It appears as if a special era may be coming to end. Hodgson Vo-Tech Athletic Director and Head Wrestling Coach Jerry Lamey is expected to sign a contract with the Colonial School District on Thursday morning to become the Assistant Principal at New Castle Middle School.
The move will most likely mean that Lamey will no longer be the coach of the Silver Eagle wrestling dynasty that has captured the past 6 Division 2 wrestling state championships.
There have been a few names mentioned as possible replacements for Lamey, should he leave. Former National Champion Sheldon Thomas was a possibility at one time but is staying put with his wrestling club. Christiana head coach Marvin Dooley is definitely interested and William Penn assistant coach Stan Spoor is another name that has been spoken. Spoor would apparently like to have a teaching job that will be open at Hodgson in the Fall, but there is already competition for that spot. Assistant Coach Paul Antonio would be a natural to step up into the position but apparently hasn't been talked into it at this time.
Keep in mind that while Lamey is definitely going to New Castle Middle and leaving the AD job at HVT, the official announcement of the end of his tenure as the wrestling coach has not yet come. But it does seem evident. This would also mean that the Most Dangerous Assistant Wrestling Coach in Delaware, Dee Meyer (also of Delaware Sports) would not return as an assistant at the program.

Glasgow’s Laurens Maliepaard, an ex-writer here, won the New Castle County Championship in the 300-meter hurdles this past weekend. Unfortunately, it will be his last race of the season, as he will miss the state championships next week. He has a great reason though and that’s because he serves in the National Guard and next weekend is his one weekend a month for duty. It proves, to me anyway, that he is a real man that has his priorities straight in life and that he is willing to sacrifice his own personal gain for that of a better cause. How many of us can say something similar?
Laurens was undefeated this year in the 300 hurdles and considers the County Championships his states. He will attend the University of Delaware next year and will run track.
Also heading to Delaware to run track next year will be St. Marks’ Jason Justison, the 800-meter specialist, and Christiana’s Tim Bradley, also a mid-distance runner.

We have witnessed the re-birth of the Padua track team under the leadership of Theresa Marini, a former Panda herself. The Pandas have a refreshing new positive attitude that helped carry them through an unbeaten dual-meet season. Erin Lord, Colleen Reid, Liz Virden, and Desirae Gaspero (heading to the U of Penn gymnastics team) have provided Senior leadership for the Pandas. Underclassmen Lauren Wallace, Brittany Hackett, Christine Igo, Melissa Sabol, Kaitlyn Cusick, Beth Meany, Deana Episcopo, and Anne Hartnett make up a nucleus for the future.
The Panda program made an almost instant turnaround when Angel Payne took over the Athletic Director duties though. Her enthusiasm is contagious and we should expect great things from that program in the years to come.

Speaking of solid track programs, the Hodgson boy’s and girl’s programs were undefeated Flight B champions…. again. The boys had a solid fifth place team showing at counties and the girls took fourth overall. Both were the top division two schools at the meet. Cape Henlopen will present more than a challenge for both squads at States next week, but the Silver Eagles will do their share of damage along the way.
Hodgson athletes making major contributions to their cause include sr. Ashley Whitesell, so. Valerie Howell, sr. Johnita Christmas, jr. Patricia Singleton, fr. J’Linda Hunt, jr. Shariese Moore, jr. Tyra Culver-Frazier, fr. Ciera McQueen, sr. Aisha Word, fr. Chrissy Nurse, and fr. Chantal Pierre. For the boys jr. Steve Davis, jr, Mike Grafton, sr. Greg White, jr. Dwayne Tyree, jr. Eric Mayo, sr. Troy Dennis, so. Chris Bernard, jr. Durrell Eastland, fr. Eric Hoover, jr. Jason Strong, and jr. Larry Cylc led the Silver Eagles to their 5^th consecutive Flight B title.

Other NCC championship observations…
The Brandywine girl’s 4x8 team broke an eight-year stranglehold by Ursuline on that event. Jessica Moss, Jen Kutney, Jen Meier, and the freshman Jessica Leitsch posted the victory.
McKean senior Cetera Bunche defended her 800-meter title on Saturday. The next 10 place finishers were either freshmen or sophomores including Middletown freshman Jen Feister who started in the second heat and finished ninth overall in 2:29.99. That time was 21 seconds faster than her posted qualifying time. Bunche injured herself during the 800 finals in the states last year and couldn’t finish her race, so she will seek some redemption this Saturday.
Christiana’s Matt Johnson broke the 27-year old record in the pole vault as he cleared 14-6 ½ inches. It was an emotional moment for the senior Viking who won the event for third straight year. See the record vault on this week’s TV show; yet another moment of history captured on the only place where you can regularly see Delaware high school sports on TV. (Plug, plug, plug.)
A.I. duPont’s Kim Rusk blew away her own record in the pole vault on Friday with a 10-6 jump. She set the prior standard of 9-8 at the Christiana relays. She will have three Henlopen Conference vaulters to push her next week. Cape’s Katherine Devilbiss, Sussex Tech’s Jessica Mohr, and Seaford’s Christine Tobian all cleared 9 feet in their championships even though only Mohr is in her division. Devilbiss picked up three individual wins with the 100 and 300 hurdles to compliment her pole vault win.
Tatnall running star Meredith Lambert blew away the county record in the 3200 with a 10:56. That time was 22 seconds faster than the old mark held by Concord’s Melissa Grubb set in 1983. In a TV chat with the Princeton bound Hornet afterwards, she actually used the word "realm" in a response. That was the first time I think I have ever heard an athlete use that word and was more proof of why Goldey-Beacom head cross-country coach Kelly Parsley was going to have a hard time recruiting her to his young X-C program. Lambert had not, at that time, decided if she would try to run the 3200, 1600 and 800 at states. She will be a lock for two titles, everything being equal, at 1600 and 3200.
Newark’s Louis Broyles picked up three individual wins including the third best long jump in the NCC meet with his 22-10.75. That was the best jump since 1988 when Mt. Pleasant’s Randy Lambert jumped 23-4.75. His 46-8.5 was a top ten leap as well.

