Middletown football coach Mark DelPercio watches his team warm up before the Cavaliers’ first Beat the Beast game in 2012.
The Middletown football team will swap its traditional home blue jerseys for pink on Friday night, for a worthy cause.
The 7:30 kickoff against Mount Pleasant at Cavaliers Stadium will be Middletown’s fourth annual Beat the Beast cancer awareness game. Middletown players will wear pink jerseys with the name of a cancer survivor, someone currently fighting cancer or someone who lost their life to cancer on the back.
Families donated $100 to reserve a pink jersey, with their loved one to be honored during a pregame ceremony. After the game, the families will keep the game-worn jerseys after they are presented by the players.
Fans may get involved by buying Beat the Beast T-shirts during the game. Proceeds will go to Beat the Beast, a local organization founded in 1995 to raise funds for cancer research, awareness and patient care.
On top of everything else, it should be a good game. The fourth-ranked Cavaliers are 4-2 overall, 3-1 in Blue Hen Flight A. Fifth-ranked Mount Pleasant is the biggest surprise in Division I football, rolling along at 5-1 overall and 4-1 in Flight A.
Unified football
The Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association (DIAA) and Special Olympics Delaware (SODE) are teaming up to offer a new high school sport – Unified flag football.
The sport brings together students with and without disabilities on the same team, to compete on the same fields as their varsity peers.
“The idea is inclusion,” DIAA executive director Kevin Charles said. “The goal is to take kids out of those classrooms where it’s just them, and they don’t get to interact with the students without disabilities. It’s trying to bring them into the mainstream wherever possible so they can have the total school experience.”
Four schools are participating in the new program, and the opening games will take place on Saturday at Cavaliers Stadium in Middletown. Concord will meet Caesar Rodney at 7 p.m., followed by William Penn against Middletown at 8. Admission is free.
Additional games will be played as part of the SODE Fall Festival on Oct. 31 at St. Andrew’s, and on Dec. 5 on the big stage at Delaware Stadium as part of the DIAA’s Division I and Division II football state championship games.
“We’re doing it to give opportunities to more kids,” Charles said. “They get to experience the joys of competing on an athletic team, competing for your school, the bus rides to the games, all the things that go along with it.”
DIAA has sanctioned Unified track and field competition at its annual state outdoor meet the past three years, with the number of schools and participants increasing annually.
“One of our goals is to expand Unified sports into each season,” said Charles, who mentioned Unified basketball as a future possibility. “We’d like to have at least one offering per season.”
IR football on a roll
Indian River football coach Phillip Townsend knew there was a good chance his team would get off to a rough start. The Indians opened the season with games against Maryland powerhouse Linganore and Division I opponents Sussex Tech and Cape Henlopen.
The Indians were outscored 119-12 in those three, but that is disappearing in the rear-view mirror. Indian River has won its last three games to get back to .500 and join defending champion Lake Forest atop the Henlopen South standings at 3-0.
“Starting out 0-3 was really difficult,” Townsend said. “One of the best things is I’ve got a really good group of kids, and they believed what I was telling them. I told them once we get to the [Henlopen] South, we’ll really be prepared better than a lot of the other teams.”
The Indians gained some confidence with a 48-0 win over Seaford, then erased a 12-0 deficit in a 28-18 victory over Laurel. IR won a see-saw battle against Milford last Friday, coming out on top 22-18 after the lead changed hands three times in the fourth quarter.
George Martin rushed for 138 yards and three touchdowns in the latest victory. Gerald Foreman added 104 yards, and Isaiah Morris has also been getting his share of touches.
“I feel like we’re benefitting because we’ve got guys rotating at tailback and fullback and receiver,” Townsend said. “When it comes to the third or fourth quarter, my guys are still fresh.”
Senior quarterback Jake Hudson struggled early in the season, but came back in to lead the win over Laurel. And senior DeAndre Cooper, a 6-foot-1, 230-pound noseguard/tight end, is making a big impact on both sides of the ball.
“Milford had to double-team him at noseguard, which leaves a linebacker free,” Townsend said of Cooper. “A lot of times he doesn’t get as many tackles or as much recognition, but really he’s the force of our offense and defense. A lot of our running schemes have him somewhere in the picture.”
Rounding it up
► Congratulations to Wilmington Christian field hockey coach Pam Love, who earned her 300th career coaching victory in the Warriors’ 8-1 victory over Middletown on Oct. 12. Wilmington Christian is 7-1 heading into Tuesday’s game against 7-2-1 Archmere at Hockessin Montessori School.
► Middletown is seeking a head coach for baseball. Email résumés and letters of intent to athletic director Brant Perry at brant.perry@appo.k12.de.us<mailto:brant.perry@appo.k12.de.us.
Contact Brad Myers at bmyers@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter: @BradMyersTNJ