LEWES, Del. - In a night over 40 years in the making, the Cape Henlopen High School football team finds itself on the brink of a historic achievement: attempting to secure its second football state title. As the current vikings gear up for the showdown at the University of Delaware Friday night, memories of the first championship season in 1979 come rushing back.
Rob Schroeder was a biology teacher working double duty as the 1979 team's offensive coordinator when Cape beat Caesar Rodney in a 37-6 victory.
"It was a tremendous victory, that state championship," Schroeder told CoastTV news. The win came just ten years after Rehoboth Beach, Lewes and Milton combined to form the Cape Henlopen School District. Schroeder says the championship season helped to solidify the merge.
"There were still some very strong feelings about each school and each individual community," he said. "It brought the three communities even closer together."
Schroeder still has the windbreaker he wore back then, and some longtime friends, too. He worked with then fellow assistant coach and childhood friend Bill Collick, who went on to become the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Coach of the Year and worked with Delaware State University's football team in the 1980s. The two saw the 1979 team bounce back from a title game defeat the year prior.
"An unbelievable group of talent, and again, kids who believed and played well throughout the season," Collick said.
1979 Cape Henlopen champion football team
In 2019, the team came together again to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the championship game, the only state title in school history... so far. Despite the passage of time, pride remains strong among the players and the relationships forged during the 1979 championship season continue to resonate through the community.
"Those players, those games, that victory transcends time and space," Schroeder said.