Just a quick note about track rankings on this site while I think about it. We have ranked teams basically on their dual meet performance during the year. We will add, just like we have with wrestling, a final ranking based solely upon the state championships next week. So, the top ten teams on the site now should be consider the "final dual meet" records. Where there had been some sort of tie between two teams, other competitions were used to decide the placing. The same concept will apply for the state championship final listing; if two teams are close we will use the dual meet records to help decide the final places. The Glasgow girl’s team won the county team title but had trouble in dual meet competition with the small size of their team. Kamilah Salaam picked up four more gold medals for her already-stuffed trophy shelf and, with all else equal, should rack up four more next week. Her 100 and 100-hurdle wins were only about 3 minutes apart on Saturday.

Down at the Henlopen championships, Dover’s Jason Lilly was in top form. He shaved a full second off his own conference championship mark in the 400. He also won the 100 and 200.
Sussex Tech’s Jonathan Onie cleared 6-8 in the high jump to make him the favorite to win that event next week. The Woodbridge freshman Ross Horsey was second with a 6-6.

I know that a bunch of Caesar Rodney girl’s soccer team players check out this site, so maybe one of you can explain to me why starting forwards scored 5 goals in the last 10 minutes of a game that was already 6-0. There is no reason to pile on a team in that manner even if your opponent is a rival. If there aren’t enough players on the bench to come in and substitute, then it’s time for the defensive players to play some forward for a while and let those scary sharpshooters play some defense and stop taking shots. At the very least, a 6-0 lead with less than 10 minutes to go means that it’s time to play monkey in the middle or something to practice some passing. If the idea of piling up the score is head coach Darrell Gravatt’s, then maybe it’s time for him to step aside or take a course in Sportsmanship 101. Back in the old days, when I was a kid, if we were getting piled on in a baseball game, someone was getting a ball thrown in his ass. If it was a football game, someone was getting elbowed or kicked…or even slapped upside the head. If someone piled on our hockey team, we just dropped the gloves and started kicking some ass. Remember always that what goes around, comes around.

The second best TV show on television these days, behind Delaware Sports of course, is a reality program called Cheaters. What a great show this is although I couldn’t tell you what time it is on regularly.
Men and women who think that their partner is cheating in their relationships contact this group of private investigators / TV producers and authorize them to follow their partner around to learn for sure whether or not he or she is cheating.
Loaded with whatever video evidence they can dig up, the host of the show and the crew meets with the client at, or near, wherever the cheater and the other new party might be fooling around. The host shows the client a tape with evidence and asks him/her if they would now like to confront the unsuspecting couple. Followed by TV crews, the client, and the host then make the confrontation. All sorts of trouble brews then with shouts, insults, thrown objects, punches, etc. following. If, at any time, the arguing subsides, the host instigates just to keep the flow going. He’ll say things like "Good God, what were you thinking man??! Can’t you see what you’ve done to him?!" The more public the confrontation, the more of a live spontaneous audience gathers around also. Without fail, they will heckle the cheater on top of it all just to add some chuckles for the sick fans this show…. like me.

Here is an updated list of graduating swimmers that will swim in college next year.
Cassie Connell
Newark
Michigan

Kelly Shinton
St. Marks
East Carolina

Joanne Hunt
Concord
West Virginia

Katie Kuczmarski
St. Marks
Rutgers

Adrienne Williams
William Penn
East Carolina

Erica Gentilucci
St. Marks
Penn

Emilie Gschweng
A.I. duPont
Towson

Steve Earley
Middletown
West Virginia

Michael McCreary
Salesianum
Lehigh

The New Castle County Boy’s Volleyball Championship will be held at Wilmington College on May 23 from 5-10 pm. There is a chance that I will be there to handle announcing duties and also tape for the TV show, but it’s still in the chance stage.

The "Meet of Champions" is scheduled for the Tuesday following the state championships. This was a meet that made a comeback last year to a lukewarm welcome. The All-State team is selected from this meet, which is a concept that I just don’t get at all. I mean, why bother having a state championship and this meet. I still don’t even get why the states are separated into two divisions. It absolutely kills off some key individual matches. For example, this is the first year in Delaware Track history that three boys have pole-vaulted over 14 feet. Yet in the states, Randolph Faulkner from Smyrna will vault in Division II, while Matt Johnson and James Handley compete in Division I. I’m for as many meets as possible, but let’s decide which meet will get the ultimate priority here.
A suggestion might be to have all individual competitors battle each other for individual titles. Then separate division scores out at the end of the meet for two division team titles.

If you are a track star wannabe or current star and are looking for a summer full of track competition, head over to Baynard Stadium on the Monday following the States. There you will find the Delaware Diamonds Track Club and you can sign up for the team starting at 6 p.m. There is currently only one master competitor on the team, Mike Burke from Concord, but they will take more. So all of you old guys, who are looking for something to do, head over there.

As soon as I can find the state tournament schedules, that are around here somewhere, I’ll post them on the site.

Don’t forget to vote for the Delaware Sports Athletes of the Year if you haven’t already done so.