Bits and Pieces 51

 January 4, 2002

 This will be a short one since I've been on two mini-vacations and have had to mourn the death of my father. I've also been mourning because I turned 40 in December as well; so sports haven't been on the front burner for a little while.

 But I did get to see some of the Diamond State Classic action last weekend. Padua played a nice tournament and handed Seaford their first loss of the year. Katy Vogel shot the lights out of the place, but just as key was the play of Stephanie Rutkowski at forward. She drew the assignment of guarding the 6'0" Kadedra Brittingham, an honorable mention all-stater last year, and held her in check.
 So the Pandas moved up the ladder, and rightfully so. But whenever those five teams in the Catholic Conference get together to play one another, it seems as if almost anything can happen. The Ursuline Raiders, who were an abysmal 0-7 knocked off Padua in the Pandas gym in triple overtime. (See Karyn's article because she did a good job with it.) Now, who knows how to arrange those teams.

  The bottom line with the now 1-7 Raiders in this game at least seemed to be that they hit their free throws. And as the underclassmen gain in experience in these big games, they will undoubtedly lead this team to greater things.

  The battle between the Division 1 and Division 2 wrestling champions from a year ago was wild. Eleven of the fourteen matches were decided by pins at Hodgson Vo-Tech. The Riders of Caesar Rodney increased their regular season string of victories to 87 with their 45-32 win. Make no mistake though, if the Silver Eagles Joe Cylc wrestled in the 215 pound match, there would have been a different result. But the Silver Eagles wouldn't dare think to make any excuses like that; they gave the Riders all the credit they deserved in the win.
  A lot of wrestling coaches and wrestlers showed up for this match. Schools that I saw represented included St. Marks, Sussex Central, Middletown, and Smyrna, all schools who are aiming for state championships and know that the Silver Eagles and Riders will be tough to dethrone.

  Give credit to Sussex Central head basketball coach Jerry Peden for sticking to his guns. The Golden Knights coach has kicked off two of his key players, Andrew Weatherly and Orlando Farrow for team rule violations. No one is above the rules and Peden may have sacrificed the teams season to prove that point, but it is the right decision. Weatherly and Farrow had been benched in a game early in the season for unknown reasons and then they missed practices over the holiday season. That was all that Peden could take.

  This Saturday, I hope to attend the Salesianum-McKean swim meet at McKean. Highlights of the meet may make it onto the TV show, but I am loaded up with material again. Plus, we will show highlights of all of our "On Location" shows that begin Monday at 7:30 p.m. at the Charcoal Pit on Kirkwood Highway.

   The St. Marks-William Penn wrestling match will be Tuesday the 8th. That is our radio show night, so I'm not sure if we can get to tape that one or not, which is sad since that is always fun to attend.

  We are looking forward to the DSOL shows. Particularly because they will be unpredictable. There is no way to tell who will show up to watch and what those that do will do when they are there. Since there will be a camera dedicated to the audience, we are hoping that a few people will bring signs or something like that to catch our head cameraman Rob Campbell's eye.
   

   Thanks to those of you who passed on condolences after hearing about my fathers passing. The truth is that I am not close with my family at all, but that still didn't make it hurt any less. He died of cancer, which I knew he developed some time ago, but his passing was sudden and I was not made aware that his condition deteriorated with such devastation until he actually died. 
  My father was someone who everyone loved and he was simply the nicest guy you would ever want to know. If I could be half of the man he was, I would be blessed. So, thanks again for the nice things that you sent this way.

   Please be advised that material on this website is copyrighted by my company Delaware Sports, Inc. and that the express written consent of yours truly is needed to use anything that is on this site. When using our rankings, they should be referred to as the Delaware Sports Top Ten lists or rankings since normally they are not the same as The News Journal (which should also be credited when they are used.) Also, if you are going to pull lists of information from this site, please have the common courtesy of giving us credit. If you don't, then do not be angry if I pull stuff off of your site to use without giving you credit (and you know who you are!)

  Sorry about that rant for the 99.9 percent of you who don't even have a website or care what is on this one.

   This Saturday the DSBA will vote for the Delaware Athlete of the Year (as opposed to the Delaware Sports Athlete of the Year.) This award is given to a person from Delaware who excelled in sports during the past year and is generally given to someone at the college level and beyond. 
   I like to nominate high school athletes since they are playing here in Delaware but the preference is to vote for Delawareans who have reached the pro ranks. Sadly, that also means that Horse Jockeys get nominated each year taking real votes away from real athletes. I may delve into that after this coming vote because it truly is absurd. The first year I was involved with the DSBA I nominated Pete Santoro, the wrestler from St. Marks, who set a Delaware high school career record for wins. The blank stares I received floored me. It was as if wrestling wasn't a sport or something or that most of them thought I was talking about Pro Wrestling. Oh well, maybe it's just a Delaware thing. 
  This year, my vote is going to a college athlete. I won't say yet so that I don't break some whacko rule, but the vote won't be wasted. I'm fairly certain this will be a one-round vote and a clear winner will be determined early.
  The Coach of the Year, and the Team of the Year will also be chosen as well as the Herm Rietzes award for service to local athletics. All of these awards are to be presented at the DSBA banquet which also honors the All-State Football team. Tickets can be purchased as mentioned on the home page.

   The first Tower Hill indoor track meet is the 12th. We're not sure if we can make that one either since the Kids vs. Cancer basketball marathon is that day also. Dr. Hocutt runs a great and growing event which will be in the Hockessin PAL center for the second year. 

 Until next time....

Marshal Manlove