February 26, 2003
Raider girls become part of CAL championship week
By TOM WILLIAMS
Sports Columnist
Ocean City’s girls basketball team defeated Oakcrest on Monday and joined in the fun for the first time in
11 years.
The Raiders gave themselves a chance to win their division title, the same championship they won back in
1992, by winning their final regular season game at Hammonton. It was a three-way battle with Oakcrest
and Mainland that came down to the final division game of the season.
Atlantic City played a role in Ocean City’s success. The young Vikings defeated both Oakcrest and
Mainland but lost their season opener to the Raiders. And Hammonton, which knocked off Oakcrest earlier
this month, also held the door open for Paul Baruffi’s team. And could close it in this week's finale.
This is an OCHS team that was loaded with seniors and geared to compete for a championship. The inside
combo of Catie LaRue and Ashley DuRoss, both heading to college on basketball scholarships, is
complimented by Kaitlyn Lawlor, Kristen Gibbs, Jenny Williams, Mary Rybicki, Kim Treen and Rachel
Constantine, the determined point guard who worked her way back from knee surgery when most thought
her return unlikely.
Juniors Megan Larsen, Shannon Netherby and Marki Lyn Warlow, along with sophomore Kaitlyn DuRoss,
have also contributed to this season. And, although a South Jersey championship is unlikely in Group 3
this year for any team not named Willingboro, the Raiders do have a chance to advance a few rounds into
the state tournament, starting Tuesday against Deptford.
The girls teams at Absegami, Holy Spirit and Sacred Heart have already become champions this season.
It is ironic that Absegami will play Holy Spirit for the CAL girls championship Saturday at Stockton but
Sacred Heart has probably become the league’s best team.
Not only have the Hearts continued to improve since losing their only game at Holy Spirit in early January,
they have added Viktoria Sholokhova, a 6-4 Russian student who was very impressive last weekend in a
win over Gloucester. Put her together with two of South Jersey’s greatest scorers – classic point guard
Adrienne Rochetti and All-American forward Ikea Witt – and you might have state championship material.
Not that Holy Spirit and Absegami are chopped liver. The young Spartans have lost five times against a
very challenging schedule and equally young Gami has rolled through its season since losing to Sacred
Heart over the Christmas holidays. Their game on Saturday (noon) should be a classic.
Saturday’s boys championship game (2pm) will match St. Augustine with Atlantic City for the fifth time in
the last seven years. By the way, this year is only the second time in the 12 years of CAL basketball
playoffs that all four conference champions are from Atlantic County. The other was in 1999.
But the most interesting thing about this year’s lineup of CAL basketball champions is Mainland. The
school in Linwood is certainly having a good year. Boys cross country, football, girls tennis, swimming –
they’ve all won major championships. Now, Whitey Haak’s young team has captured a division
championship about eight months after a school administrator was trying to put an end to his basketball
coaching career.
Clearer heads prevailed and Haak, who also coaches the Mainland golf team that should add to the
Mustang championship list in the spring, got the chance to return. Like Ocean City’s John Bruno, who won
a South Jersey title after having to fight a school board member to keep his job in 1998, Haak responded
with a championship team.
There are some very talented young guys on Haak’s staff, including former Mainland stars Jon Evans and
Dan Williams, and their day will come. But Whitey proved this winter that there are still some big wins left
in the guy who once came off Dixie Howell’s bench to launch that famous two-handed set shot.