August 28, 2002

The final OCHS All-Century Team finally appears

By TOM WILLIAMS
Sports Columnist


It took a little longer than we initially expected but the lineup of Ocean City High School All-Century Teams is finally complete.

The baseball team appears in this week’s Gazette. Baseball was, by far, the toughest sport to research but the team is filled with accomplished players.

For those of you who missed the earlier teams, they are available online.

As a review, here are the 18 individuals selected as the best of the century in their sport:


	Baseball: Charley Mumford
	Boys Basketball: Bill Fisher
	Girls Basketball: Lisa Foglio
	Boys Cross Country: Mike Scythes
	Girls Cross Country: Abbey Hartman
	Field Hockey: Abbey Woolley
	Football: Jack Neall (defense) & Kevin Sinclair (offense)
	Golf: Jeff Michner
	Boys Soccer: Chad Severs
	Girls Soccer: Lauren McHale 
	Softball: Cindy Rau
	Swimming: Rich Benner
	Boys Tennis: Don Barton
	Girls Tennis: Jen Frank
	Boys Track: Archie Harris
	Girls Track: Melody Sye
	Wrestling: Pat Lynch


A quick check of the records shows that there were 32 athletes who were selected twice to all-century teams. The 17 boys were Joe Avis, Fenton Carey Sr., John Carey, Tim Chatburn, Matt Chila, Brian Geary, Archie Harris, John Henry, Joe Kennedy, Scott Lipford, Bob McAllister, David Miller, Joe Myers, Mike Scythes, Trip Snyder, Gene Watts and Frank Wickes.

The 15 girls picked twice were Alison Amicone, Jen Blizzard, Robyn Fortsch, Jen Frank, Judy Gayle, Abbey Hartman, Megan Hartman, Joi Johnson, Pam McFarland, Lauren McHale, Kristie Miller, Cory Picketts, Danielle Salvia, Melody Sye and Abbey Woolley.

Though no athlete was selected to three all-century teams, Fenton Carey was named twice as an athlete and once more as a coach. He was named to the football and track teams as an athlete and as the Coach of the Century in swimming.

The Careys also win the prize for most selections as a family. In addition to the three selections by Fenton, his brother John was picked twice and his sons Fenton and Dennis once each, for a total of seven. The Hartmans – Abbey and Megan – were next with a total of four.

Selecting all-century teams is not easy. You are comparing athletes from different eras, in some cases athletes who competed 60 or 70 years apart. It is important to try to represent every era, but it is more important to select those whose performances were truly the finest. It is an imperfect science and is really only an opinion.

It was a task, you can be sure, that was undertaken quite seriously.

Regardless of whether you agree with every selection, we hope you will agree that the hundreds of athletes and coaches recognized by these all-century teams deserve to be permanently acknowledged for their contributions to the great success of OCHS sports in the 20th century.


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