People in Sports

Sports Editor Emeritus

Email Fredman at fredman@capegazette.com

Like Tambourine Man, all athletes eventually fade...

Dave Frederick
1 month ago
Primetime Cape cousins - Ella Rishko and Mikey Frederick are first cousins. They were the male and...

Travels with Fredman: 44 years as a people in sports...

Dave Frederick
1 month ago
Travels with Fredman - Forty-four years ago, with the sound of typewriter keys pounding out copy as...

Arden MacPhee turns the world on with her smile

Dave Frederick
1 month ago
Posterizing Planet Earth - Arden MacPhee, 13, is a community kid who beat the odds and childhood...

Fans get eerily quiet when outcome is no longer in...

Dave Frederick
1 month ago
Quiet storm - It was a blustery afternoon at Beacon Middle School April 21, for a boys’ lacrosse...

Fifteen-yard stare: fitting two heads in the frame...

Dave Frederick
1 month ago
Fifteen yards away - The lens and camera rig I had required me to stand 15 yards away to get Lee...

Spring season is all about participation across all...

Dave Frederick
1 month ago
Cool Runnings - I snapped a photo of marathon runner Jodi Johnson and thought the 23-year-old out...

Recognizing faces in places, but we all stumble on...

Dave Frederick
1 month ago
Symbolic speech - The Coastal Delaware Running Festival produces a sea of T-shirts with message...

Refs rule the roost, control the venue and are...

Dave Frederick
2 months ago
Max factor - I don’t bash referees, but to claim they aren’t a factor in a game (pick your sport)...

Cone of uncertainty surrounds protected cylinder of...

Dave Frederick
2 months ago
Cone of Uncertainty - There is a cylinder of personal space in basketball, lacrosse, soccer and...

Parched like a Dead Sea scroll on a red devil track

Dave Frederick
2 months ago
Acclimation project - Cape’s red devil track was unrelentingly pizza-oven hot Tuesday afternoon. We...

Coaches carry themselves with confidence and class 

Dave Frederick
2 months ago
LaForce Be With You - Allie LaForce is a sideline reporter for TNT Sports working the NCAA...

Reed Reflections: Fast with class and humble in the...

Dave Frederick
2 months ago
Athletic intelligence and high character - In March 1988, Dr. Chuck Epifanio and I were tracking...

Naiya and Aniyah run middle distance at Sussex...

Dave Frederick
2 months ago
Miss Teen Delmarva - Aniyah Daisey, 15, ran the Run for the Buds 5K March 22, passing me on Fredman...

Chuck and Carol Epifanio: An inseparable team of one 

Dave Frederick
2 months ago
Sail Away on the Wings of a Dove - Dr. Chuck Epifanio was a marine scientist at the UD campus in...

Half-marathon relay runners' combined age is less...

Dave Frederick
2 months ago
Shiny happy people running - Cape’s 4-by-800-meter indoor relay team that placed third in the state...

Moment of Zen on the playing fields of Fred Thomas...

Dave Frederick
3 months ago
Moment of Zen - “First there is a mountain, then there is no mountain, then there is.” – Donovan,...

Lacrosse girls playing basketball, just call them...

Dave Frederick
3 months ago
Happening in the moment - Multisport athletes Ally Diehl, Mairead Rishko, Amara Fruchtman, Mikaela...

Brag sheet of wrestlers includes GPA

Dave Frederick
3 months ago
Brag sheet - Bragging on yourself is considered annoyingly uncool and needy unless someone asked...

AI equals acquired immunity for photographers who...

Dave Frederick
3 months ago
Catch a shooting star - William Penn wrestling coach Joe Archangelo went out with a shazam Saturday...

Athletes are ready to bust loose

3 months ago
Wrestling Immersion Program - The only way to learn the language of a championship state wrestling...

Two days behind the camera, yet I often miss the...

Dave Frederick
3 months ago
What’s going on - Wrestling is the most intense sport; the dual meets are like indoor football...

Sports is a connect-the-dots game; the older you get...

Dave Frederick
3 months ago
Coach of the Year - The Tubby Raymond Delaware Coach of the Year Award, as voted by the Delaware...

‘Stay there’ and ‘short time’ are wrestling commands...

Dave Frederick
3 months ago
Stay there! Stay there! The coach exhorts, “Stay there! Short time!” The wrestler is on top, the...

Bad Bunny and Snoop Dogg are funny names surrounding...

Dave Frederick
4 months ago
Bad Bunny and Snoop Dogg - Where do little melons go in the summertime? John Cougar’s Mellencamp. I...

Young athletes bring magic moments to sports...

Dave Frederick
4 months ago
Sportsmanship and graciousness - I spoke to Lake Forest’s Jerusalem Howard two years ago and just...

Brokaw twins ran and swam for Cape; now they’re...

Dave Frederick
4 months ago
Hey, Ricky - Ricky Brokaw was a swimmer and cross country runner at Cape, graduating in 2016. His...

I’m a sportswriter, not a sociologist, but I do have...

Dave Frederick
4 months ago
Talk too much - “You talk too much, you worry me to death. You talk too much, you even worry my pet...

Truckin’ Triathlon: Wawa to the bay to the Cape campus

Dave Frederick
4 months ago
Blue Ice - Truck Cab Triathlon - There are three venues where I like to park and reflect while...

Track generates numbers, but not much funny happens

Dave Frederick
4 months ago
Henlopen track championships - Dover won the boys’ title and Sussex Academy claimed the girls’...

