ursuline and #10 Glasgow. After Glasgow eliminates the #23 Hornets of
Tatnall (who have the same season record of 14-8) they will face the Raiders far too early
and either team will beat Caesar Rodney rather handily after one of them moves on.
The trouble is primarily that this sets up some major disappointment for young women who
firmly believe that they are much better than they truly are in reality. When Caravels
volleyball team was ranked #2 in the Fall tournament, they faced Ursuline in the first
round, an eventual finalist, and were never in the match. The tears shed were a result of
the higher than deserved expectations for success. Ursulines regular season volleyball
team plays in the Catholic Conference, the hot bed for volleyball in the state. This rings
true for basketball as well.
Since Caesar Rodney played the 21-1 St Marks Spartans in the regular season, they scored
bonus points because of the Spartans winning percentage of over .701. But in that game,
the Riders scored the first basket and got stomped on from there on in.
A better way to score a game like this would be to take the half-time score into
consideration. Every team plays their starting team for the first half, and even into the
third quarter, before making courtesy substitutions because of a blow out. If a team is
losing by 20 points, for example, the bonus point should be taken away at the end of the
year (or not given to begin with.) This would insure a proper seeding all throughout the
top 24 teams by not rewarding teams simply for scheduling good teams but still offering
the chance for bonus points if the scheduled game is played competitively.
Still, the games that appear to be such a blowout on paper need to be played to their
completion for anything can happen on any given day in our tournaments. Newark is #24 and
needed to win a one game play-in to win that slot. They face the #9 Pandas of Padua and
could very well knock them out. After all, the Yellowjackets have already beaten William
Penn, the 13th seed during the season.
All the action begins this evening at various schools around the state. All 24 teams hope
to reach the finals on March 11th at the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark to lay claim to
the states best team. We hope for all involved that the games are played cleanly,
competitively, and without much more thought about seedings and other now trivial matters.
Thats really all that is important.
Marshal Manlove |
|
