Until then, let’s talk about the upcoming playoff season and some other assorted tidbits of thought.

First, let’s take a look at the girl’s basketball tournament, which is just a short time away form beginning.
The first round of action will be played on Wednesday 2-26, the second round on 2-28, the quarterfinals on 3-3, the semis on 3-5 and the championship on Saturday 3-8.
Twenty-four teams go to the state tournament; six conference champions from Blue Hen A and B, Henlopen North and South, Independent and Catholic. Eighteen at-large berths are then awarded.
As we all know by now, there is a point-index system that is calculated by awarding 2 points for each win during the regular season. 1 point is earned for beating a team whose final record in .501 or above, and 1 bonus point for playing a team whose final record in .701 or above. (Note the change there in that a team has to BEAT a team with a record of .501 or above. The total number of points in then divided by the number of regular season games played with a minimum of 18 and a maximum of 22. In case of ties there are all sorts of tie breakers that I won’t list here.

At this point in time those teams look to be William Penn (Blue Hen A), AI duPont (Blue Hen B), Polytech (Henlopen North), Smyrna (Henlopen South), Sanford (Independent) and St. Marks (Catholic) The 18 at-large berths look to go to Glasgow, Charter, Concord, Sussex Tech, Caesar Rodney, Seaford, Tower Hill, Friends, Red Lion Christian, Delmar, Lake Forest, Indian River, Christiana, Dover, Friends, Ursuline, Archmere, and St. Elizabeth. Delcastle and McKean are on the bubble as is Padua.

So just about everybody goes to the tournament, which as loyal readers of this page know, I am not a fan of having happen. But, I am obviously in the minority so I have been outvoted.
The Red Lion Christian team is in just its 3rd varsity season and will make its first ever tournament under the guidance of Cheryl Lacey. Last year, the Lions tied for the 24^th spot with Charter and needed to beat the Force in a play-in game, which the Force captured. Not this year though. The Lions have a middle school on their campus and get those kids playing ball together at a young age, much like how Tower Hill raises little field hockey and lacrosse players. The Lions have a Delaware Sports All-Heart Team winner in Amanda Young who is a candidate for an All-State berth (at least she will get my vote).
Staying on the Lions for a moment, there are 5 girls on that team that play with asthma (Young being one of them). That’s an awfully high percentage of afflicted players, but it’s not just on the Red Lion team that this happens. I’ve seen countless cross-country runners in need of inhalers and those things pop up around this area like Pez dispensers. What’s up with that? The Lions team manager has to prepare a nebulizer (I think that is what it is called) before each game in case someone goes down with a major attack during the game. It’s one of her regular managerial duties. Is there a doctor in the house?
The Vikings of St. Elizabeth have lost a whole gaggle of games since their wonder star Khadijah Rushdan went down with a knee injury. She was expected to return before the regular season ended, but I haven’t seen her name anywhere. Her return will be critical. The 8^th grader is the best player in the state when she is out there on the floor. Use the Vikings 13-point win against St. Marks in their first contest with her on the floor and compare it with their 30-point loss when she was out against them in their second game.
With Rushdan out for so long though, it makes me wonder how to pick my All-State selections. If she was in all of the games, it’s a no-brainer. Since she has missed so many, I think I might have to pick a different #1 player.
Ditto those thoughts about Brandywine’s Tyra Lusby who has been out with an injury as well. Clearly not a Rushdan, but she was clearly an All-State pick.

The boy’s tournament teams take the top two team from the Blue Hen A and B, Henlopen North and South, Independent Conferences and the top two non-conference teams. The recently created Diamond State Conference does not, as of now, receive any automatic berths, they are thrown into the non conference category.
The boy’s teams get two points for a win, 1 bonus point for playing a team above .500 and two bonus points for playing a team above .700. A team will receive 4 points for defeating a team whose final regular season winning record is above .700 and will receive 2 points for losing to that team. Divide the number of game a team has played in the regular season (minimum of 18 and a maximum of 22) into the point total to determine the point index. Head to head competition is the first tie breaker.

