Newark and A.I. duPont were the competitors in tonight’s match. Newark was 5-0 going in and the Tigers were 7-1. What was, on paper, a decent matchup turned out to be a bit disappointing as the Tigers cruised through game one 15-2 and then came back from a 6-0 deficit to win the second game 15-10.

The Yellowjackets will be a team to watch in the next couple years, however, as this team only sports one senior, Lauren Nahodil, their setter. Amber Walker, one of the Yellowjackets star swimmers, will be a force to be reckoned with in the middle, and Megan McLaughlin, one of the Yellowjackets soccer stars, is a nice outside hitter. The trouble seemed to be that the Jackets were a bit tentative hitting the ball with any authority.

Such was not the case on the Tigers side of the floor. Outside hitter Ketti Viohl provided the main source of power and Kelly Gast countered Walker in the middle. Claire O’Byrne, a sophomore, gave some extra oomph in the second game and the Tigers remained undefeated in conference play as the sweep of the match was completed.

Even with the stellar records of both teams, neither will be able to crack the top five in the Delaware Sports rankings. Those spots are occupied by the five catholic conference teams; St. Marks, Ursuline, St. Elizabeth, Archmere, and Padua.

Padua is currently holding the worst record of the five, but there is clearly a new attitude in Pandaland with Angel Payne, the new coach and athletic director leading the way. That attitude was immediately evident when I walked into Ursuline’s gym for the first game of the year for both teams a couple weeks ago now. This was just not the same Padua team I had witnessed in the past couple years, and it is obviously the result of the change in leadership at the top. Heck, the Ursuline girl’s adore Angel Payne even now that she is the new cross-town rival.

How about that Meredith Lambert from the Tatnall School? She has already broken two of the five major course records so far this year. She shattered the Killens Pond mark by ten seconds and bettered her own record at Lums Pond. At a race at Brandywine Creek State Park, she came within just three seconds of beating that mark as well. White Clay Creek is the other major course without her name in the record book. The name currently in that position is Brandywine’s Jenn Kutney, who ran a 19:00 in her freshman year in 1998. Caesar Rodney’s Jill Hajec holds the Brandywine Creek record, so that means that all of the record holders are still running at the high school level.

No boys have even come within a half of a minute of any course record so far this year.

We do the game film taping for Brandywine High’s football team and this year has been tough to watch so far. The Bulldogs are now 0-3 out of the gate with losses of 27-0, 37-0, and 54-6 behind them now. The lone touchdown was scored against the Concord Raider second string. Just a couple years ago, the Dawgs were within a few percentage points of a playoff spot with Larry Wheeler coaching for his last year. It has become clear why he left though. In his last year, he has the luxury of some talent with all-state quarterback Jace Carletti, and all-state receiver Ivan Schmidt. But there isn’t anyone for new coach Julius Flynn to work with this year at all. The game with A.I. duPont later in the year could very well be of major importance to both teams as they most likely will both be winless going into the match.

The Bulldogs take on Newark October 6 after a bye week. Ugh.

Speaking of the Yellowjacket football team, they are again on their way to a championship. I really don’t see who can take them out. Dover fans will yell out the name "Senators" in response, but their weak 14-12 (or 13) over Glasgow doesn’t inspire a whole lot of confidence even with the disciplinary suspensions that hurt the team that week. The Yellowjacket offensive line is perhaps their weakness. Salesianum picked up six sacks in the first game of the season, but Newark bounced back and steamrolled Caesar Rodney and St. Marks in weeks two and three. The real key to the Yellowjacket offense though is their balanced attack. Quarterback Erec Speise is the best quarterback I’ve seen so far this year, and junior Drew Kisner leads another deep backfield with his older brother Austin, and the highly touted Brandon Snow, who really just blocks most of the time on offense.

The Sallies football team does play some spirited and solid defense, but they don’t have an offense to speak of at all. In the Newark game, they scored their points on a defensive touchdown, and against William Penn they only managed a one-yard touchdown run. But, the Baltimore Ravens won a Super Bowl because of their superior defensive play.

For fans of the Mt. Pleasant and Hodgson Vo-Tech football teams, we will be covering the game between those teams on October 20^th (I think that’s the date) on the radio show live from Mt. Pleasant on homecoming day. That game will be a battle of decent running backs as the Green Knights will showcase Kerry Miles, and the Silver Eagles will counter with the massive Joe Cylc.

