Above: After a standout high school career, Mears led Old Dominion to a national field hockey championship. Photo courtesy DSHOF.
By Chuck Durante
When first shown a field hockey stick at Rehoboth Junior High, seventh grader Adele Mears thought it was a strange object. She learned to wield it as well as anyone, becoming an all-American who drove Old Dominion University (ODU) to the national title in the longest championship game ever played.
A pioneer among Cape Henlopen High School’s tradition of three-sport women athletes, she was inducted into the Delaware Sports Hall of Fame at its 50th anniversary celebration on May 28 at the Chase Center on the Riverfront.
Also an all-state basketball player and slugging left fielder for Cape powerhouses, Mears became a foundation for Old Dominion’s national leadership in women’s sports. Under Beth Anders, who would coach nine NCAA champions and the U.S. Olympic team, “We were probably the most conditioned team in the whole United States,” says Mears. Suicide sprints were routine — even after games.
The exhaustion was rewarded in the Monarchs’ second straight title in 1983. After William Penn’s Dawn Hill’s semifinal goal put ODU into the title game at Franklin Field, the finalists — the Monarchs and their only regular-season conqueror, Connecticut — set the ground rules. Any tie would be decided not by penalty strokes, but by a 10-minute overtime.
There would be three overtimes, resulting in a 100-minute marathon won by ODU, 3-1. ESPN broadcast the game — two weeks later.
After helping Old Dominion to a top-five ranking as a freshman but missing much of her sophomore season with ligament injuries, Mears was elected captain as a junior. She led ODU to a 20-1 record and the national title, with a semifinal victory over Missy Meharg and the Delaware Blue Hens, themselves making their fourth Final Four appearance in six years.
One of many introduced to field hockey by Ruth Skoglund at Rehoboth and Carolyn Ivins at Cape, Mears led the Vikings to the state finals in 1978, then victory over Laurel in an all-downstate final in 1979. In that season, goalie Delia Clark allowed only two goals and Cape achieved Delaware’s first fall triple crown, with adjoining titles in football and cross country.
Mears worked at the Stockley Center for 30 years, becoming director of the facility for adults with developmental disabilities. Grateful to teammates who have become lifelong friends and beloved in the Cape community, she has lost her husband to cancer and both parents in the last three years — while surviving three kidney transplants.
— Founded in 1976, the Delaware Sports Museum and Hall of Fame is located on the Wilmington Riverfront at 801 Shipyard Drive on the first base side of Frawley Stadium. Sports fans can tour the museum for free each Saturday from 10am to 1pm and for two hours before every Blue Rocks home game.
