By Andy Walter

MILFORD — It was something about what this dad said that kind of stuck with Lauren Dickerson.

He was the father of a player she had taken a photo of at a softball tournament.

Dickerson ran into him at a later event.

“He goes, ‘Your picture is hanging in our hallway,’” she remembered. “I was, ‘Wow,’ I mean I know I was on senior banners and stuff. But being in someone’s hallway is just cool.”

A recent Milford High grad, Dickerson has made a name for herself locally with her hobby of taking photos at any number of schools and events.

Tonight, however, Dickerson will be on the other side of things when she plays in the Blue-Gold All-Star Softball Game at Red Lion Christian Academy. The contest is slated to start with a skills contest at 5:30 p.m. followed by the game at 6.

For Dickerson, the game will put the finishing touches on a high school career that started with her being a member of Caravel’s 2021 DIAA state championship team as a freshman. After transferring to Milford for her final three seasons, the first baseman/pitcher helped the Buccaneers go 15-4 last spring.

A second-team All-Henlopen North pick as a senior, Dickerson was named Milford’s Outstanding Female Athlete.

Before she even got to high school, Dickerson played on Camden-Wyoming’s 9-10 Little League squad that won the Eastern Regional in 2016.

For that matter, Milford coach Kevin Barkley can remember Dickerson hanging around the 2017 Buccaneer team that won the DIAA state finals. He said the fifth grader could jump in and take throws at first base just like she was another one of the high school players.

“They were throwing balls at her like she was one of them,” said Barkley. “She’s been around it (softball) forever.”

Athletic ability runs in Dickerson’s family. Her father, Kevin, was a multi-sport athlete who went to the University of Delaware on a football scholarship before injuries ended his career.

Lauren Dickerson has become a regular taking photos at local sporting events. Submitted photo/Nick Barbato

Lauren Dickerson said she first started playing softball when she was in first grade. She recently posted a school paper she wrote when she was 10 about what she was going to do as she got older.

Softball figured prominently.

“It was just fun,” said Dickerson. “I had played soccer and then I started travel softball. They couldn’t work together so I just picked softball.”

While winning a state championship with Caravel was special, Dickerson said she really enjoyed her three years at Milford. Even this year, the Bucs got off to a slow start but finished the regular season with three straight wins to make the DIAA state tournament and ended up 10-9.

Dickerson hit a couple of home runs, led the squad in RBI and even did some relief pitching in five games. She hadn’t pitched in a game in two seasons.

“I really enjoyed my time with my team,” she said. “If I had one more game, I would love to play with them.”

Milford had only three seniors on a roster that included three freshmen and an eighth grader. Barkley said it definitely helped having Dickerson’s veteran presence around the younger players.

“She was a great role model,” he said. “She’s very aware of everything around her. She worries about her team more than herself. ... Man, we’re going to miss her.”

Dickerson’s interest in photography started a couple years ago when she took some pictures of Milford’s wrestling team.

Lauren Dickerson took this photo of a play during the Smyrna-Caesar Rodney High football game. Submitted photo/Lauren Dickerson

Now she’s a regular on the sidelines at various sporting events in the area.

While most of her photos are of high school games, Dickerson has photographed college games as well.

On her Instagram photo page, Dickerson has over 2,500 followers. She said some of her photos have gone in the yearbooks in at least four different schools this year — Caesar Rodney, Milford, Smyrna and Woodbridge.

Dickerson has even taken some photos during her own games from the dugout.

“It’s so cool,” she said. “If people text me and ask me to go out to games, I’ll go out to games. I’ve had parents ask for different events. It’s really fun.

“I go to games and I know people. It’s really cool.“

“If she’s not playing softball, she’s probably somewhere taking pictures,” said Barkley. “Anywhere there’s a game and if there’s somebody there she knows, she goes there and takes pictures.

“She knows everybody wherever she goes. And, if she doesn’t, she makes friends before she leaves.”

For right now, Dickerson said photography will remain just a hobby. She’s headed for Delaware Tech, where she’s going to major in education and continue playing softball.

Barkley said it’s interesting that Dickerson often finds herself the one taking photos at games rather than the other way around.

“People don’t take enough pictures of her as she always takes of people,” he said. “She’s the one to always take a picture. But there’s nowhere where someone is always taking pictures of her like that.”

Being on both sides of the camera, Dickerson said she realizes more now why kids are impatient to see the photos she’s taken.

“I definitely understand when kids are texting me and texting me like, ‘When are these pictures coming out?’” she said. “I was anxious to see them, too. so I understand it now more than I did before.”

Extra innings

•The downstate players in the Blue-Gold game are split between the two squads. Polytech has three players on the Blue team with the Panthers’ Kyle Taylor as one of the three coaches.

•On the other hand, CR has three players on the Gold team coached by the Riders’ Skye Borris and two others.

•Sussex Central’s Madge Layfield, who is not slated to play in the all-star game, was named the state Player of the Year by the coaches’ association.

•Lake Forest’s Gabi Cubbage was named the state Coach of the Year after leading the Spartans to the Henlopen Conference title.

•Of the 20 players named first-team All-State, 11 were from the Henlopen Conference.

SOFTBALL
Blue-Gold All-Star Game

The rosters for the Blue-Gold All-Star Softball Game, which is being played on Wednesday at 6 p.m. at Red Lion Christian Academy.

Gold roster

17-P-Kasey Xenidis Caravel
12-OF-Ella Gandolfo Charter
21-3B-Natalie Nycz Wilm. Charter
5-2B-Dana Harris Christiana
3-2B-Chloe Donigan Caesar Rodney
13-C-Madison Fox Caesar Rodney
18-SS-Sydney Hatch Caesar Rodney
8-2B-Erin McDonough Hodgson
11-P-Kylee Hill Laurel
3-OF-Gabrielle Pepper Middletown
2-1B-Kaylee Stenvik Middletown
11-OF-Riley Curtis Odessa
35-3B-Cate Shrader Padua
17-C-Morgan Hall Saint Mark's
18-1B-Pia Perone Saint Mark's
6-OF-Kiersten Anderson Sussex Central
20-SS-Takyla Davis Sussex Central
4-OF-Ella Augustine William Penn
3-OF-Asia Harding William Penn
7-1B-Mirah Maddox Woodbridge
COACHES: Skye Boris, Caesar Rodney; Tom Lundy, Christiana; Tom Pritchard, William Penn.

Blue roster

3-3B-Brianna Russo Appoquinimink
2-OF-Sophia Watson Appoquinimink
16-OF-Megan Leary Brandywine
17-C-JayLyn Slater Cape Henlopen
5-SS-Rachel Waslyn Concord
6-2B-Isabella McKee Conrad
4-3B-Lily Hutt Delmarva Christian
22-2B-Kaelin Kuester Dickinson
12-P-Megan Daisey Indian River
3-OF-Katie McHale Indian River
3-OF-Kaitlyn Bell Lake Forest
27-1B-Lauren Dickerson Milford
13-C-Sydney Macknis Newark Charter
11-SS-Bryn O'Connor Newark Charter
10-1B-Rachel Carey Polytech
8-P-Mara Everton Polytech
2-SS-Mackenzie Mitchell Polytech
22-1B-Hailey McCutchan Smyrna
2-OF-Natalie Santoleri St. Georges
0-OF-Destiny Mitchell Sussex Tech

COACHES: Kyle Taylor, Polytech; Mike Oberly, Brandywine; Tim Wampler, St. Georges.

Ruggerio.com