April 16, 2003
Spring break is a good time to play catch up
By TOM WILLIAMS
Sports Columnist
The spring season is underway in high school sports - including the typical weather postponements and
the upcoming holiday break
When you think about it, the Easter holiday is just about the only holiday during the school year when less
sports events are scheduled. Thanksgiving is a big day for football, the Christmas-New Year season is a
basketball smorgasbord, President’s Weekend features four days of basketball and Memorial Day
weekend is highlighted by the South Jersey track championships.
But, for some reason, the spring holiday generally sees very little action in this area. This year there may,
however, be a few extra makeup contests.
With the spring season still getting established, this is another good time to catch up on some former
Ocean City High School athletes. First, some leftover information from basketball season.
Jessica Brookes completed her junior year at Long Island University by finishing second on the team with
43 three-pointers. She averaged 7.5 points per game for Stephanie Vanderslice Gaitley’s LIU, which
started the season 0-8 against a challenging schedule but finished 15-15. The stats also indicate that
Gaitley was employing Brookes primarily on the perimeter. In nearly 500 minutes of action this year, she
was only 3 for 6 from the foul line. Brookes will be joined at LIU next season by Catie LaRue.
Meghan Ludgate completed her freshmen year at William Paterson by playing an average of 15 minutes in
22 games. She was fourth on the team in rebounds and second in blocked shots.
Shaune McLaughlin (actually a Mainland graduate, but her father, Paul, is an OCHS coach) played 15
minutes in 29 games as a freshman at LaSalle. She had the second best three-point percentage on the
team, was fourth in assists and fifth in steals.
John Huff, who played for Dixie Howell and Jack Boyd in the late 1960s but has become better known
recently as a youth basketball and baseball coach and championship golfer, was named to the Franklin &
Marshall All-Era team for the period from 1963-73. Huff graduated from F&M in 1973. One of his
teammates, Atlantic City grad Yogi Hiltner (who is older), also made that all star team.
Among the spring sports, Jeff Michner started his spring season as a sophomore at Drexel by shooting a
165 over the two-day Drew Upton Tiger Classic, sponsored by Towson University at Maryland’s Great Hope
Golf Club. Michner’s efforts helped Drexel finish a respectable eighth in the team standings.
And Ryan Reich is batting just .115 as a junior third baseman at Princeton. Despite the slow start at the
plate, Reich is second on the team in home runs with two, fifth in assists and recently delivered a pair
of game-winning hits. Princeton will spend the weekend in Philadelphia, playing four games against the
University of Pennsylvania.
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FINAL FAREWELL – A few members of the sports community left us during the past few months.
Dave Warrington, a former end and place-kicker for Ed Woolley’s Raider football teams in the late 1970s
and early 80s, died suddenly. Warrington kicked 25 of 37 extra point attempts, third best in school history
when he graduated and still the sixth highest total.
Three of the Cape-Atlantic League’s greatest all-time basketball players lost parents recently. Bill Fisher,
the OCHS Player of the Century, returned to Ocean City for the funeral of his father. And the mothers of
both Skip Castaldi, the Mainland great, and Ken Leary, the OCHS star and record-setting Pleasantville
coach, also passed on. Everybody knows the dedication necessary from parents to give their kids a
chance to make use of their talents. You can be sure that trio of parents played a big role in the success
of their sons.
And Dave Ryan, former radio sportscaster in Miami and Atlantic City, died of a heart attack in Atlantic City
recently. Ryan, who married a former OCHS cheerleader, kept the statistics for Jack Boyd’s basketball
teams for a couple of seasons in the late 1960s.
Ryan was a devoted basketball fan and it would probably have pleased him that he was able to enjoy it
right until the end. He was found at his computer, slumped over his NCAA basketball predictions.
These are some of the people who have helped make the local sports scene what it is today. They will be
missed.