September 18, 2002
Changes at Carey Stadium
By TOM WILLIAMS
Sports Columnist
Another football season begins for Ocean City High School on Saturday. Thousands of fans will come out
to Carey Stadium to see the Raiders face Oakcrest in the opener.
Last week Mike Radano, a Courier-Post writer, selected the 10 best high school sports venues in South
Jersey. Carey Stadium was the only Cape-Atlantic League site mentioned and he rated it as the third best
football field in South Jersey, trailing only Paulsboro and Florence, a couple of working-class communities.
But things have changed at Carey Stadium. A brand new high school is going up to the west causing
heavy equipment and dirt to dominate the area. The refreshment stand and rest rooms are gone. So are
the tennis courts and outdoor basketball courts. There is no parking at the Atlantic Avenue end of the
block (that is where the new school will be) and Sixth Street is one-way from the boardwalk toward
Atlantic Avenue.
The only place to park, except for the neighboring streets, is the lot at the boardwalk end of the field. And
the only two ways to enter Carey Stadium are through the gate that opens off of that lot and another gate
on Fifth Street, right in front of the shuffleboard courts.
Things will be far worse the following Saturday (Sept. 28) when Atlantic City comes to town. The entire
parking lot will be unavailable because of the annual MS Bike-a-Thon from Philadelphia. That means for the
second home game of the season the only place to park will be on the street. And that one small gate on
Fifth Street will be the only entrance.
So, if you’re going to OCHS home football games this year, leave early and car pool.
A former star at Carey Stadium starts his new job as an assistant football coach in the Cape-Atlantic
League this weekend. Scott Lipford, who holds OCHS records in three different sports and had a great
career as a wide receiver and kick returner at Rowan University, has joined Kevin Sinclair on Larry
Ziemba’s staff at Middle Township. The Panthers open their season Friday night at Holy Spirit.
Lipford is the sixth former Raider to take a coaching job this fall, an unusually high number. As previously
reported in The Gazette, Sinclair, the greatest running back in Cape-Atlantic League history, is at Middle;
Doug Colman and Chris Bauer have both joined first-year coach Frank Plefka’s staff at Oakcrest; Matt
LeFever will be an assistant football and basketball coach at Egg Harbor Township; and Chris Armstrong
has returned to Ocean City where he will join Gary Degenhardt’s staff. Armstrong, a former head coach at
Wildwood, was at Egg Harbor Township last year.
Among other new fall head coaches in the CAL are Ed Grimes (Atlantic City boys cross country), Steve
Kordos (Buena girls cross country), Jonathan Ferranto (Buena girls tennis) and Ocean City resident
George Reeves (St. Augustine cross country).
Some other OCHS alums are having success on the next level.
Adam Martin has caught five passes for 63 yards, second best on the team, for Holy Cross in two football
games. Chad Severs has scored six of Penn State’s 13 goals in the first six games of the season. Cory
Picketts scored twice in Princeton’s 7-0 opening field hockey win over Yale. Freshman Michael Mayne
scored his first college soccer goal for Delaware Valley against Lebanon Valley. And Stanford freshman
Missy Halliday scored her first collegiate goal in field hockey against Albany in Syracuse.
The First Annual Ralph Carson Memorial Scholarship Golf Tournament has been scheduled for Oct. 13 at
Greate Bay Golf Club in Somers Point.
The competition, to create scholarships in memory of the OCHS golf coach of the century, will be a
four-player scramble starting at 1 p.m. For more information phone Michael Carson at 927-0066 (ext. 1) or
Pat Dougherty at Ocean City High School.
The cost to enter is $80 per person. That includes 18 holes of golf (with a cart) plus a barbeque dinner and
prizes afterward. In Carson’s memory, each golfer will also receive a free cigar and free Budweiser.
Ralph would be proud!
GO TO OUR FORUM TO
EXPRESS YOUR OPINION ABOUT THIS COLUMN, OR ANYTHING ELSE THAT'S ON YOUR MIND!