April 5, 2006
Future CAL stars on display Saturday
By TOM WILLIAMS
Sports Columnist
Lots of you will be coming to Ocean City High School on Saturday to see the final
high school performances of some of the finest players in South Jersey.
The three Absegami seniors who played on back-to-back state champions - Krissy
Rosario, Alysha Taylor and Connie James - will team with Mainland's veteran
backcourt duo of Carlee Briglia and Sarah Cohen, powerful rebounder Whitney
Walker of Oakcrest, EHT point guard Nicole Diaz and Ocean City defensive
specialist Courtney Dougherty on the American Conference girls team.
They will face, starting at 5pm, a National Conference team that features Holy
Spirit's Jordan Sykes, sharp-shooting Jane O'Donnell of Wildwood Catholic,
Pleasantville super-talent Jaleesa Coleman and Sacred Heart's Danielle Conroy,
among others.
When the high school boys take to the court at 7, you will see 1,000-point
scorers Charles Johnson of Lower Cape May and Dave Beyel of Ocean City team with
powerful rebounder Rodney Brooks of Oakcrest, point guard Bob Edmunds of Mainland
and future Penn State football player Cedric Jeffries of EHT.
The National Conference boys will include a lineup of versatile athletes like
Jermaine Russell of Cape May Tech, Lee Frazier of Bridgeton, DeHart Washington of
St. Joseph and Josh Wakefield of Middle Township - plus rebounder Tom Solenski of
Wildwood Catholic, versatile John Oliver of Holy Spirit and perimeter shooter
Fred Sylvester of Middle.
Before the high school games, some legends from Ocean City's past will meet
Mainland legends in a re-match of last year's Ocean City PBA Legends Game.
But, if you want to get a look at the Cape-Atlantic League's future, get to OCHS
early on Saturday. Get there for the two CAJr 8th Grade All Star Games.
The first of these 8th Grade events was included in All Star Saturday in 2002. If
you came and watched those 8th graders, you saw Rosario, O'Donnell, Diaz, Walker
and Atlantic City's brilliant Tasha Cannon in the girls game. The 8th grade boys
from 2002 included Beyel, Johnson, Wakefield, Jeffries, Oliver, Lower Cape May's
John Amenhauser, Ocean City's Lionel Johnson, B.J. Jones of Wildwood, Justin
Booker of Absegami, Ocean City's Pat Tolomeo, Middle's Vaughn Wilson, Matt Kilroy
of Ocean City and a few guys who went on to success in other high school sports -
Dale Parris, Sean Beirne, K.J. Borlandoe, Matt Flynn, Gabe Guerrieri and Skooter
Williams.
This Saturday a new group of 8th graders will show their wares - the local girls
against the Barnegat Bombers from Ocean County and the boys against the Camden
County CYO League All Stars.
There are a few familiar names among the 8th graders - Briglia, McLaughlin and Reich
among them. There is also a Cannon, who would have been on the team but wasn't
available this Saturday.
These players have already played in a series of CAJr (pronounced "Cajer") all
star games sponsored by the At The Top camps. First the best from each county
played against each other. Then the best from Cape May and Cumberland counties
faced Atlantic County's best. From that game, the players for this Saturday were
selected.
If you can, come out a few hours early on Saturday. Come on out and see these
future CAL stars in their final game before high school, before their names get
into headlines and their games are analyzed in online forums.
You could be seeing the players who will win championships in the 2009-10 season.
Read more of
Tom Williams' columns