Halfway House of Hope: A sports showcase of promise...

Dave Frederick
4 months ago
Halfway house - The Fred Thomas gym is artistically cool, cozy and comfortable, but it doesn’t...

Cape wrestlers place third at Grapple at the Brook 

Dave Frederick
4 months ago
Grapple at the Brook - The Cape wrestlers, the traveling people of Viking sports, placed third of...

Swimming in the stream of consciousness, showing up...

Dave Frederick
4 months ago
Streaming the scene - Late-afternoon middle school sports is its own scene outside the lines. It's...

Real competition features best on best

Dave Frederick
5 months ago
Friars Club - I have a good friend, Chuck Chinici, who used to be the AD at Malvern Prep in Malvern...

Personal bests and milestones in the sports landscape

Dave Frederick
5 months ago
Raven flies high - “Air” Jordan Welch, a Sussex Tech senior high jumper, took the top off the event...

Pups and pop-pops are ready for banner year in 2026

Dave Frederick
5 months ago
Just some kid - One-mile walkers and 5K runners mesh at the end of their endeavors. This little guy...

Well-coached players don’t do dumb stuff

Dave Frederick
5 months ago
Don’t do dumb stuff - Forty years ago, I wrote that the Cape boys’ lacrosse team was the best- and...

The spiritually secure hit harder than heathens

Dave Frederick
5 months ago
Sunday morning coming down - On a Sunday morning in Lewes 50 years ago, the Fred house front-door...

Governor’s Cup gets prime placement in Cape...

Dave Frederick
5 months ago
In My Room - “Do my dreaming and my scheming. Lie awake and pray. Do my crying and my sighing...

The whammy is bad, but the double whammy is worse

Dave Frederick
5 months ago
The whammy - Two extended arms with fingers on both hands wiggling coming from a sports person is...

Great athletes snap wherever they matriculate

Dave Frederick
5 months ago
The Warrior - A song by American rock band Scandal (1984) reached No. 1 in Canada. The band was...

Cute person wins Ugly Sweater 5K

Dave Frederick
5 months ago
Redemption Song - Flor Duerr of Dover was rocking it Saturday morning at the Redemption City Ugly...

I rarely read, except for T-shirts and tattoos

Dave Frederick
6 months ago
Run for Dad - I’m a writer more than a reader, yet I read T-shirts and tattoos. The subjects are...

Remember when I was young and so were you?

Dave Frederick
6 months ago
Remember me? Thousands of photos were already taken at Flag Alley Saturday morning at a turnaround...

Sports memories are often when we were at our best 

Dave Frederick
6 months ago
Life coach - I received a wonderful surprise home visit from Linwood Downing and Lance White...

Connections lead back to the Atlantic City Steel Pier

Dave Frederick
6 months ago
Pumpkin Pie 5K - The Pumpkin Pie 5K is always a great race the Saturday after Thanksgiving. It’s...

Turkey soup: connections for which to be thankful

Dave Frederick
6 months ago
Turkey soup - Risking my sharp, satirical and sardonic edge, I've been writing more “Turkey Soup...

Ivy alumni are an entangled web of athletes

Dave Frederick
6 months ago
Yale Lockdowns - “Fredman, I just read that a young man named Brenner Short has committed to play...

Staying silent at football games is a tall order

Dave Frederick
6 months ago
Sounds of silence - It’s a tall order to ask a crowd of 50,000 rabid fans – many of whom have been...

Alphas and boomers stride and collide 

Dave Frederick
6 months ago
Boomers and bouncers - Allen “Chattahoochee” Jackson, 57, straight outta Milton, representing...

Fall colors captured at cross country races and in...

Dave Frederick
6 months ago
Tapestry - A cross country race through the flora and fauna of fall foliage ambulates like a...

Lady bugs and lessons of sportsmanship at XC...

Dave Frederick
7 months ago
Cape Guy - You know the Capital One Bank Guy? Well, after the Sesame Street by the Sea Fred...

Showed up for a single photo and a XC race broke out

Dave Frederick
7 months ago
Cross purposes - I showed up at Cape Tuesday afternoon to grab a photo of Logan Crotty for...

Happy is the heart of the long distance runner with...

Dave Frederick
7 months ago
Happy at last - Let’s face it, some body types are better suited for distance running and others...

Mortal muppets nestled inside the sock drawer of...

Dave Frederick
7 months ago
Marauding middle schoolers - A scheduled middle school cross country meet Oct. 29 at Killens Pond...

Shiny, happy people laughing at Sea Witch 5K

Dave Frederick
7 months ago
Happy Together! Beautiful spirits and smiling faces. I don't know if I’ve ever been that happy on a...

Come get these sports memories

Dave Frederick
7 months ago
We Are the Champions! I lifted the following paragraph from Jay Futcher’s obituary, which appears...

The world of school sports is full of surprise and...

Dave Frederick
7 months ago
Captain Marvel - Forty-five years a sports reporter, and I still feel great surprise and wonderment...

There are no dead heats in cross country races

Dave Frederick
7 months ago
Dead heat - I was heading to JV field hockey when I saw there was a middle school cross country...

Every athlete teaches life lessons

7 months ago
Harrington Harrier - Matt Sparacino, representing Races2Run in a Seashore Striders racing event,...

Coaches are the unsung heroes of middle school 

Dave Frederick
8 months ago
National Coaches Day - Like most fans, I didn’t know Monday was National Coaches Day. That was...