Sports

Though they scored 21 points in the final quarter of their Sept. 7 football game against Indian River High School, Stephen Decatur would still have needed two more touchdowns to beat the Indians that night.

Having won the 2011 state football championship with a 12-0 record, Indian River High School is the place to be. Head coach Ray Steele estimated that 92 players attended preseason, with a roster settling in the 80s.

G’day, Delaware! The Indian River fields and courts are finally seeing action again, as Little League season draws to a close and the fall sports kick into full-gear. But this August has been unlike any of the ones I’ve experienced over the past few years. The unmistakable 80-degree days of the tapering summer in the final weeks before the school bells start up across Sussex County have been replaced by Pacific sunrises, with kookaburras laughing as they fly from tree to tree, and more summer right around the corner.

The new school year won’t begin until Sept. 4, but the Indian River High School boys soccer team has already played three scrimmage and field days to test their skills and check out the competition. Head coach Steve Kilby said preseason is the time for players to get their heads in the game and prepare for the coming season. He aims to get the players amped up and ready to play after the distraction of summer life.

After narrowly losing last year’s championship to the District 3 host team from Laurel, Del., Latin America swung back to win the 2012 Senior League Softball World Series, 6-4, over this year’s District 3 representatives.

Adventure on the high seas begins with a mini-golf course in Bethany Beach. It’s impossible to miss the pirate ship on Pennsylvania Avenue, just north of Garfield Parkway, where Captain Jack’s Pirate Golf has entertained visitors for six years.

Croaker is the catch of the week at the inlet and in the surf. Fresh squid, clams and Gulp! have tempted croaker in the inlet and at Site 8 on the incoming tide. Meanwhile, early mornings at Site 10 have brought flounder in on Gulp! and live spot. Water temperatures had been too warm for rockfish, although some blues, tog and sheepshead have been seen.

Athletes from all over the world will converge on Sussex County this week for an event of major proportions. The Senior League Softball World Series brings 10 teams — more than 100 girls ages 13 to 16, their coaches and supporters — to Roxana to contend for the international championship.

Those days of science class and dissection may have ended for many people, but class is in session at the third annual Sea Colony Sports Science Day. Melissa Hunfalvay, PhD., will help tennis players dissect the game and improve their court skills on Saturday, Aug. 11.

“Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” — Mark Twain

The Delaware beaches have been racking up awards recently, and Sea Colony beach and tennis resort has joined in the parade of honors. The United States Tennis Association (USTA) this week selected Sea Colony as one of eight tennis facilities to receive the 2012 Outstanding Facility of the Year award.

The District III Little League All-Star and Pat Knight tournaments have drawn to a close, and, in turn, many state tournaments have followed. For the boys’ baseball All-Stars, each of the four age groups produced a different champion.

The District III Little League All-Star tournaments are well under way. The Pat Knight competition got swinging this week. And three All-Star tournaments had already reached a conclusion as of Coastal Point’s press deadline on Wednesday, July 18.

I truly never developed my love and passion for sports until the last six or seven years of my life, much to the chagrin of my father. I don’t know why. I was just never that enthralled with sports the way I am today, particularly as a spectator.

There’s no question that softball is alive and well throughout lower Delaware. In fact, at least one Sussex County team has played for the high-school softball state championship in seven of the past eight years, and next month Roxana’s Pyle Center will once again play host to the finest softball players the world over, with the Senior League Softball World Series.