SPORTS BUZZ: ‘Cheers’ to local people, teams making national headlines

Klatzkin’s passion for broadcasting started at Newark High School doing the “morning news report”. He announced games for WVUD radio while a student at UD and then went on to broadcast high school and Delaware State University games on radio before becoming the “Voice of the Blue Hens” in 2012. Klatzkin is also a frequent television broadcaster for local college football and basketball games as well as the FloSports livestream broadcast for all UD home football and basketball games. He has now won the award six times and three of the last four years.

Also this past week, Blue Hen mascot YoUDee was named National Champion in the Open Mascot division of the Universal Cheerleaders Association (UCA) National competition at the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex in Orlando.

YoUDee’s victory was just one of three national titles for the Blue Hens. The cheerleading squad finished atop the Small Coed Cheer Gameday standings for the fifth consecutive year, and the dance team came in first in the hip-hop division of the Universal Dance Association (UDA) championships.

“The amount of Blue Hen pride I have from this year’s UCA and UDA College Nationals is overwhelming,” said Ryan Blanford, spirit program coordinator and coed cheer team head coach. “Cheer, dance and mascot each bringing home a national championship is the triple crown. That is something we haven’t done since 2019 and only the second time in UD history. Between our student-athletes, coaches and athletics support staff, we have a program culture that works to achieve excellence on a daily basis. That strong culture proved itself this weekend and I’m so glad our student-athletes got to experience the rewards of all their hard work. This program is Blue Hen built.”

This is the 17th straight year that the UD program has won at least one national championship, and it has captured 27 overall.

And that’s not all from the “Happiest Place on Earth”. Wilmington University’s cheerleading squad won the gold medal in the Open Small Coed division. It was the ninth championship overall for a program that has been a mainstay atop the rankings for more than a decade, winning eight consecutive national championships from 2012-19, finishing second in 2020 and placing third a season ago.

“To win our ninth national championship at Wilmington University seems like a dream,” head coach Ashley Munday said. “After coming up short in 2020 and 2022, this year’s team bought all the way into our process and put in the work needed to create a championship routine. We pride ourselves in representing the University and the state of Delaware in the highest light at the national level. And to do that with local athletes on the team makes it even better.”

Coaches wanted

Newark High school is seeking boys lacrosse head and assistant coaches for the spring season. Interested candidates please contact athletic director Jason Bedford at Jason.Bedford@christina.k12.de.us.

Glasgow has an opening for its football head coaching job. Contact athletic director Robert Peterson at Robert.Peterson@christina.k12.de.us.

UD 2023 football schedule announced

The football schedule for next season includes three non-conference games highlighted by the first ever trip to Penn State on Sept. 9. The first of six home games kicks off Sept. 16 when the Hens host Saint Francis (Pa.) in a rematch of last year’s NCAA FCS playoff opener, which Delaware won, 56-17. Other home games include New Hampshire, Duquesne, North Carolina A&T, Elon and Villanova. For the complete schedule visit www.bluehens.com.

In my opinion only

The blowout in the FBS Championship game convinced me that expanding the playoffs is the right move. What will be interesting to see is how colleges adapt their regular season schedules to account for the extra games and wear-and-tear on bodies and budgets. Have we seen the end of conference championship games? Will off weeks be a thing of the past? Will a champion be crowned before February? Lots of questions to answer, but most importantly let’s just hope the new system prevents another lopsided game in the season finale. Oh, and one more thing: if the NCAA football championship can kick off at 7:45 on a Monday night, why does the basketball championship game tip off at 9:20 p.m. when people in school or with jobs have to get up early the next morning? Or are just too old to stay up past 10 p.m. Asking for a friend.

Wrapping it up

Former Newark Charter basketball player Justin Thomas, now playing for Wilmington University, was named to the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference Weekly Honor Roll for averaging 15.5 points and four rebounds per game in a win over Holy Family and a loss at Dominican the week of Jan. 3. Thomas is second on the team in scoring (13.8) and rebounds (4.4). … It doesn’t feel anything like spring weather outside, but registrations for most spring youth sports are either already happening or will be very soon. Don’t miss out. Make sure to check in with your organization for when and where signups, and in some cases, tryouts and skills assessments, will be held. I’ve seen some that even offer discounts to sign up early.

Until next time … have a great sports week!

Have a sports tidbit to share? Email JonBuzby@hotmail.com and follow on Twitter @SportsBuzzPost.