Prep notes: Delmar's Hearn ties Henlopen coaching mark

Delmar coach David Hearn says quarterback Jimmy Adkins, shown here last year against Lake Forest, is playing at an all-conference level at four positions for the Wildcats.

Delmar football coach David Hearn reached an interesting milestone at an interesting place last Friday.

Hearn’s Wildcats defeated Seaford 54-14 at the Blue Jays’ Ron Dickerson Field. That improved Hearn’s career record to 191-86 and tied him with Ron Dickerson (191-94-9) for the most wins by a Henlopen Conference football coach.

“To even be mentioned in the same category as Ron Dickerson as a coach, it’s an honor and it’s humbling,” Hearn said Monday. “You don’t get any better or more legendary than that guy. I consider him a friend, and that’s really high company to be involved with.”

Hearn is in his 26th year as Delmar’s coach, winning four of the school’s six Division II state titles (2000, ’01, ’02, ’09) along the way. The Wildcats are 5-2 overall, 3-0 in the Henlopen South and will take a four-game winning streak into Friday night’s home game against Indian River (2-5, 2-2).

“Back in August, I never could have said we’ll get five wins,” Hearn said. “To get to .500 would have been a great season.

“Now we’re there, and of course we’re stupid enough to think why can’t we sneak into the playoffs? Everybody gets greedy, and of course our fans are excited. It doesn’t take much to get them going and get them thinking about the playoffs. But that’s fun.”

The Wildcats are young overall, but receiving outstanding leadership from a small group of seniors. Jimmy Adkins never comes off the field, a key cog as a quarterback, safety, punter and returner.

“He’s playing at an all-conference level in all of those places,” Hearn said of Adkins. “He’s doing a nice job throwing the ball. We’re throwing the ball much more than we have before.”

Hearn calls senior linebacker-fullback Isaac Austin “an intense individual.” Senior Ziggy Ryder is playing big roles at halfback and cornerback, and junior halfback-linebacker Brooks Parker is already in his second year as a captain.

“We lost 20-something seniors, and we’ve got a whole flock of ninth- and 10th-graders on the field,” Hearn said. “Where we are is an over-achievement right now, and that’s a credit to the kids and the coaches.”

Top-ranked Woodbridge and No. 2 Milford (both 7-0, 3-0) are grabbing all the Henlopen South attention now, leading up to their meeting at Woodbridge on Friday. But Delmar can still have a major say in the conference race. The Wildcats’ final two games are at Milford on Nov. 4 and at Woodbridge on Nov. 11.

Dragons adopt a highway

Glasgow cleaned up on the football field last Friday night, downing Lake Forest 28-6 to improve to 7-0.

Then the Dragons cleaned up some more on Saturday morning, as about 50 players and coaches scoured a stretch of Old Newark Road as part of DelDOT’s Adopt-A-Highway program.

“It’s something we do annually, to make sure they know life is bigger than just sports,” Glasgow coach Shannon Riley said. “We want to make sure that we give back to the community.”

The Dragons spent about an hour filling several trash bags with litter. They even found a Big Wheel tricycle and a live opossum, which was not removed for obvious reasons.

“It was fun for them,” Riley said. “They got a chance to bond, go up and down the road and work together.”

Teamwork will be important this Friday, as Glasgow, ranked third statewide in Division II, celebrates homecoming against No. 10 Howard at 7 p.m. The Wildcats (4-3) downed the Dragons 38-22 last season on the way to the D-II state title.

“This is a huge game for us,” Riley said. “Our guys asked for it to be homecoming, because they knew it was important that they show up for homecoming and play well in front of all of their fans.

“They’ve had this one circled for a while. All games are big games, but especially this one. We’re playing the defending state champs, and they’ve playing very good ball right now.”

Heisman winners

Victoria Drumheller of Wilmington Christian and Erik-Stephane Stancofski of Cape Henlopen have been named Delaware winners of the Wendy’s High School Heisman scholarships.

The awards honor high school seniors for academic and athletic achievements and community leadership. Both Drumheller and Stancofski will receive a $1,000 college scholarship, silver medal, commemorative patch and a $50 Wendy’s gift card. They also will be eligible to become national finalists, where one female and one male winner will each receive a $10,000 scholarship.

The Delaware winners were chosen from among 20 state finalists, including Taylor Coleman and Ryan Steckline of Appoquinimink, Sarah Gotthold of Dickinson, Connor Sweeney of Charter of Wilmington, David Hazelton of St. Elizabeth, Chris Ludman of St. Mark’s, Zachary Barbin of Red Lion Christian, Lena Berry and Andrew Bratcher of Caesar Rodney, Andrew Evan and Kelsi Warrington of Sussex Central, Olivia Anderson of Delmarva Christian, Gillian Crawford of St. Thomas More, Hannah Doyle of Seaford, Aaron Buzdygon of Cab Calloway School of the Arts, Alexandra Narvaez of Newark Charter, Griffin McCormick of Indian River and Madeline Olivere of Padua.

Contact Brad Myers at bmyers@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter: @BradMyersTNJ