With that in mind, here are the teams most likely to be in the state tournament as of this evening: Glasgow, Middletown (Blue Hen A), Hodgson and Howard (Blue Hen B), Sussex Central and Dover (Henlopen North), Laurel and Milford (Henlopen South), Sanford and St. Andrews (Independent), St. Marks, and Caravel (non-conference). The 12 at-large teams look to be Brandywine, Sussex Tech, Caesar Rodney, Seaford, Salesianum, Archmere, Smyrna, Tatnall, Delcastle, St. Elizabeth, Cape Henlopen and Christiana. Note that those last three teams all are nicknamed "Vikings" and all happen to have losing records and should still make the tournament.

Unless something whacky happens, I see a repeat of last year’s final with Hodgson and Sanford squaring off to ball. Taurean Temple and Malcom Tiller are the states top tandem scoring threats and Sanford’s Wil Sheridan and Joe Dyson the states top twin tower pair. The edge could go right now to the Silver Eagles and their secret weapon Maurice Furrowh, but then again the Silver Eagles have been known to beat themselves (like in their first game against Concord).
A sleeper team should come out of the Henlopen North with Sussex Central, Dover, Sussex Tech or even Caesar Rodney or Seaford.
My statistical compilations here have Rashaun Johnson from Sussex Tech leading the state in scoring average per game with a 24.6 ppg average. Taurean Temple is second at 22.6 and Tatnall Freshman Juwan Carter third with a 22.3 ppg average.

Ex New Castle Baptist and Wilmington College star Phil Gephart is helping coach the New Castle Baptist basketball team. Phil was overseas in the CBA playing ball recently until an injury forced him out of action and back stateside.

The wrestling dual meet states will be held at Delaware State University on the 19^th. Two divisions will be contested with four schools from each division facing off all at the same time. It’s a lot of fun to watch as fans from each school sit in separate sections at DE State to root for their teams.
In Division 1, three teams are shoo-ins for berths- St. Marks, Caesar Rodney, and William Penn. The fourth team would likely be Sussex Central, but Christiana might make a claim at that spot as well. William Penn would be the third seed and it’s tough to say whether St. Marks or Caesar Rodney would be number 1. Regardless of how they are seeded, they will face each other in the championship. St. Marks is the defending champion.
In Division 2, the four teams will be Laurel, Smyrna, Hodgson and Milford, most likely in that order. Laurel gets the #1 nod after taking the Henlopen South title for the first time in 20 years. They get the slight edge over Smyrna because of a 27-27 win against the Eagles in which Laurel broke a tie because of one more pin in that match.
Both Smyrna and Laurel have defeated Milford although Smyrna beat them worse. So the #1 slot could be a tough call since this is decided subjectively. But if I would be hot if I were a Laurel coach who didn’t get that #1 vote and then would have to be the team to face Hodgson, the 6-time defending champion.
The Silver Eagles are in a rebuilding year but they still only lost to Caesar Rodney and William Penn. They match up worse against Smyrna though and that is their most likely matchup in the semifinal round.
Check the wrestling section to see how some of these eight school’s wrestlers are ranked in the state. (Rankings done by the Delaware Wrestling Alliance.)

The Swimming championships will be held March 1 at the U of D. The preliminaries are held on 2-26 for the girls, and the 27^th for the boys.
Swimmers have to qualify for the swimming championships individually and can swim in two individual events. Schools can enter three relay teams, which are seeded according to their best times during the year. Individual swimmers can additionally participate in two other relay races.
Here are the times that swimmers need to surpass in order to qualify for the states:

I wish I could tell you everyone who has qualified, but that is far beyond my capacity here.
I can tell you that Salesianum will win yet another team championship with McKean capturing another second place trophy.
In the girls team race, things are up for grabs. Newark and Ursuline are both undefeated in dual meet action, but throw that out in states. Points are earned for the top 16 places in both individual and relay races, so depth is key. Concord, St. Marks and Caesar Rodney all figure to be in the mix as well and perhaps for the first time in 11 years, there will be a new champion. My odds on favorite right now is the Yellowjackets based on their depth and two of their relay teams which are the best in the state.

