The 21st All Star Saturday will be held Saturday (March 16) in the Dixie Howell Gymnasium at Ocean City High School. The top seniors from Cape-Atlantic League basketball teams will wear their uniforms one last time when they pair off in a doubleheader starting at 4pm. The Calvi Electric Girls Classic will tip off at 4 and the Dixie Howell Memorial Boys Classic will follow at 6pm. A dozen players who scored more than 1,000 career points will see action. There will be three-point shootouts for both the boys & girls. The teams are coached by the coaches whose teams reached the semifinals of t ..read more

By TOM WILLIAMS The NJSIAA basketball tournaments ended over the weekend and Mainland became the 19th Cape-Atlantic League team to win a state girls championship. Scott Betson, who also won a state title in 2019, is the seventh CAL girls coach to win more than one state championship. Wildwood’s Dave Troiano leads that group with four and the rest of them also have two – Steve DiPatri, Steve Ottenberg, Joe Fussner, Gary Barber and Greg Goodwin. Betson and Middle Township’s John Leahy each won a third South Jersey title, ranking among the top 10 CAL coaches on a list that is led by Ocean City’s ..read more

By TOM WILLIAMS There has never been a boys basketball season at Ocean City High School like the one that ended on Saturday. Not in the 90 years since Hirsh Shiding scored 6.8 points per game to lead Von Henroid’s team to a 9-7 record in 1934. The 2023-24 Raiders wrote their names into the record books again and again. They won their first seven games of the season and, in January, they shot 66.0 percent in a 57-41 win at Egg Harbor Township. That broke a record (64.9 percent) set 62 years earlier against Hammonton by Dixie Howell’s team led by Jerry Fadden and Dave Farina. They won a record 2 ..read more

By TOM WILLIAMS There must be something in the water in Linwood. Mainland’s sports program is flourishing. The football team captured the imagination of the state in winning Group 4 with a record 14 victories. The girls basketball team won the Cape-Atlantic League Tournament and is the favorite in NJSIAA Group 3 South. The boys basketball team is the top seed in Group 3 and finished second in the CAL Tournament. There is also success in cross country, swimming, baseball and other sports, Mainland has had championship teams in sports throughout its 63-year history. A couple of them have been in ..read more

By TOM WILLIAMS A Raider Nation group was part of Ocean City’s boys basketball win over Mainland in Linwood Monday. And they were there – wearing white tee shirts – last night when John Bruno’s team played Cedar Creek. This is an important time for Raider Nation. The Ocean City teams have played all season to get home court advantage in the Cape-Atlantic League and NJSIAA Tournaments. And Raider Nation is part of that home court advantage. There are lots of big challenges coming up. The boys basketball team plays Williamstown tomorrow afternoon and senior Kori Segich needs 31 points points to ..read more

Back in 1996 at Egg Harbor Township High School, the Prime Events Girls Shootout set the stage for showcase events in girls basketball. This weekend The Shootout will take place for the 27th time at Ocean City High School. Through the years some great teams and talented players have participated. You can see photos of some of the great players – from Sue Bird through Kylee Watson – plus the history of the event, HERE. This weekend there are some special stories. The 2024 Shootout includes the only undefeated team in South Jersey, the leading scorer in the state and a team that set a state thre ..read more

By TOM WILLIAMS Almost everybody wants to get past the two minutes of angry words that marred the exciting Atlantic City-Mainland basketball game 10 days ago. There were no physical confrontations, no punches and just one shove. Basically, just some heated words. The game continued with no incidents, the Vikings won a thriller and the teams shook hands. But, a day later, the NJSIAA announced that Atlantic City had violated a rule and would not be permitted in the state basketball tournament. A stupid rule! It all started when an Atlantic City player missed his first free throw and walked away ..read more

There will be six basketball games at Ocean City High School on Saturday plus a silent auction in the hallway outside the Dixie Howell Gymnasium. It is the annual Butch Gleason Memorial Coaches vs Cancer Day and all funds raised will all benefit the American Cancer Society. The day begins with a boys middle school game between Ocean City and Upper Township at 11:30. At 1pm, the girls middle school teams will play. At 2:30 in both gyms there will be high school junior varsity games – OCHS girls vs Cape May Tech and OCHS boys vs, Lower Cape May. At 4pm, the Ocean City girls will play Cape May Te ..read more

By TOM WILLIAMS Connor Laverty was a very good basketball player. Only eight players in Ocean City High School history scored more points. He was an accurate three-point shooter, a strong rebounder and his dunks entertained fans for a couple seasons. And he overcame a health scare in his freshman year. Laverty was in biology class when he found himself struggling to breath. He asked to see the nurse. The school nurses at Ocean City High School – Rose Millar and Jill Geller – knew what was wrong. Millar also worked as an emergency room nurse. Laverty’s struggles to breath were caused by bilater ..read more

By TOM WILLIAMS The Mainland Regional football team did some things during the fall that have not been done before at a Cape-Atlantic League school. The Mustangs won 14 games. They were undefeated state champions. And, in the crucial NJSIAA playoff games, they dominated Millville, dominated Winslow Township and crushed Ramapo in the state final. There were very talented players on the team (you can read the column about the season HERE) and a magical coaching staff. But the person who brought it all together was head coach Chuck Smith. Smith was a successful player at Mainland in the 1980s, an ..read more