While there is no “major” story this week that might jump out to a wide array of readers, there are several newsworthy high school sports items to share.
Saint Mark’s boys track and field team captured first place at the New Castle County track and field championships last Saturday. The Spartans accumulated 109 points, edging Salesianum (100 points) for the win. Brian Yeager’s come-from-behind sprint to the finish in the anchor position of the 4x400 relay sealed the Spartans’ victory.
Newark High’s softball team heads into the final week of the season with at least six wins, which is two more than they’ve had in a season since before the pandemic. Three of their four remaining games — Mount Pleasant and Dickinson twice — are against teams currently with losing records, and the fourth (William Penn) is just one game over .500. If Newark finishes with a winning record, it will be for the first time in over a decade. And even if that doesn’t happen, this is the best season in years. Way to go ‘Jackets!
Newark’s boys tennis team finished the regular season with a 7-5 record. The first and second rounds of the state tournament begin Saturday.
Glasgow’s girls soccer team won its first game of the year on Monday with a 1-0 win over Mount Pleasant. Jahasia Allen scored the game-winning goal at the 57-minute mark to secure the victory.
“The girls were so excited when we scored, they tackled our goal scorer,” head coach Brian Grant pointed out.
“We’ve been really close to getting that first win a few times,” Grant added. “We’ve had five one-goal losses this year, two of them in double overtime, and tied our last game before this win. So this is a big win for the program.”
Tenth-seeded Caravel Academy is the lone local representative in the Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association Girls Lacrosse Tournament. The Bucs opened up on Wednesday against No. 7 Wilmington Friends. Both teams entered the first-round contest with identical 10-5 records.
The Track and Field State Championship is this Friday and Saturday at Dover High School. I’ll have local results and highlights in next week’s column.
Weekday nights under the lights
Next fall’s Conference USA football schedule was released and, as expected, there are several conference games that are played on Tuesday and Wednesday nights in October. This is done purely for money as the games are televised nationally and rake in plenty of cash for the conference. That means that in the fall of 2025, the Blue Hens are almost guaranteed to host at least one home game on a weekday night in October. It could be a huge draw, or a complete flop. Time will tell. But either way it is out of UD’s hands. Welcome to the big time.
WilmU World Series watch
The Wilmington University softball team took advantage of the comforts of playing at home and shut out both of its opponents to win the East Regional. The Wildcats outscored the opposition 21-0 while outhitting them 26-7. Their 8-0 clinching win over Assumption on Sunday pushed them into the East Super Regionals for the third straight year. The Wildcats defeated Adelphi, 3-0, on Tuesday in the first game of the best-of-three series at Asbury Field in New Castle. The winner — Game 2 was played on Wednesday and Game 3 if it was necessary on Thursday — advanced to the Division II Softball World Series.
In my opinion only …
Bronny James, son of LeBron, has been cleared to play in the NBA. You can bet your house he will get drafted by whatever team his father is playing on. I’d also bet my house that he never becomes a top eight player on any roster. … NASCAR hosting a five-race in-season tournament with a $1 million prize makes no sense to me. The NBA did it hoping to create interest among fans of the teams unlikely to make the playoffs and to encourage the stars to play in the in-season tournament games when they otherwise might sit out one or two of them. But I don’t think this strategy works in a sport where all the stars race every single week, and fans show up to root for their favorite racer no matter where he stands in the rankings. And just like when they added stages to each race that were worth points to the winners, this idea won’t attract new fans to the sport. … It was depressing to watch the Phillies play against the Marlins in Miami. Their crowd is similar to a Triple A team and the atmosphere is nowhere near as exciting as a minor league game. It looked and sounded on TV like a home game for the Phillies, and I’m sure that’s the same for any visiting team. Baseball needs to do something about that.
Wrapping it up
As a follow up to last week’s column, Patrick Beverley of the Milwaukee Bucks received a four-game suspension to start next season for twice throwing the ball into the stands at a woman. … Jordan Spieth goes for the PGA Tour’s version of the Grand Slam this weekend when he tees off at the PGA Championship in Louisville. It’s the only one of the four grand slams Spieth has yet to win. If he wins, he will join an elite group of Grand Slam winners that includes Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Ben Hogan and Gene Sarazen. … UD football will play a home-and-home series against Coastal Carolina with the game taking place in Newark in 2026 and at Coastal Carolina in 2029.
Until next time … have a great sports week!
Have a sports tidbit to share? Email JonBuzby@hotmail.com and follow on Twitter @SportsBuzzPost.
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