The Indoor Track Championships are 2-22 at the U of D. Field events begin at noon and running events start at 2:30.
Individuals need to qualify for this set of championships also, while all relay teams can enter the 4x200 and 4x400 races. The top ten best teams earn the right to compete for the 4x800 relay titles.
Teams can enter a maximum of three individuals in an event and one team in a relay race. Individuals can only enter four events.
In the individual events the top times or distances or marks earn berths to the championships. The amount of entries range from 12-20.
Again, this is an event which if you take a look at the Tower Hill meet results on the track pages, you can figure out the favorites.
Team wise, look for Salesianum again. They haven’t made a strong presence at the Tower Hill meet, but that’s exactly one of the reasons they are going to be tough; the competition hasn’t seen much of them. Their distance teams will be excellent, and they will earn championship points in the shot and earn more in the pole vault, long jump and triple jump.
In the girls meet, don’t let those Tower Hill meets fool you. Glasgow is the team to beat and Tower Hill will be right on their heals. I like Padua and Brandywine as well, but the Dragons, behind Kamilah Salaam and the Salter sisters should prevail.

Plans for Diamond State Games are well under way. Most of my spare time is used to try and raise money to pay for such things as venues, officials, security, marketing and much more. It is very time consuming and challenging and I seriously hate asking companies and individuals for money. We had a verbal commitment for some big dollars way back in August, but that fell through (much like it did in 2001). So that left me scrambling a bit.
We also had planned to lease facilities at the U of DE on June 20-22 but were turned down outright, for a reason that is still unknown to me. Despite being willing to pay the nearly ridiculous fee of nearly 22,000 for everything that we were asking for (not including the Bob or the Tub), we were still shutout. I thought that was funny since the state chopped out a whole bunch of funding for the University and here they are turning away private funds. I guess they simply wish to only accept taxpayers money, a practice which I find revolting.
So, it was then down to Delaware State where we were accepted with open arms. Everyone down there was nice and accommodating, however after 6 weeks of thinking we were going to have events centrally located there, we found out that there was a conflicting event on that Friday and Saturday. We still may be ok on that Sunday and might hold our wrestling competition there.
Wesley College has stepped up large for us. We will hold a variety of activity there including tennis, flag football, field hockey, basketball and baseball. Thanks to the athletic department and the administration for all of the cooperation we have received.
Even with those venues secured, we were still in need of a variety of places to play basketball, volleyball, field hockey and flag football. Here is where I have had to spend a lot of time the other main reason this column is dying on the vine.
So far, we have been shut out of 7 complete school districts and four private schools. While there is still some hope that we can find some places to play with some outstanding applications out there, time is of the essence and space is running out. Again, despite our willingness to pay regular fees (as opposed to many events being held in locations for discounted rates or for free) we are having difficulty because of the summer dates.
So, if you happen to know someone or someplace that is willing to host some of our events, please, please, please call me or write me. I would truly hate to have to cut out basketball and volleyball particularly since these will be events in which our states best athletes will be invited to play. Some of the most excitement will be generated by these events and it would be a shame if they couldn’t be held because we can’t find someone willing to get paid overtime to open some doors and work on a weekend.
On the positive side of the DSG, we have attracted companies to sponsor the event so the financial burden can be eased a bit. We also have sites for other events secured and registration information will be available soon. We will add bowling this year and hold it at Dover Bowl. Soccer will be held at the Kirkwood Soccer Club. Disc Golf will be held at Killens Pond State Park. Paintball will be held at ECX ActionSports Park in Newark. Track and Field should be held at Baynard Stadium.
Most of these things will be ironed out in the end, as they were in 2001. It will mean a lot of scrambling around and a lot of cellphone minutes, but we’ll be fine. Um…but I could still use a little help finding some gyms in which to play, so again, if you are someone who knows someone or someplace for us to play, please drop a line.