If It Was Community, It Was Norman Dellas Sr.
Another season of hits, walks, chewing gum and oversized uniforms is well underway for the Lower Cape May Regional Little League. The tradition of screaming parents, hustling players and animated coaches continues unabated as another spring prepares to turn to summer.
But south of the Cape May Canal, little league softball and baseball are different this year. There’s a gap wider than any power alley, a void deeper than the canal itself.
Norman Dellas Sr. isn’t here to witness yet another campaign.
Mr. Dellas passed away Feb. 22. At 92, he spent more time on youth ball fields than most people spend on earth.
A successful local businessman who graduated Cape May High School and served his country in World War II, Dellas and the former Margie Bailey made a life together for their children – Norman Jr., Elizabeth and Kim, while also providing the thrills of youth sports to thousands of area youngsters.
Norman Sr. and Margie were one for 59 years.
Mr. Dellas was an accomplished hurler for the semi-pro Cape May Collegians and turned his love and experience with the game into more than a half-century of volunteer coaching and umpiring.
The beautiful, snug confines of Cape May’s Dellas Field represent a living monument to the contributions of Norman and Margie Dellas.
These days, a small, peaceful resting area with a diamond shaped pavement and benches adorn the back of home plate at the Lafayette Street field where the Dellas’s encouraged and worked with so many little leaguers.
Mr. Dellas loved working with children and gave his free time to his community season after season after season.
He was a trailblazer for future generations of players and parents to follow. What many parents in this region know about the games of baseball and softball they learned from Norman Dellas Sr. He was the example to follow.
Mr. Dellas served many terms with the Cape May City Board of Education and was a key player in the construction of the Victorian resort’s current elementary school.
Not content to just contribute to sports, he led dens of Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. He was a Kiwanis member and zoning board official. He was with the Knights of Columbus and the American Legion Post 386.
If it was community, it was Norman Dellas Sr.
The games go on this year like they will for years to come. The lessons, mistakes, triumphs and post-game ice cream are staples of America’s Pastime on the small stage of little league. Mr. Dellas carved quite a few memories for his community members.
People who came before us carried on this great tradition and gave us the instruction of how to do so. People like Norman Dellas Sr. have left legacies that time cannot erase.
It doesn’t take a carefully designed and beautifully preserved resting area for visitors to Dellas Field to know that many special memories have occurred in that lush green grass and along those chalky white and gravel base lines.
The games go on this year, but something is missing. And if you’re at the game amidst the cheering and the screaming and the encouragement, you may hear those same sounds echoing from the past.
No matter what technology and science bring about, it’ll still be about throwing, catching, hitting and running. Most importantly, for Norman Dellas Sr., it was always about the fun and the learning.
While he is gone now, his lessons to generations of young ballplayers must never fade. Those who follow must pass along the same ideals of sportsmanship and teaching that Mr. Dellas taught us all.
If you haven’t done so, spend some time volunteering for youth and you’ll walk in the shoes of Norman Dellas Sr.
Doing that is what tradition is all about.
