Ramblings 65

 May 25, 2002

by Marshal Manlove, Editor and Creator of Words.

We are officially halfway through the Spring championship season as I write this on the evening of the Girl’s Lacrosse Championship. I’ll work backward…or maybe even sideways or upside down to chat about the things I've witnessed and thought during the past 10 days. But since those days have been filled with thoughts of cheeseburgers, there might be a little less actual content this week.

St. Andrews is back in the championship column of the Girl’s Lacrosse books as they rolled over Brandywine 17-5. Saint Sophomore Daphne Patterson scored a championship game record nine goals to outscore the Bulldogs all by herself. Seven of her goals came in the first half as the Saints headed into halftime up 9-2.
A couple of key points led to the Saints success. All games begin with a face off and Co-captain Emma Wallace won nearly every one. She had the height advantage against everyone who Bulldog Coach Willy Miranda sent in to test her although the Bulldogs Sarah Brown never tried. Brown was clearly the tallest player for Brandywine. Since these faceoffs begin from a standing position, as opposed to a crouch in the boy’s game, the balls get flipped straight up into the air where Wallace had the clear advantage, which Brown theoretically could have neutralized.
First-year Saint head Coach Sarah Commito, just a year out of college, thought that the Bulldogs were weak passing and shooting lefthanded. Her team then tried to force the Bulldogs to shoot and pass lefty where there were more opportunities for misplays, interceptions, and weak shots.
Commito also marked the high scoring Bulldog Bryce Jones with her best defender, freshman Lizzy Burns. She handled her assignment with near perfection, as Jones was only able to score one goal in the game. In fact, Jones only managed three shots all game.
Jones wasn’t near the net enough either. It was hard to tell (since I was videotaping) if Burns was keeping her away that often or that Jones just wasn’t making the runs at the net that she probably should have. Commito goes one up on Miranda in the coaching column as a result.
Daphne Patterson scored, I believe, seven of her goals on roll arounds from behind the Bulldog net. On every single one of those seven goals only one Bulldog defended her. It was clear that the 5’10 Saint needed to be double-teamed from behind the goal to prevent any more of what became very easy goals.
Patterson tried to avoid me at the end of the game. I apparently was looking rather scary this afternoon and of course she didn’t recognize me since I’m fairly certain that the dorms at St. Andrews aren’t equipped to carry the mighty Delaware Sports TV show. She was skeptical nearly all the way through the interview so I guess I will have to send a tape down to the school to rest her fears.
One of the things I like about talking to the girls after a game is that it is hard to find a girl who will take credit for anything that she does in a game. This kid scored 9 goals and eight were unassisted. She could have easily said something like "I worked real hard and I’m glad it paid off today." But instead, she gave all of her credit to the team. It is certainly refreshing.
I still can’t decide if I prefer the girl’s lacrosse game in its present form or if I would rather see a more physical game. If the game were to become more physical and allow body checking, helmet would have to be worn by all of the players to avoid head injuries. But that would mean that on a long run from goal to goal that watching long hair flowing in player’s tracks would have to end. I’m not sure I’m ready for that. But on the other hand, some of the officials are whistle happy in these games and any little poke or jab means a stop in play to call a foul. I’ll let them figure it out though since it’s their game to play and not mine. Either way, it’s one of my favorites to watch.

I love track as well. It’s obvious since the last four TV shows have dealt with track. But I still have a problem with the Meet of Champions. Ok, it’s not the Meet of Champions itself, it’s the emphasis that is put on it. Here is a question to ask yourself. Would you rather be a State Champion or a member of the All-State Team? Wouldn’t you think that if you became an Individual State Champion that you would automatically be on the All-State Team? Some more light should be shed on this in my opinion. I still think that all of the qualified competitors in the state should compete against each other and then at the end of the day separate out the Division One and Division Two schools and tally team points to determine the two Division team champions from there. It would work out the exact same way. But, it’s their game to play and not mine, so I can only accept what they have to offer and report from there. Just as a side note, the meet itself is at a bad time for us to attend and tape since the other state tournaments are well under way and start to deserve the attention at that point.

That aside, the second day of the Track Championships was held on a beautiful winter day in May. The meet was contested on a day that set a new record low temperature (so much for that global warming thing I guess) and I was the only idiot there in shorts and a short sleeve shirt. Unfortunately, as a result, I missed what I heard was a great pole vault competition between Christiana’s Matt Johnson and Caesar Rodney’s James Handley. A jump off was needed to declare Johnson the winner after both athletes cleared 14 feet. One of the frustrating things about the pole vault that day was that the Division One warm up went on for at least an hour delaying the finish of the event into darkness.
I’ve only been watching these high school track events for the past 6 or 7 years now, but even I can figure out that winning the 800, 1600 and 3200 meter events in one day is a difficult task. Ursuline’s Colleen Taylor and Salesianum’s Charlie Diehlman did it last year (both added 4x800 wins also), and it was impressive to watch. But Tatnall’s Meredith Lambert made it look easy. There wasn’t anyone close to her in any of the events although the Division One winner Cetera Bunche actually ran a second faster in the 800. I would not be surprised to see Lambert become an Olympian in a couple years. She is one of those people that have something different in her eye when she competes. It’s what champions have and it can only be recognized in champions and therefore rare to see on a regular basis. It is funny to go back to the tape to watch Meredith start races though. Those same focused eyes are startled and flinch at every gun start that I’ve seen.
Cape Henlopen’s Katherine DeVilbiss was sort of lost in the shuffle at States. She won three individual titles and added a fourth gold as part of the Vikings 4x100. DeVilbiss won the pole vault, 100 and 300 hurdles in Division Two. She is just a sophomore.
Cape’s Matt Jackson also quadrupled at states picking up wins in the 800, 1600, 4 x 800 relay and 4 x 400 relay. The Vikings blew out the boy’s field with 170 points. Polytech was the next closest team with 59. Ditto the girls as they won with 91 points with Lake Forest in second with 68. It was the first time in school history that both teams won track championships in the same year.
Concord’s Schachia Murphy was all smiles after winning her third gold medal at States. She ends her high school career the best that she can, winning the 100, 200, and 400 meter dashes in Division 2.
Glasgow’s Kamilah Salaam was the standout sprinter of the competition winning the 100, 100 hurdles, 200, and 300 hurdles. The first two wins came about 5 minutes apart. The original 100 meter time of 12.02 would have been a state record but a stiff wind nullified the mark.
Salesianum took the top three place finishes in the 1600 with Tom Lord, Ryan Hamill, and freshman Joe Donnelly finishing in that order. Hamill seemed more concerned about the sweep than he did winning the race. He looked back over his shoulder for Donnelly as Lord crossed the line just a fraction of a second ahead of him. He was clearly happier that the freshman was part of the medal celebration.
Think ahead for a minute to Salesianum’s cross-country team next year. The whole varsity seven were underclassmen next year and are scheduled to return. They were 1-2-3 at the state cross-country meet last fall. Could they even add another 1 or 2 consecutive places next year?