I wish I could say something brilliant about boy’s soccer, but I haven’t seen a single game so far, and might not see one until the playoffs. A St. Marks-Sallies game might change that plan however.

The third annual Turf Bowl will be held at Rullo Stadium on the 6^th. There will be 18 high school field hockey teams that will get a shot to play on the same turf on which the state championship semifinal and final games are played. We will be there to cover a couple of them at least as we are interested in watching Cape Henlopen, Smyrna, and a couple other teams we don’t get a chance to see very often play.

Speaking of the Vikings, they leapt into the number one position in the Top Ten when St. Marks tied Tower Hill last week. The Hillers could easily still be called the number one team after the 2-2 tie that knocked them out. But both teams truly seemed to be destined to meet again in the state championship final, and the Vikings are currently undefeated, so they have the current bragging rights.

Lets see, what else….oh yeah, The Diamond State Games. The 2002 Diamond State Games will most likely transform into the 2003 Diamond State Games. The insurance costs will be four times what they were this past year, and now the added cost of security because of the recent attacks on our country will most likely put our budget way out of range. Coupled with the fact that we can’t seem to find anyone competent to raise funds and the fact that businesses have been effected financially as well, it might be best to wait another year. A final decision on that will be made by the end of November. This would be truly sad because we had the first, and hardest, year out of the way. But, as I said in my last column, priorities have changed for all Americans, and sports will take a back burner to protecting our freedoms and our way of life at all times.

Head over to Wilmington College on October 18 when Goldey-Beacom heads over to play the Wildcats in the second match of the year. The Lighting/Braves swept Wilmington at home in the first meeting, but the Wildcats have bounced back hard with a 3-0 win over Kutztown, the first time the Wildcats have ever beaten the Golden Bears.

There was a bit of a lull here at the website recently, not only because of the attacks, but because there was a chance that we were selling Delaware Sports to an interested party. The thought of selling something that I have worked so hard on was all-consuming at times, and I continuously bounced back and forth as to whether or not I could actually do it. The potential buyer was also bouncing back and forth though, and in the end, things will stay the same. For now at least.

I’m not really sure what I would have done with myself if I sold the company. I have been doing this for almost six years now and truly love it. But it is basically just an expensive hobby since I can’t find anyone to sell advertising for me or land that "big sponsor" to take care of my costs. The catch-22 is that I would love to expand and do even more, but I cut the money trees out of my back yard a long time ago and I seem to take "no" for an answer when I knock on business’ doors to ask for help. By the way, if you have sales career planned in your future, taking "no" for an answer puts you on the fast track to failure!

I am still looking for people who want to contribute written material for the website and also for people who wish to begin their TV or radio careers. Call 731-1676 for more details about that.

Never underestimate the power of the internet and also the reach of this particular website now that it has been up and running for almost four years now. We attract over 5000 unique visitors a day during the school year who view over 20,000 pages per day. And the interest is just not from people who live here in Delaware. Take this following letter for example:

Hannah Christopher

I just thought that was cool.

A couple of recent graduates scored their first college field hockey goals of their careers in the past two weeks. Erica LaBar scored her first goal for the Blue Hens in one of Delaware’s six wins of the early season. LaBar, a William Penn graduate, missed all of her freshman year with an ACL injury.

Tatnall graduate Stephanie Mayhart scored her first goal of the year for Villanova this past week. Ms. Mayhart is an interesting character. She made an appearance on my radio show last year and totally won me over with her straightforward and honest opinions.

Mt. Pleasant graduate Dana Berry is on the Blue Hens soccer roster this year. After deciding not to play a sport in her freshman year at Delaware, she was coaxed into trying out by Scott Grzenda, the head Blue Hen coach. Dana doesn’t think she’ll see much playing time this year, but it’s clear that she missed the competition and the exercise after being one of Delaware’s top high school players during her days as a Green Knight.

I realize that mentioning just a few names like that runs a risk of disappointing a lot of people who are doing other notable things themselves. Those past three names are just some people that I have had the chance to speak with on the radio show, or through other close encounters on the TV show. It’s fun to follow them as they progress through college and beyond. (Which is why the best column in the News Journal is Matt Zabitka’s in the Crossroads section.)

So now that the sale of Delaware Sports is off and life is a little more normal after the attacks of September 11, I’ll try to spice things up around here on the website. As always, if you have any ideas, or would like to help, just drop a line.