On the day of the Meet of Champions, the Boy’s Tennis final was contested. This is not one of my favorite events to attend basically because all five finals are going on at the exact same time. Just when I start to tape one match that seems to get exciting the crowd watching a different game roars with their admiration of a play that I’m not taping.
Dover’s Manon Patel had the grittiest performance of the finals at third singles even though he ended up losing to Sanford’s Dan Honig. Patel was clearly injured in two areas of his right leg. It appeared that he was cramping in his calf and that he had also strained a quadricep muscle. Yet he continued to work his way through every point occasionally needing to bend over and suffer through the pain between points. His coach told him that if he wanted to stop he could (which I’m not sure I was too happy about) but he never looked back to acknowledge that notion.

The New Castle County Boy’s Volleyball Championship was fairly exciting this week. The final two games were held at Wilmington College much to the delight of Wilmington’s Head Volleyball Coach, Steve Lenderman. He is a volleyball player himself, or at least was back in the day, and he simply prefers the men’s game for its pace.
Salesianum won its first championship behind a well-balanced attack over St. Elizabeth in 4 games. Kevin Dunn, Dan McNerney, and Carl Bakomenko, first-team All-County players, led the attack.
The Vikings Shane Sowden was named the Player of the Year and it was clear to see why. He seemed to hit equally as effectively from the back row as he did from the front. The Vikes seemed to be just one player shy of a win in this match though. They led each game at one point but couldn’t seem to put the Sals away.
In the consolation match, St. Marks overcame a 2-0 game deficit to win in 5 games. Nick Page, a junior, was the big gun for the Spartans who also was a first-team All-County player.
It would be nice to see more schools start boy’s volleyball programs because the games are action packed and give some of those tall basketball players something else in which to compete in the spring.
Lenderman is planning to add a men's volleyball program at Wilmington College and has ten players already interested in attending the school and playing.
There will be some highlights of the final game on the June 4^th edition of Delaware Sports.

Just to make a note about soccer for a second, the St. Marks Spartans beat Indian River 8-0 in their first round game. All of the goals were scored in the first half. Think back to some points I made last week and ask yourself these questions: Did Indian River come out and smother the potent Spartan offense all of a sudden in the second half? Or, perhaps, did the Spartans exercise some control and sportsmanship in the second half? That example, I think, helps make my point, but I’m not going back to it any more this year.

There is still time to cast votes for the 2002 Delaware Sport Athletes of the Year. To date, there have been over 6000 accepted ballots received. There have also been over 2000 ballots that have been rejected as duplicates, ‘blocked’ votes, anonymous votes, or incorrectly filled out votes.
There are a couple clear leaders in the balloting so far and it would seem that the contest is down to about 3 male and 4 female athletes with just a couple days remaining. Please remember that we won’t announce the final results until the awards have been presented in our traditional surprise fashion.

If you haven’t filled out a Reader Survey, please send one in to me. There have been some great responses and should help make the year-end Ramblings interesting….for a change.

Behind the scenes all is relatively quiet although there are preliminary plans being made for The Diamond State Games II for 2003. This isn’t an official announcement or anything yet because we need to hunt down a few potential sponsors who will commit to helping make this event happen. I am also beginning to look for a central location to hold the bulk of the events. There aren’t too many from which to choose, so it will be a matter of expense, of course.
If you are someone who thinks you would like to be involved with the operations of this event, please send a note or call me at the main number. I’m looking to pull more people into the operation so that everyone involved can have the workload lightened. All departments need help: Sales and marketing (where the compensation is), security, general operations, ticketing, medical, protocol, public relations, media coordination, catering, entertainment, communications, and more. The bottom line is that we need to have major sponsors and key personnel in place before we make the final announcement one way or another. So please, if this sounds like something that may interest you, call as soon as possible because 13 months is much closer than one would think.
There will be a Diamond State Game Flag Football Championship this coming July. Demand for the tournament was so great that Bob Smith, our coordinator, and I set the date. More details are coming by the end of the weekend. There are about 20 teams already committed to play, so if you are one of them or want to be another one, it’s time to get serious about practice and get serious about signing up to play. Call our main number if you wish to get into the tournament now.

Marshal Manlove